Found a new tool today at the "Carolina Pickers" fall festival

[Scott W]

Never been there before and it was mostly car related. I think i saw 5 planes and 8 chisels and some misc stuff. A massive MASSIVE vise caught my eye but it was seized and I don't need that kinda project.  I did find a No 12 scraper that is missing the blade. I didn't realize it was also missing an adjustment nut that goes where the sharpie is pointing. FWIW i got for $15.  It was a fun (chilly) several hours and the chicken on a stick was great.

[Joe Bailey]

Never been there before and it was mostly car related. I think i saw 5 planes and 8 chisels and some misc stuff. A massive MASSIVE vise caught my eye but it was seized and I don't need that kinda project.  I did find a No 12 scraper that is missing the blade. I didn't realize it was also missing an adjustment nut that goes where the sharpie is pointing. FWIW i got for $15.  It was a fun (chilly) several hours and the chicken on a stick was great.

Are you sure that's not a 12½?

I ask because of the wooden sole -- though it could easily be aftermarket

[Scott W]

I thought that too but I only see a "12".

[Bill_Houghton]

Nice find.  Do you know what the size and thread pitch for that rod is?

[Scott W]

Nice find.  Do you know what the size and thread pitch for that rod is?

I think it's a 5/16 18. I was hoping the adjustment wheel on a donor plane would work but it's too small.  

Anybody know the sized drill bit to make a 5/16 18 nut?

Plus I need to make or buy a new blade.  I was thinking about using a saw blade but the OEM blade was much thicker.

[museumguy]

A 5/16-18 tap takes a letter F drill bit. If you want a standard hex nut, should be easy to find at a good hardware store. If you want a square nut, this is a good source, https://www.blacksmithbolt.com/store/p/8...Plain.aspx . Nice find by the way.

[Scott W]

A 5/16-18 tap takes a letter F drill bit. If you want a standard hex nut, should be easy to find at a good hardware store. If you want a square nut, this is a good source, https://www.blacksmithbolt.com/store/p/8...Plain.aspx . Nice find by the way.

That's what has been so confusing.  I didn't know drill bits were sized by letters.  I have seen that and I also saw 17/64.  I may go to lowes today and check that out.

[MarkSingleton]

To confuse you even more, perhaps, drills are also sized by number.  A look around at a good hardware store
will show fraction, letter and number drills.  Then there are the metric ones, etc.  Just another rabbit hole to
fall in!! 

[Bill_Houghton]

Leaving metric drill bits aside, you've got:

1.  Fractional drill bits, which normally don't get smaller than 1/16", but can go up to pretty big sizes.
2.  Numbered drill bits, which are commonly sold (when in sets) in sizes #1 (largest, and between 7/32" and 15/64" in size) down to #60 (smaller than 1/16"); and #61 down to #80, which are very rarely needed.
3.  Letter drill bits, which start with A at the small end (just a bit larger than #1 numbered bit) and finish with Z at the large end (just over 13/32", and thus smaller than the 1/2" that's the common "large" fractional bit).

But, to add further to the confusion, you can often use a fractional bit if you don't have the right number/letter bit.  If you use a fractional bit smaller than the bit called out for a particular tap hole (the hole you drill to tap out to a thread), you'll work harder; larger, and you'll wind up with an incomplete thread that's often good enough.  I've got a tap drill chart that lists as many as three sizes of drill bit for a particular size/thread pitch bolt, showing the percentage of thread each one will leave behind when you run the tap through.

So, if you don't have letter and number drills yet, look up the nearest fractional drill and give it a shot.  There are lots of drill bit specification charts online, like this one.

But, as others have noted, 5/16"-18 is a standard thread size, so you don't have to get fancy if you can live with a standard nut.

Online retailers will likely sell the correctly sized blade for that.

[Scott W]

Leaving metric drill bits aside, you've got:

1.  Fractional drill bits, which normally don't get smaller than 1/16", but can go up to pretty big sizes.
2.  Numbered drill bits, which are commonly sold (when in sets) in sizes #1 (largest, and between 7/32" and 15/64" in size) down to #60 (smaller than 1/16"); and #61 down to #80, which are very rarely needed.
3.  Letter drill bits, which start with A at the small end (just a bit larger than #1 numbered bit) and finish with Z at the large end (just over 13/32", and thus smaller than the 1/2" that's the common "large" fractional bit).

But, to add further to the confusion, you can often use a fractional bit if you don't have the right number/letter bit.  If you use a fractional bit smaller than the bit called out for a particular tap hole (the hole you drill to tap out to a thread), you'll work harder; larger, and you'll wind up with an incomplete thread that's often good enough.  I've got a tap drill chart that lists as many as three sizes of drill bit for a particular size/thread pitch bolt, showing the percentage of thread each one will leave behind when you run the tap through.

So, if you don't have letter and number drills yet, look up the nearest fractional drill and give it a shot.  There are lots of drill bit specification charts online, like this one.

But, as others have noted, 5/16"-18 is a standard thread size, so you don't have to get fancy if you can live with a standard nut.

Online retailers will likely sell the correctly sized blade for that.

Thanks everyone for all the info...I can live with a standard nut buuuuuut silly me though it might be nice to have a brass knurled something from a donor plane. I won't get too industrious though. I will try and see how it goes...hopefully soon. 

Thanks again