No. 49 Repair

[Michael Faurot]

I recently acquired a No. 48 and a No. 49 tongue and groove planes. The No. 49 had a problem with flaring on the left blade hold-down as mentioned in Patrick Leach's description of the No. 48. The hold-down was flared enough that the screw was just barely making contact with the blade. So I attempted to fix it, but wound up breaking the hold down instead. Apparently, those hold-downs are made of cast iron, or at least something that's brittle.

As you might imagine a cloud of obscenities soon erupted and may well still be lingering in the walls of my shop. After the angst abated I got down to figuring out how to really repair this. My first thought was epoxy. I mixed up a batch and applied it to the two halves of the broken hold-down. A few moments later, a much better idea occurred to me--sliver solder. I hastily pulled apart the two halves and fortunately the epoxy had not had time to set. So I pulled out a band saw blade repair kit I got from Woodcraft. I then filed down the jagged edges from the two halves of the broken hold-down, applied some of the flux, stuffed some of the solder between the pieces and then heated up everything with a torch. After a few false starts, I was able to get the two pieces married back together and then filed things down to get them smooth and uniform. As the break was right across the pivot hole for the hold down, I also had to drill that back out, as I had made it smaller when I did the initial filling to get things cleaned up.

So, what I should have done, to start with, was just file that hold-down instead of what I attempted (which I won't mention due to embarrassment). In the process of getting things repaired with the silver solder, I used up much of the silver solder wire that came with the bandsaw blade repair kit. I'm wondering if someone can point me to an online source where I can get more of that silver solder? I know Woodcraft sells replacement solder and flux, but I'd like more solder than what's in that.

[Barry Vabeach]

Mike, nice repair. I don't have any good sources, but wanted to give you a heads up, silver solder comes in a wide variety - the main variables being melting temp and strength. I bought Great Planes silver solder, I think I got it at a local store that catered to R/C stuff but you can find it here http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/gpm/gpmgpmq8070.htm
Note that it melts at 221 C. This page describes silver solder grades - and the lowest melts at 681 C http://ajh-knives.com/soldering.html that is probably more similar to what you got in the bandsaw repair kit.

[Jim Koepke]

Your story brings to mind a story I have heard attributed to Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain. To paraphrase:

The man who sets out to carry a cat by its tail learns something he may not have learned any other way. It will always be useful and will never grow dim or fade from his memory.

You are not the first to learn the hard way that cast iron does not bend, DAMHIKT.

Nice repair though. When I have encountered such a problem, I usually go the cop out route and just try to find a shim to effectively make the screw longer. One can also partially thread a piece of tubing to extend the screw as needed.

For silver soldier, check welding and plumbing supply sources. If they do not carry it, they likely know who does. A one pound roll of silver soldier could be kind of expensive. I think it is also used in refrigeration system repairs, not sure if automotive repair people still use it for radiators.

If all local sources fail, then just google > silver solder < and a lot suppliers show up on the right hand side of the screen.

One of them is eBay, with a lot of buy it nows. So figure out what size and metallurgic mix you need and buy away.

jim

[Michael Faurot]

Originally Posted by Barry Vabeach

Mike, nice repair. I don't have any good sources, but wanted to give you a heads up, silver solder comes in a wide variety - the main variables being melting temp and strength. I bought Great Planes silver solder, I think I got it at a local store that catered to R/C stuff but you can find it here http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/gpm/gpmgpmq8070.htm
Note that it melts at 221 C. This page describes silver solder grades - and the lowest melts at 681 C http://ajh-knives.com/soldering.html that is probably more similar to what you got in the bandsaw repair kit.

Thanks for the links. I'll check those out!

[Michael Faurot]

Originally Posted by Jim Koepke

Your story brings to mind a story I have heard attributed to Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain. To paraphrase:

The man who sets out to carry a cat by its tail learns something he may not have learned any other way. It will always be useful and will never grow dim or fade from his memory.

You are not the first to learn the hard way that cast iron does not bend, DAMHIKT.

Indeed, I learned one the hard way. I won't soon make that mistake again.

Nice repair though. When I have encountered such a problem, I usually go the cop out route and just try to find a shim to effectively make the screw longer. One can also partially thread a piece of tubing to extend the screw as needed.

The length of the screw isn't/wasn't the problem. Although after the repair the adjuster screw is just about at its limit, but there's still enough thread there for it to secure the blade. The problem was the hold-down was flared/curved away from the body of the plane. In that configuration the adjuster screw was just barely making contact with the blade. If viewed from directly behind (as you might when actually using the plane), it would have looked something like this:

misalignment.jpg

After the repair, the screw now makes good contact with the blade and holds it securely and prevents it from slipping.

For silver soldier, check welding and plumbing supply sources. If they do not carry it, they likely know who does. A one pound roll of silver soldier could be kind of expensive. I think it is also used in refrigeration system repairs, not sure if automotive repair people still use it for radiators.

Thanks for the tips. I'll check into those sources and see what I can find. I'm thinking though, if it is that expensive, perhaps my best bet is to just get that Woodcraft "refill" kit for $10.