record 071 handheld router plane
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- This topic has 11 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 9 months ago by kenny moore.
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12 July 2017 at 9:31 am #313664
hi every one.
i just saw a record 071 hand router plane its £71 including postage.
its in good condition with chips of paint here and there ,should i buy it or do you think its to expensive.
answers will be much appreciated.
best wishes.
kennyIf you’re really tight on funds, it might be worth it, assuming for the price it comes with all the blades / fences / etc as mentioned above
But for that money, you’re most of the way to a Veritas router plane, which will be brand new, have a perfectly flattened sole, new, sharp blades, improved design, no risk of a history of abuse / neglect, and will come with a warranty & customer service in the unlikely event something unfortunate should occur.
12 July 2017 at 4:31 pm #313672I’m with Edmund on this one, better you save up one or two months extra and get the Veritas.
71£ Seems like a steep price, and only worth it with all 3 cutters + fence, looking at ebay they seem to have doubled to tripled in price since i bought mine.Personally, I wouldn’t go looking for a fence for the 071 router at all.
They’re of little or no use. That’s why they’re always removed and lost.
The fence-retaining-screw is too short to store the fence on top of the router, and the thread is uniquely obscure, so you’ll never find a longer one.Besides, routing a groove along a long edge is a job for a 044 Plough Plane which has a decent fence and better-aligned thrust. Anyone tried routing a groove on a long edge with a 071? It’s like riding a bike on a tightrope. TWO fences and you might just get away with it. Adding a wooden fence to the 071 is far more effective than that little one-inch affair Stanley and Record offered.
They needed TWO screws through the base, with two SLOTS in the fence. Instead, they opted for just the one screw and a couple of parallel grooves at 90 degrees to the angle-of-attack. No other plane in history had sideways grooves in the sole, even corrugated planes had the grooves in-line with your work! No wonder its so much smoother when you add a wooden sole.
None of my FIVE routers has the shoe sitting parallel to the sole, and that depth gauge rod is rarely vertical – that’s why they stick. If you need to close the throat, you simply add a wooden sole – not faff around trying to adjust a misaligned metal shoe on a non-vertical rod with two course screws.
That funny ‘depth gauge’ they added to the 071 is not a depth stop, it doesn’t stop you routing when you reach the required depth, its just an indicator. Would you rely on that sticking rod to fall smoothly under gravity to tell you when to stop? How do you know when the gauge had bottomed-out? It doesn’t mate fully with the housing anyway. You can’t lift the router to check. You have to get your nose down to the work and check all round the gauge to see if its touching in one spot. A ruler, marking gauge, or Rabone-square wins that one every time. If you were routing for lots of hinges, you’d test each fit individually. You wouldn’t run a production-line of similarly routed recesses hoping all the hinges were manufactured to the same thickness. The same goes for your tenons.
They opened-up the throats to give improved visibility. Then they obscured your view worse than it was before with a bridge, bracket, depth gauge, screw, shoe, and another screw. When you watch Paul using his 071, he’s taken all that stuff off. Then you still have the bridge and bracket directly in your line of sight.
Stanley & Record obviously wanted to offer all “bells and whistles” to those buying their first router, but I think they missed the mark. In the 71 1/2 they already had a metal equivalent of the ‘old woman’s tooth’ router and that worked admirably. The 71 1/2 is in my opinion the much-better of the two and normally a lot cheaper.
14 July 2017 at 3:08 pm #313728thanks to eveyone who answer,d my question.
and decided not to go for it and am looking to get a veritas router plane.
thanks ever so much to you all.
best wishes.
kenny14 July 2017 at 3:48 pm #313729A good choice. I looked for a router plane a long time and chose like you. It came down to the cost. The veritas with fence and cutters was within a few bucks of any i found on ebay, and while i dont mind fettling it sure made sense to me to get the veritas as it was a complete tool and i didnt have to hunt for more parts
Looks like Veritas have really thought this through and completely redesigned the Hand Router. Good choice Kenny. It’s got a practical Depth-Stop, decent Fence, and they discarded that ‘Open throat’ & Shoe concept altogether. Do they all come supplied with that clamshell case I saw? If so, that’s another plus. Please post some feedback on it here when you’ve given it a go, won’t you?
I do hope I didn’t push you too hard towards an expensive outlay Kenny!
(I did offer to part with a complete 71 or 71 1/2 cheaply for you)
I felt someone needed to say how practical (or not) those sought-after accessories really are.16 July 2017 at 9:21 am #313751i havent bought the veratis as of yet but have been looking and the one i like is £139.99.
but it has the fence good depth stop and looks beautiful,if you do have a 71 i will buy it from you please let me know,how much you would want for it.
best wishes.
kenny16 July 2017 at 9:27 am #313752hi yes i totally agree the veritas is a beautiful tool,
i havent bought mine yet and im still hunting for one,but i will get it and the sooner the better -
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