Wooden side rebate plane? And stuck wedge/iron.

[JohnPW]

Hello all,

Is this a wooden side rebate plane?

The maker is Archer, 45 Goodge Street. A quick search comes up with:

William H. ARCHER LONDON (U.K.)
11 Goodge St., Fitzroy Sq. 1842 – 1846
45 Goodge St., Tottenham Court Rd. 1852 – 1863
Toolmaker and dealer. Planes are common.

The wedge and iron are stuck. I tried tapping the back of the body, it didn't help or maybe I didn't hit it hard enough. Then I tried banging down the iron, it moved down a bit but it's still stuck. Is there anything else I could do? I thought maybe try tapping up the wedge from the bottom.

 

[AndyT]

Yes it is.
Freeing the wedge is harder than usual as there is no angle to help. The normal way would be to rap sharply with a mallet downwards on the toe. Assuming that won't work I would clamp a block of wood onto the wedge (to give you a surface to aim at) then try hitting that to knock the wedge out of the plane.

 

[AndyT]

I should have said, don't be tempted to try to hammer the shaped end of the wedge to knock it out - you'll just split a bit off.

 

[thick_mike]

...or hold the wedge in a bench vice and pull the body up.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Does it work if you invert the plane, and smartly tap the top surface of the body down onto the edge of a bench, being ready to catch the iron and wedge if they do drop out ?

 

[penwithchris]

Have encountered a similar situation with many of the moulding planes I have purchased. Inverting the plane and placing the wedge in a vice with wooden jaws and tapping the body of the plane as near to the wedge as possible with a wooden mallet invariably frees the wedge without any damage whatsoever

 

[bugbear]

Have encountered a similar situation with many of the moulding planes I have purchased. Inverting the plane and placing the wedge in a vice with wooden jaws and tapping the body of the plane as near to the wedge as possible with a wooden mallet invariably frees the wedge without any damage whatsoever

Yep - this has never failed for me - I learnt this technique from Dunbar's classic.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Restoring-tunin ... 080696670X

BugBear

 

[AndyT]

I agree that works fine for most ordinary moulding planes where the wedge is at about 45 degrees so you can usefully knock the heel of the plane and slide it off the wedge. (I have the same book and agree that it's a goodun. )
But in this case, with the wedge at near 90 degrees, if you grip the wedge in a vice and knock the heel you'll snap the wedge. You can't knock the body of the plane upwards either, as the bench is in the way. Hence my somewhat clumsy suggestion of an auxiliary block which could be knocked with a mallet.

 

[Jacob]

Your plane (and nearly all these old moulding planes) has a rounded heel which is the designated place for whacking with a mallet. Hold it in one hand and hit the heel with a mallet as hard as you can, a few times.

 

[bugbear]

I agree that works fine for most ordinary moulding planes where the wedge is at about 45 degrees so you can usefully knock the heel of the plane and slide it off the wedge. (I have the same book and agree that it's a goodun. )
But in this case, with the wedge at near 90 degrees, if you grip the wedge in a vice and knock the heel you'll snap the wedge. You can't knock the body of the plane upwards either, as the bench is in the way. Hence my somewhat clumsy suggestion of an auxiliary block which could be knocked with a mallet.

Yes - striking the heel would be wrong; but holding the wedge in the vise horizontally, such that the plane body is vertical, and using a handy piece of softwood scrap as a punch/drift should solve the puzzle, still using the principle of holding the wedge and driving the body off it.

(brown plane, pink wedge, green vise cheek, blue softwood, with apologies for lack of artistic merit))

BugBear

 

[AndyT]

Now I get it! My brain needed to be turned through 90 degrees - I still had the plane body horizontal!
Thanks BB.

 

[JohnPW]

I did manage to get the wedge and iron out. I positioned the plane upside down on a surface with a gap for the wedge and use a piece of plastic to hit down on the tip of the wedge. I cut a V notch on the end of the plastic to match the wedge end. I first a used a bit of wood but it split at the V notch, the plastic version also split but I wrapped some sellotape around it.