Faithfull #10 Plane Makeover (Part 2)

After an unsuccessful attempt to create a new yoke and the successful modification of the original yoke, the upgrades to this carriage maker's plane are finally complete.

At this point, I only had the frog left to work on. I did the usual prep, sanding the frog flat and ensuring it would sit on the base without rocking. Although it would have been easier to sand the frog with the lateral adjustment lever removed, putting it back on is a pain. Thus, I decided to leave it in place and sand around it.

The original depth adjustment mechanism had two issues: it was very sloppy, and even when fully retracted, the blade would still protrude slightly from the sole.

To address the problem with the adjustment range, the hole in the chipbreaker would need to be moved towards the edge of the blade. However, it was off by only a tiny bit, so the new hole would overlap the old hole. I devised a clever solution: shortening the chipbreaker. The exact shape of the chipbreaker doesn't matter as long as it sits flush with the blade so that shavings can not get trapped between.

This solution worked beautifully. My attempt to fabricate a new yoke - not so much.

I placed too much trust in my file skills, and the fit was far from perfect. Consequently, I abandoned this attempt altogether. It's worth noting that using solder to permanently connect brass parts in an assembly works well. Too bad I could not file the yoke to fit. (And my dimensions were slightly off).

I chose to keep the original yoke but aimed to eliminate as much slop as possible. I began by replacing the pin. The original pin was held by friction and had a diameter of roughly 3mm. With the yoke hole slightly over 4mm, the fit was too loose. I replaced the pin with an M4 machine screw I had on hand. The untreaded portion of the screw was long enough for the yoke to fit. I had to enlarge the hole in the casting to 4mm, but that was easy. For added reliability, I secured the bolt with a locknut.

To prevent any lateral movement of the yoke, I added two brass washers to the assembly.

This is as much effort as I'm ready to put into this plane. With the blade sharpened, it takes a decent shaving.

I do wish the blade were a tiny bit wider, though. For proper rabbeting, the blade needs to be slightly proud of the side of the plane. It's possible to orient the blade this way, but only for one side at a time. But considering how awkward the #191 plane is when planing left to right, this approach will be much better.