Stanley 53 Spokeshave - thread size?

[Songololo]

Does anyone here perhaps know what the size and thread type is for the machine screw that holds the blade in place on a Stanley 53 spokeshave? I assume it is Imperial and not Metric? The one I have needs replacing and does not look like any of the ISO metric threads that I have access to.

The shave looks like this:

http://www.sawdustandshavings.com/images/hand_tools/stanley_53_spokeshave_400.jpg

[Bob Smalser]

Stanley used threads on older tools that predated SAE standards and in many cases didn't change them over the decades. There are some real oddball tpi's in older Stanley stuff.

Calling their parts department can be useful, as they have items not listed and often deal with collectors.

http://www.stanleytoolparts.com/planes-scrapers-spokeshaves.html

480 Myrtle Street
New Britain, CT 06053
Main Phone # 800-262-2161

Otherwise I have a broken #51/151 shave or two laying around I can probably recover a screw from. But no guarantee it'll fit yours. Let me know.

[Canoeyawl]

Back in the thirties a #12 screw was common in the US - but not common anymore.
My guess without measuring it or seeing it, is a #12-20

[Stiletto]

You may be onto it Canoeyawl, I just went out tho my shed and measured the screw on my Stanley spokeshave and it seems it has 20tpi, but is loose in a 1/4" nut, but not by much.

[Songololo]

Bob - thanks for the info and offer. I've contacted Stanley Tool Parts by email and will wait and see what they come back with.

Stiletto - I'll see if I can determine some sort of thread count and diameter from the threaded hole, perhaps by turning a piece of dowel into the hole...

[skuthorp]

I have a collection of spokeshaves and parts. Tomorrow back home I'll have a look using the 1/4" nut test. Somehow I just like spokeshaves and drawknives and buy them as I find them. I have adapted the blades on some to a gentle concave curve for shaving leather hides to bind books.

[Brian Palmer]

Could you drill and tap the body for a standard thread size?

Brian

[Mike DeHart]

Many old Stanley planes and shaves I have worked on use a very old and now obsure machine screw size, #14 - 20tpi (threads per inch). It looks like a normal 1/4" - 20tpi stove bolt, but is a bit loose in a 1/4"-20 nut or tapped hole. The upside, at least for tools that will be used and not collected, is that you can easily run a 1/4"-20tpi thread tap through the hole and use common available hardware. The difference in outside diameter between a #14 machine screw and a 1/4" is very small, but enough to make things not interchange.

1/4 inch = 0.250 inch.

O.D. of machine screw = (# x 13) + 60 (with the resulting number in thousandths of an inch)
So for a #14 screw:
=(14 x 13) + 60
=182 + 60 = 242
Therefore O.D. is
=0.242 inch
Which is very close to 0.250, but not quite.

[skuthorp]

That's enough info, I have a good micrometer.

[Torna]

Thank you Mike DeHart for that little fomula. That's going in the archives somewhere (... now where did I write that down?)
-leif

[Mike DeHart]

Write it inside the front cover of your Machinery's Handbook. If you need that formula, you need Machinery's Handbook.