Plane rehab question for ya....

[Bill White]

When rehabbing, I often need to flatten the face of the frog. Duh! Sure ya do.
What's the best way to remove the lateral adjuster so you have full access to the face of old froggy? I don't wanna do anything stupid.
Bill

[James Taglienti]

Sometimes if the lateral is loose you can work it back and forth and pop it right off. If its tight, youre looking at filing or grinding the little rivet, probably where it comes through the back of the frog. Then use a punch to drive it out. Its important when driving the pin out that you support both sides of the cast iron frog as closely as possible to the lateral.
When putting the adjuster back in, you can either try to peen the pin a bit so it locks in, or carefully countersink the back of the frog and use a pointed punch to mushroom the pin into the countersunk area.
Some folks are pretty afraid of this process especially on harder to find planes. I have done it a few times with no issues but i take my time. Removing the lateral and putting it back on can take me twenty minutes.

[Jim Koepke]

Do not try to hurry this part of plane rehab.

If the pin is not moving, try to determine why and address that. As James says, you may have to do a little filing depending on when your plane was made.

Here is my post on frog fettling:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...07#post1156007

If you have a problem, posting pictures might help.

Heck, pictures are always fun even if you don't have any problems.

jtk

[Johnny Kleso]

I've done a few rehabs and would not take the lateral off..
If you use sand paper or a file do the bottom across, then do the left and right up and down and then you can also skew left bottom to right top and vise a versa.. Few years back I broke two frogs trying to remove damaged laterals.. The frogs where machines much better than the frog seat on the body and not worth breaking or having the lateral always falling off.. IMHO

[Sean Richards]

James and Jim have pretty much covered getting the lateral lever off - it is pretty straightforward and I have done it a few times without any issues. It is not a big deal to flatten the frog face with the lateral in place though and I usually would only remove it if it was badly mangled - they are a bit easier to straighten out when they are removed.

[Ralph Boumenot]

I saw something in my wanderings of the WWW where this person had made a jig that negated having to remove the lateral adjuster. It was a plywood platform with a slot cut in it that the lateral adjuster could move in. He put sandpaper on it and was able to dress the frog. I like this way becasue if I don't have to remove the lateral adjuster I won't. I tried this method and it works. I'm thinking of changing the plywood for a piece of corian as I think it is a tad harder and flatter.

[Bill White]

Ah HAH! Methinks that Ralph wins the contest, and I won't ham fist an otherwise good plane(s).
Thanks Ralph. Sometimes the simple ways work.
Bill