Well, got a Stanley plane in the mail the other day, a Birthday present from a buddy.   A Stanley No. 39, 3/8" Dado plane..  It was missing a few items, though.   Went over to nhplaneparts to see what Eric had

 

He did had two of the three bolts to hold the nickers with....about $10 for the pair....pass

 

He did have a nicker, since I was missing that one, I placed an order for it.   A wee bit too tiny of an object to work on, with my eyes....

 

He did not have the 3/8" cutter.     I happen to have a "spare" tappett wrench.   Should be some decent steel in it, right.   Started to cut the piece I needed off the wrench ( still a bit of a wrench left)  and got a tub of water to sit by the grinder....going to be a LONG day

This is where things started, laid the "blank" on the plane, to see where to cut stuff out

Yep, gonna take awhile.  Trying NOT to burn the steel, had a water trail across the floor from all the dunking.   Got things a little closer, used the beltsander to ease the grinder marks

For one thing, the edge is beveled at an angle, the iron itself needs to be tapered,  the iron sits in the plane at an angle.  Back to the grinder.    Kept thinning things down, refining bevels, smoothing out grinder roughness.   Finally got things to fit, almost

Now, being the cheapskate I am, I decided to save a few dollars.   Went to Lowes and picked up a tap & drill, and a pack of small bolts.   Looked the same size....some dummy forgot his glasses..

For you see, the tap was for 6-32 bolts.....pack of bolts I bought were 8-32 ones...ooops.   So, while waiting on the Boss to get ready to drive me to Lowes, again.....drilled the four holes to hold the nickers on.  Nice and easy to do,  Then put the tap into a tap wrench

And gave it a spin.  No problems, tap was dry, spun easy.   Ok, off to lowes for bolts, and other stuff ( honey-do supplies)

 

Installed the bolts as deep as I could, from the left hand side.  The right hand side was flat, so if the bolts stuck out ( they did) I could grind them flush better. 

Had to be careful to just grind the bolts.  Couple of which wanted to spin back out.    Cleaned and sharpened the one nicker i did have.    Went to install the bolts for it....they wouldn't go through the slot on the nicker.   Well, drill bit was still in the drill press....a wiggle here and there to make some room.   Try again....yep, they fit.   Cranked down the two bolts, and set the other two into their own holes.

Then tried to make a shaving....nicker works, but no shavings?   Ah, needs more cutter adjustment.    Ground the iron a bit thinner, to open the mouth enough for a shaving to sneak through.   Finally got some!

 

Well, about it, until the other nicker shows up, but here is the plane so far

As for the new tap?  Might have to add a hole to stash it in

Getting a might full, though.  Long day, might have been worth it?

First couple of tries to get a shaving....this is one finicky little beasty.    Hard to adjust, PITA, actually.   May try later, after the second nicker arrives.   This is to cut a 3/8" wide dado across a board.    Would be a nice compliment to the Stanley/Wards #78  I have for rebates.   Set them both up to make a tongue and groove joint, maybe.  3/8" wide groove, and then add the 3/8" wide tongue?   Might work on the thicker stuff...

Nice present!

 

I need to do that with my taps/dies. 

Nice present Steve. Looks like you just about got it going the way you want it.