Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)
Established Member
I recently won an auction on the 'Bay for a St James Bay Thumb Plane kit. This is based on the Norris A13.
The Norris looks like this:
The St James Bay kit came like this. The previous owner had employed a machinist to clean up the cast brass body and sweat on the steel sole. Some work still needs to be done here. The remainder of the kit is in original form. Nice Hock iron:
Now my concern lies with constructing the adjustable mouth and the Norris-type adjuster. The current SJB model no longer has the adjustable mouth (no picture available), and I do not have construction plans for the kit. I have tried to contact SJB but they are always slow to respond. I will keep trying. I can work these things out but, rather than doing it the hard (perhaps wrong) way, I am hoping that others here have been down this path and can offer their insights (or, in addition, a plan).
For general interest, here are a few similar A13 type planes constructed by others.
The Holtey A13:
Brian Buckner's version:
Darryl Hutchinson:
Our very own Phil (Philly) Edwards:
Note that the above all are fixed-mouth models. The version I have is a low angle adjustable mouth version.
Regards from Perth
Derek
The Norris looks like this:
The St James Bay kit came like this. The previous owner had employed a machinist to clean up the cast brass body and sweat on the steel sole. Some work still needs to be done here. The remainder of the kit is in original form. Nice Hock iron:
Now my concern lies with constructing the adjustable mouth and the Norris-type adjuster. The current SJB model no longer has the adjustable mouth (no picture available), and I do not have construction plans for the kit. I have tried to contact SJB but they are always slow to respond. I will keep trying. I can work these things out but, rather than doing it the hard (perhaps wrong) way, I am hoping that others here have been down this path and can offer their insights (or, in addition, a plan).
For general interest, here are a few similar A13 type planes constructed by others.
The Holtey A13:
Brian Buckner's version:
Darryl Hutchinson:
Our very own Phil (Philly) Edwards:
Note that the above all are fixed-mouth models. The version I have is a low angle adjustable mouth version.
Regards from Perth
Derek
