A while ago I picked up a Mathieson 9B plough plane. I am pretty sure a previous owner had inadvertently dropped it as one of the wooden threaded rods was snapped in two. I bought it because the price was right and it came with a full set of original plough plane blades (which I intended to use in another - no name - wooden plough plane I had picked up that had only one blade).
However, the Mathieson is MUCH nicer than my other user so I've begun to toy with the idea of replacing the broken wooden threaded rod. But before I walked down that road I thought I'd check here to see if anyone else had done this....especially with one of these plough planes, such as this one, that has a couple of screws at the bottom of the fence that appears to connect to a fancy diamond shaped nut (or some such) at the top of the fence. That has made me wonder if the threaded rod might not be integral to the fence but instead held in place by this bold and "nut." If so all I'd need to do is make new threaded rods and then attach them to the fence.
One last thing....the only wooden threader I can find on sale is comes in various sizes. The size that is closest to the original on this Mathieson is 3/4 inch in diameter with 6 threads per inch. The original is a tad bigger, 51/64s with 8 threads per inch. If I decided to give this a try, can anyone see a reason by the threader that is available (i.e. 3/4 inch and 6 tpi) wouldn't work. Clearly I'd need to change out both threaded rods or it would be difficult to keep the fence parallel when adjusting.
I am hoping this makes some sense to those of you who might have one of these kinds of plough planes. I had wanted to include some additional pics but can't figure out how to get them from my phone to my computer. I got this one over last night (after repeated attempts), but however I did that I can't seem to replicate this morning when I've tried.
Mathieson was a tool maker located in Scotland. I have restored a number of plough planes and I can tell you it is a money pit. On some I had to make my own Taps to cut the internal thread and threaded the rods on a lathe. If you are strictly wanting it as a user then converting to metal threaded arms along with Nuts is a possibility. I suppose the simplest way it to just buy another Mathieson Plough plane for parts as they are fairly common. In this technological era I think you would 3D print and arm and hardened it with super glue. All these methods are not cheap, I know I have spent hundreds of dollars restoring a fifty dollar plane
I personally like Matthieson tools. I have a lot of them. The steel was good and the quality of the planes generally excellent. I own an exquisite steel bit brace and a large set of excellent bits made by Matthieson. I wouldn't dismiss them out of hand...
That said, I don't own a Matthieson plough plane but I'm sure the original quality when sold was good. Especially if it was the top of the line grade. If you can share an image of the end imprint we can determine what grade it was sold as.
Being a toted plough is a plus for ease of use and if I owned it and really wanted to make it work correctly, I'd try the 3/4" tap and die you have access to to make a threaded rod and nut. You will have to do a bit of turning for all these parts, but it could be a nice project. Also, don't worry about having mismatched thread sizes on the two arms as you will be using a ruler to set the fence-to-skate distance and keep them parallel anyway.
On that topic, I would suggest you first look at the metal skate on the plane (the bottommost two steel pieces) and check to see that they are solidly attached to the wooden body (or by tightening some screws it can be made solid - sometimes they are riveted) and that they are in line with each other and the two of them are more or less flat when checked on a reference straight edge. In my experience, plough plane skates should be stable, inline and flat. Don't need to be perfectly flat, although this helps. Face it, the tool cuts grooves, has a fence and a depth stop (which you should also check for proper operation-it may need oil) -it's not a smoothing plane or a super precision tool like a table saw. It can be used for most furniture making operations and it should work fine. And be fun to use in the process.
So, in closing, I wouldn't toss the tool. If you can repair it, you might learn some good techniques (like threading wood) and wind up with a usable tool in the process. Or, if you don't think you're up to it, try to find a plough in better condition.
The 3/4 by 6 has possibilities of getting some assistance from someone who has one of Jerry Beall's Wood Threaders. That cuts threads with a router and has a matching tap. Likely a partner can be found. Lee Valley sells them and the thread cutter is not a hand tool.
8 tpi can be cut by hand on a lathe in most any diameter. Getting wood that is suitable to chase threads in the size needed is more the challenge (boxwood or the like). Cutting one set of threads with a scraping reamer is a challenge, but can be done.
Thanks, Monty. I'm not looking for a major project and this would be a user so I will keep your suggestion about using metal rods in mind though I'm not sure how I'd go about affixing them to the fence.
Yes, this looks like a really fine plane except for the broken threaded rod. Also, yes, the tote is what I really like about this plough plane. My other user doesn't have a tote.
I have continued to try to figure out how to take pictures on my phone and migrate them over to my computer. Emailing as a attachment hasn't work. My company doesn't trust Dropbox (which I used to use). So I've run out of ideas.
Don't worry I won't toss this tool. I think I'll be able to use my other plough plane for my current project. This will just go back on the shelf and await my retirement.
Finally thanks for the tip on the threads per inch. Good tip and makes sense.
Thanks, Ken. I appreciate your taking the time to post. You've got some interesting ideas but they sound a bit complicated for my skill level (and tool assortment). Maybe some day.
