Thread: Fence & depth gauge for Record #78 rebate plane

Hi MD. Welcome to the madness, and doubly welcome because of your play on words. Dad joke aficionados need all the help we can get! I think the Stanley #78 rods may fit, you would have to check threads, often I see these come up for sale cheap because they have been damaged. You can also use the #78 quite successfully without the fence if you clamp a sub fence to your work and run plane against that. Your #71 looks complete, well done on that purchase.

As Mountain Ash says, the 78 is still a very useful tool without a fence, and when you do need one, there are usually workarounds, as he's pointed out. Of course, sometimes the board you want to rebate is too narrow to allow clamping another to it, & you have to be more inventive & make a "sticking" jig with built-in guide, for e.g.

The parts you want ain't easy to come by; few people know what they are & they tend to get chucked out with the rubbish when rellies clean up after the owners move on. Most folks in this section of the forum will be wanting to hang on to their 78 fences & depth-stops if they have them. You could try this bloke - he's not cheap, but is more likely to have the parts than any other I can think of. At least a new blade is easy & not very expensive; plenty of places carry those.

For several decades I had a 78 with no fence or depth-stop, but it still saw plenty of use. One of my favourite uses is for finessing tenon cheeks, to get a close fit. A few years ago, I found a complete 78 in FIL's gear when we were cleaning out his shed. The fence, rod & depth-stop were all in different places (& it was a very big shed!) & a couple of the bits almost went in the skip (SIL is very enthusiastic cleaner-upper ), but luckily, I recognised them in time & saved them from the fate 90% of 78 fences & depth-stops have already met.

If you are a metal worker or have a friend who is, it would not be that hard to make the parts. The fence of the original is cast, but could just as well be fabricated. The main glitch is that the thread for the rod in the plane body is unusual (7/32" 20tpi iirc), so you'd need the appropriate die or a lathe that can cut that pitch thread.

Anyways, welcome to the forum & good luck. To prolong the pun - take care, the rabbet hole is deep & has many side-passages, you can get lost for years down there!

Cheers,

Thanks MA & Ian for the welcome!

I was thinking of making my own from wood, but I wasn't sure about the thread size which you have confirmed to be the tricky part. Clamping a sub fence would work for me and the lack of a depth gauge is not an issue as long as I check the rebate depth every few strokes.

I've been having fun with the 71 & 78 so far, after some derusting in vinegar and iron sharpening. I'm also enjoying this sense of freedom of not dealing with the noise & dust from power tools!

There are spare fences to be had for stanleys but likely a bit expensive. Had a bit of a look for making one so these couple of ideas may get the grey cells working. The wooden one looks easy to do and I did similar to a wooden body rebate to make it a moving fillister. You may need to retap the thread however. The 3D printed one looks good too so perhaps you can find someone with a printer. Both fences look like they would work better than the original.
Regards
John
Making a lost fence for Stanley 78 - YouTube

3d printed fence for a Stanley #78 Rabbet Plane – tenbergen.ca

Originally Posted by orraloon

There are spare fences to be had for stanleys but likely a bit expensive. Had a bit of a look for making one so these couple of ideas may get the grey cells working. The wooden one looks easy to do and I did similar to a wooden body rebate to make it a moving fillister. You may need to retap the thread however. The 3D printed one looks good too so perhaps you can find someone with a printer. Both fences look like they would work better than the original.
Regards
John
Making a lost fence for Stanley 78 - YouTube

3d printed fence for a Stanley #78 Rabbet Plane – tenbergen.ca

Thanks! This looks very doable. If I can find a tap set I'll just go ahead with one of the options. I did try to insert one of my spare bolts (not sure if it's M6 or M8) and it wiggled a bit at first, then locked tight at the end. If I can proceed without tapping, even better!