Stanley 50 cutter adjuster.

[undergroundhunter]

Hi guys n gals,

I need some help with my latest acquisition, I have bought a Stanley 50 combination plane from eBay. The plane is like new (even came with the little envelope with the screws in) only problem is there is no cutter adjuster (part C in the instructions) my question is do I need to try and find one or shall I just ignore the fact that its missing? I would like it to be complete but is it really necessary to the operation of the plane?

Link to the one I bought.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stanley-5...f+EFeLTGCKfMNFFPkqsBdPs=&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

the part missing is in red.



Any help/opinions are appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Matt

 

[Paul Chapman]

The adjuster is not critical - easy enough to adjust the blade by hand or tapping it down with a small hammer. That style of adjuster was rather crude anyway......

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[undergroundhunter]

Thanks Paul,
I haven't had chance to play with it yet as I've been at work but as long as its not critical.

 

[Argus]

.

I've had a couple of those planes over the years and while the plane is good when it is set up, the blade adjuster is a bit mickey-mouse; it pivots on a nut and bolt that has to be slightly loose to pivot..... then works completely loose and gets lost.

The Stanley 46 has exactly the same type of wing-nut arrangement on the blade, but not the adjuster and works well once you get the hang of setting the blade height.

Paul is right, the pivot is not essential and only allows you to raise and lower the blade after releasing the wing nut on the back. It will work without it and you only need to set the blade depth once.

My planes were both of the same vintage - 1960s - there's one other thing that was common to both and improves the performance drastically when fixed and that is the fact that the two parallel skates were not flat and at right angles to the fence. It wasn't very much, probably a fraction of a millimetre. I came to the conclusion that it was common enough, when a lot of others that I talked to over the years had a similar problem, and Stanley 50s may have ahad a poor reputation because of it.

I wondered why the blade contact and cut was patchy and a straight edge laid along each skate revealed that they both had a curve, resulting in an effective bow on the sole. Draw a bit of marking pen along the edge of the skates, pull it backwards along a flat board with the blade out - if the marks have uneven wear it indicates a curved sole.

Yours may be well aligned, but it is worth checking and is easily fixed with a bit of fettling on a flat abrasive surface, keeping the plane upright. When it is flat, it works a treat. Excellent planes.

All best with the plane.

.

 

[Vann]

According to Blood & Gore the Stanley #50 didn't even have an adjuster from its inception in 1884, until 1936. So it'll work just fine without one.

Cheers, Vann.