I got my first plane a couple months ago. A Groz #5 bench plane[1] from Woodcraft. I figured this was a good item to learn with and could get me started. I also got a granite slab for sharpening and proceeded to tune it up the best I could. After some work using the Scary Sharp method[2] and flattening the bottom/bed/sole, frog and cutting iron I think I got it working pretty well.
To learn to use it, I was mostly just running it over the edges of scrap. As I would do this, I would notice after maybe 5-10 passes that the edge of the work would no longer be square to the face. It would now be angled to the right a few degrees. I'm right handed and would stand to the left of the board, clamped in a vise with the edge up. Initially I thought this was just a matter of me not having the right technique and perhaps putting too much pressure on the plane in the wrong way.
As I was looking over the plane recently, I noticed the bottom/bed/sole of the plane did not appear to be square. I don't know if it was like this when I first bought it, or I managed to get it out of square when I was flattening it. Whatever the case, I think I've figured out why 5-10 passes of the plane are causing the edges of my wood go out of square. :)
I'd like to fix this plane if I could, but given that it was only $45 to begin with, I'm not interested in spending more than about $20-$25 to do so. The thought occured to me that a machine shop might be able to square this up on a mill, but they'd probably want more than I'd be willing to spend to have them do it.
The next thought I had was to find some kind of replacement bottom/bed/sole. I found Bob Kaune's site[3] online and it looks like he might have what I need with the bed and frog from a used Bailey No. 5 Plane[4] for $25.95.
Some questions:
o) Would I be able to transfer the bulk of the parts from my #5 Groz to this Bailey #5 bottom/bed/sole?
o) Has anyone dealt with this vendor before? What was your experience (good, bad, ok)?
o) Any other places for parts you'd recommend? NOTE: I'm not interested in eBay--I just want to buy the part(s) I need, not dick around bidding on stuff.
Thanks!
[1]: