I have a Sargent model 408 VBM plane with a lateral adjustment lever that is a bit loose; the rivet holding it to the frog is not holding it snugly. The lateral lever still moves the iron one way or the other, and I was hesitant to attempt to fix it as I once busted the top off a frog trying to peen that rivet tighter, so I chose to leave it as-is. This plane is currently up for sale in SMC Classifieds and in the interest of full disclosure, I mention in the description that the lever is loose. Lately I’ve been thinking that this might deter a potential buyer of an otherwise nice working and good looking plane, so I decided go ahead and attempt to peen the rivet tighter.

I wanted to share a photo of the rig I set up to securely hold the frog horizontally while I peened the rivet. I’ve also included a couple of “before” photos of the front and back of the frog. Luckily on this frog, the rivet head on the back stands proud of the surface so I could rest it on the anvil of my vise with minimal stress on the surrounding cast iron. My big parallel-jaw clamp standing on end holds the frog at the right height during this operation.

FrogHoldingRig.jpgLatLever_BeforeRepair.jpgBackOfFrog.jpg

I used a smallish hammer with my nail punch to carefully go around the edge of the rivet head to push the edge down with some gentil whacks. I was nervous doing this, but to my relief, this eventually worked and now the lever doesn’t fall to the side under its own weight, although the rivet head is not quite so handsome now.

LatLever_AfterRepair.jpg

With my retirement hobby of restoring old planes and other tools, I’m now somewhat more confident that I could repeat this when needed without breaking another frog.
And as a final touch, I’m lowering the price on the SMC Classified listing.