August 4, 201510 yr This spring, I found this old bugger at a local antique shop in town. It is an Early round side Bedrock 607. My mistake was not inspecting it as closely as I usually do before taking it home. I guess the excitement of finding a Bedrock took over. When I got it home and disassembled the plane, I found a broken frog. I was disappointed of course, but all of the pieces were there. Thinking back, I knew that I had some rudimentary instruction on how to braze cast iron in high school shop some 20 years ago. I hadnt tried this in a long time but decided that I was out nothing to give it a shot. Although not perfect, I believe that this one will be saved! I was able to get the frog pieces to fuse together pretty well. I filed the broken edges where they meet and brazed them back together, then used a mill cutter in my drill press and my x y vise to carefully remove the excess brass from the castings. I filled the voids with JB quik weld and lapped the frog flat on a marble tile with sand paperto clean up the repair a bit. After mask and paint, I carefully peened the lateral lever back into place, and replaced the yolk and pin. This was the nerve wracking part as it is easy to re-break the thin castings. The pictures show the results before and after. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of the frog in its broken state. Edited November 21, 20178 yr by Ron Dudelston tags added
August 4, 201510 yr That was a great save! Nice find too Bundoman, not often you come across a Bedrock period anymore, well you do but they are not as common as others. The most important thing is that it's a user now. Back to work with it!
August 4, 201510 yr Nice save on what most would have given up on. I know I would have given up on it, cuz I don't know how to braze, weld, pound or dink with metal, period! The poor thing would have been used as parts if I had it, I love seeing someone put the time and effort into an old tool to make it work.
August 4, 201510 yr I know I would have given up on it, cuz I don't know how to braze, weld, pound or dink with metal, period! The poor thing would have been used as parts if I had it, I love seeing someone put the time and effort into an old tool to make it work. John, Now that I've got my torch back running, I've got a few things to repair. One's this.
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