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Transitional lever cap on #6 Bailey?

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Transitional lever cap on #6 Bailey?

#1

Transitional lever cap on #6 Bailey?

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>A while back, I picked up a WWII-era No. 6 Bailey, complete with a decent amount of rust and dirt. I've never done anything with it, since my old Craftsman No. 6 was already serviceable, and gave the lever cap to another Centralian at some point, thinking that the 2-3/8" wide lever cap from a transitional that I picked up from the junk box at some sale would work, but never actually tried it out. As I look at it on the plane, it seems like it's a shade longer, lapping over the high point on the chipbreaker a bit, but maybe this is an optical illusion.

Now, as my younger son gets into hand WW tools, I'm looking around for tools to give him. He's got a Record jack from me, and was mentioning a No. 7 the other day. Can't do that, but a No. 6 gets him partway there.

Anyone used a transitional lever cap on a Bailey plane? Does it work? If not, anyone got a lever cap to spare?

Re: Transitional lever cap on #6 Bailey?

#2

Re: Transitional lever cap on #6 Bailey?

James Watriss

>It probably is a shade longer. The reason being, there's farther to go in a transitional plane, because the blade has to be held way down in the block. The chip-breakers are longer, too, in a sense... the hole for the yoke is farther back, again becuase it has to reach all the way through the block. You can always give it a shot, but I'm afraid you may find that the lever cap is probably too long.

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