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 Post subject: Bailey or Bed Rock?
PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 5:42 pm 
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The original Stanley Bed Rock planes were not a big success even though they were in the catalogue for about 40 years. Eventually Stanley dropped then and settled on the Bailey design of mouth adjustment.

Now, the Bed Rock design has been taken up by the specialist plane makers such LN and Clifton.

I was wondering what type you prefer or whether you don't consider it to be important when buying a bench plane?

Ralph :wink:

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 6:01 pm 
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While no expert, to say the least, I much prefer the mouth adjustment forward of the iron like you see on the #60.5 low angle block plane and on many Veritas planes. Dirt simple to use and doesn't affect the iron in any way.

Between the 2, I'd prefer the Bedrock. I only have two planes with the old Baily design, and they're pretty much a junkers. One is a Buck Brother's #5 and the other is an ancient no-name brand with a stamped metal frog.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 6:33 pm 
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Hey Ralph,

I have a bunch of Baileys, but no Bed Rocks. I have compared them though, on occasion. I think that once they're both fettled and adjusted properly, there's no real difference in how they perform. I don't adjust the frog often enough for the Bed Rock system to be a significant advantage.

Tom

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 9:52 pm 
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The main advantage of the Bedrock design, as far as my experience goes, is that the Bailey style of frog has some slight movement laterally. This means that when trying to adjust for a very tight mouth opening, it's a lot more difficult to get the bed of the Bailey style plane parallel with the leading edge of the mouth. Of course, if the plane has seen much use, the leading edge of the mouth will be rounded from wear and one can't set it close enough for the frog design to make any difference.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 5:38 am 
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Larry Williams wrote:
The main advantage of the Bedrock design, as far as my experience goes, is that the Bailey style of frog has some slight movement laterally. This means that when trying to adjust for a very tight mouth opening, it's a lot more difficult to get the bed of the Bailey style plane parallel with the leading edge of the mouth.


Glad to see I'm not the only to curse as righty tighty rotates the right corner of the frog. You can help your cause a bit by tightening the left side - the one with less leverage - first, but once set, it's rare to readjust the frog anyway. That's what the second and third planes are for. :wink:

It's a bit different game on blade chatter now with thicker blades and modified chipbreakers available. I had to open the mouth of one purchase to get it to work with the Hock iron.

Answer the original, I like the bedrock design on my LN but the LV design with the moving handle/blade/frog is a favorite because I am large of hand.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:59 am 
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I'm a Veritas fan so I don't have a lot of insight.

However, one thing I especially appreciate about the Veritas is the speed with which I can change the mouth opening. Would vote for Bedrock based on that.


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