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19th November 2019, 12:36 AM #1Member
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A use for the hole on a Stanley 78 fence.
I bought a Stanley 78 cheap on ebay to use as a scrub plane.
After bidding on a few bodies without success I got the rusted example below quite cheaply which came with all the bits I don’t need for a scrub – fence, fence rod, spur and depth stop. I had already bought an iron to camber as a scrub plane so I had all the bits to make it a dual-purpose plane, both as a scrub and a duplex rebate.
ebaypic.jpg
It cleaned up quite nicely in an overnight electrolytic soak (the front handle didn’t come with it, I added that to make it easier to hold)
The hole in the fence forward of the rod puzzled me. I found a copy of the Stanley manual online which doesn’t mention the hole in the fence at all.
cleanedup.jpg
Searching online I found a few other posts from people puzzled about this hole, the only explanation offered was that it might be some remnant from the manufacturing process.
I won’t need the fence and depth stop for use as a scrub and judging by the number of 78 planes on ebay missing these parts they seem to be removed fairly often.
I was about to bundle them all into a box when I noticed the indentation on the top surface of the fence at the hole. That looks the same width as the depth stop. Sure enough the depth stop slots in there. I didn’t have any nuts to match the thumb screw but a nylon M5 nut holds the whole thing together without damaging the threads on the thumb screw.
depth stop storage.jpg extra nylon nut.jpg
I can now store the fence, fence rod, depth stop and depth stop thumb screw all together as a single piece without any risk of losing anything.
Regards Jim
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19th November 2019 12:36 AM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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19th November 2019, 08:52 AM #2
Well there you go, Jim -mystery solved!
You did well to score a complete example - I also got a complete one in the clean-out of FIL's shed. However, it didn't come easy, I had to search through several boxes of stuph to find the little parts. When I saw the bare plane on a shelf over the bench, I just assumed the other bits had been lost/thrown out years ago, as is all too often the case. It was only because I spotted the thumb-screw for the depth-stop in a tin of old nuts & bolts that I started a serious search. Each bit was found in a separate box, one of which was full of all sorts of foundry tools. It was a large (very large, he says, with a strong tinge of envy!), shed and the various parts of the 78 were so randomly scattered, I wondered if the old bloke had deliberately set up a treasure-hunt!
I've never thought of using a 78 as a scrub, but now you've mentioned it, why not? I use mine mainly for finessing the faces (but not the shoulders!) of large tenons, a job it does very well. I added a front knob on mine too (after seeing a picture of an old Woden example), which I find makes it much more comfy to use. I usually make rebates on the tablesaw & at most, I will give them a lick or two with the 78 (minus fence) to tidy up the corners. I think I've used it with the fence to actually cut a small rebate once in all the time I've had it, only because the saw was set up for something else at the time & I thought I could do with a bit of exercise.
Judging by the number of 78s & 778s out there without fences & depth stops, I think very few ever get used for rebating.....
Cheers,IW
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19th November 2019, 09:04 PM #3
I must have been lucky when I picked mine up a few years ago at the TTTG sale in Sydney. Still in the original box wrapped in the Stanley waxed paper. From memory I paid around $60 for it.
No 78.jpg
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20th November 2019, 11:52 AM #4
You win a detective badge. What a simple solution, and judging by all the 78's out there missing parts, a solution not widely known. Well done! I added to your reputation, but made a typo "detective star, not detective stat. 😥
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10th November 2021, 11:04 AM #5New Members
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10th November 2021, 01:23 PM #6
Mystery solved!
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10th November 2021, 01:56 PM #7Senior Member
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Great minds think alike!
I did the same with mine, but my handle wasn't as nice as yours.
In the end, though, I found it easier to keep the plane stable without the handle. Less comfy in the hand but mode accurate results!!
Ian, I actually only use my 78 with the fence for rebates. So perhaps I'm bucking the trend??
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10th November 2021, 06:44 PM #8
Not sure if the question is addressed to me or the OP, but this is my effort at fitting a front knob:
Knob2.jpg Knob1.jpg
I rebated the base of the knob so it could sit over the curved toe to centre it over the screw hole (left hand pic.). I could've just made the base dimensions a bit smaller, I suppose, but chose to do it this way for reason(s) I can't remember.
Woden angled the base of their knob so it sits perpendicular to the sole whereas mine is fixed square on the frog surface & sticks out at 45 deg. I tried it this way first because it was the simplest, and found it perfectly comfortable to hold, so that's how it remains. IIRC, the thread of the blade-retaining screw on mine is 1/4 NC, which made life easy - no hunting about for an odd size/thread bolt, just a standard hardware store item. I did make a brass barrel nut for the top because it looks better and the flat base doesn't tend to split the knob the way a counter-sunk screw would....
Cheers,IW
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