# Lengthening 'Y' levers when fitting thick plane blades



## Paul Chapman (19 Jul 2008)

When fitting thick blades to a plane, you will sometimes find that the 'Y' lever is too short to engage properly in the slot of the cap iron. One way to overcome this is to lengthen the 'Y' lever. Here are two methods which Rob (Woodbloke) used to lengthen two of my 'Y' levers when I fitted Clifton blades (which are 3.1mm thick) to my old Record planes

The first was by silver soldering a piece of metal to the old Record 'Y' lever







The finished result after filing to shape






Please note that this will only work on old-style 'Y' levers that are made of hard metal.

Another method he used on a Clifton 'Y' lever that was too soft to be soldered was to drill the 'Y' lever






Then fit the piece of metal with a piece of steel wire and industrial-strength superglue 






The finished result after filing to shape






And here it is fitted to the plane, a Record #04 with Clifton blade and cap iron






Cheers :wink: 

Paul


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