Replacing aluminium lever cap?

BenCviolin · 5 Feb 2016

mod edit

Great cap iron in this post
juicy-brass-lever-cap-t67240.html

The new Stanley 62 SW has an aluminium cap, easy to fettle but wish it were steel or bronze.
Was thinking I'd find an old on ebay sometime, anyone found similar ?

Mr_P · 6 Feb 2016

The lever cap has come in for some stick because it's made from Aluminium. I don't personally have an issue with this. The only potential problem could be with many, many ham fisted tightenings of the lever cap perhaps a thread could fail but personally I don't think that'll be a problem. If you own a 62 and have had a fail on the lever cap please drop a comment and let me know.

http://gshaydon.co.uk/blog/stanley-62-sweetheart-review

The old stanley 62's are now a collectors item so chances are if one did come on ebay it would command a high price as I'm sure there plenty of people out there wanting just the lever cap to complete their planes. You might be better off following Richards example and making your own or maybe one from the QS / LN 62 would fit ?

You could ask Matthew at Workshop Heaven for a measurement
http://www.workshopheaven.com/tools/Qua ... Plane.html

Blimey the Lie Nielsen has dropped in price
http://www.axminster.co.uk/lie-nielsen- ... ane-421008

BenCviolin · 6 Feb 2016

After some thought I spose the aluminium one is ok really, for what it does.
Workshop heaven does spare caps but not for the 62 planes.

Wish I'd got a Quangsheng now ! Never mind.

Steve1066 · 6 Feb 2016

What would be the point of replacing it with a brass one, as brass is just a mixed alloy .
I also have the new sweet heart 62 i can't see a problem with the cap iron.
I think the hole low angle jack plane is a bit of a gimmick just to sell more plans
Stanley only made the original plane for a relatively short period of time for a reason.

BenCviolin · 6 Feb 2016

Well that's a good point Steve, and the depth adjuster on the normal bedrock pattern is easier to turn.
Only reason I got mine is Amazon were doing a special offer on it.
Since then I've flattened my Stanley no.7 (don't ask how long it took) and managed to do some work.

Cheers.