Record 722 mini router replacement blade & enhancements
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A few years ago I picked up a Record 722 mini router at the Traditional Tool Users Group annual sale for only $20 which was a bargain compared to the usual price of about $100. The reason for its cheapness was 1) that the adjusting screw had been lost & was replaced by a hexagonal nut (photo 1) which had to be tediously adjusted by a small shifting spanner and 2) that the blade was almost at the end of its useful life & in fact had to be sharpened at quite a steep angle of about 35 degrees instead of the usual 25 degrees. (photo 2)
In spite of these deficiencies, the tool still cut a useful groove & so I set about doing what I could to improve it. As it turns out, the only really important parts of this tool are the body & the double notched shaft that holds the blade shaft. (photo 3)
Firstly, I found that the hexagonal nut easily screwed onto a 3/16 ” bolt so I replaced it with a 3/16 ” wing nut, replaced the rusty washer that protected the body from the nut with a new one & added a small spring washer for good measure. (photo 4) The tool was now much easier to adjust for depth of cut.
I was surprised to find that no-one made a replacement blade for the 722 – the Stanley 271 blade might have worked but from photos it appears to be grooved & I didn’t want to spend the money on something that might be unsuitable. Reading Larry Geib’s reply to Antoni B.’s topic “This pitiful hand router…”, I found out that “Veritas has a round shanked bit for their small router” available from Lee Valley. I measured my shaft diameter & that of the body holes & found that according to my digital callipers, the diameter of the shaft on the 722 is 0.22” (or 7/32” or 5.60mm) & the diameter of the hole in the body of the plane that it goes through is 0.23” (or 15/64” or 5.86mm).
I contacted Lee Valley for the measurements of their blade & they wrote back to say “The blade shank on our small router plane blade is very close – it is 0.214” (or 27/128” or 5.45mm). The hole that the blade slides through is oblong, measuring about 0.234” by 0.241”. It sounds like our blade just may fit your plane.”
I ordered the replacement blade & also their depth stop (photo 5) & when they arrived two & a half months later, I was pleased to find that everything fitted & worked like a charm. (photo 6)
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You must be logged in to view attached files.Hello Tony,
The Cutting Iron for my Stanley 271 is grooved, as you suspected from the photos you’ve seen, but I cannot see why it’s grooved at all.
It’s a cylindrical shaft with a flat corner filed into it, for locking against the thumbscrew, so it doesn’t rotate left or right when in use. The flat has a vertical groove milled into it, leaving just two narrow strips for purchase.
Perhaps they engaged a ‘key’ mechanism during manufacture, for milling or grinding?
Or maybe the groove reduces the surface area against the Thumbscrew, so it doesn’t bite too severely for finger adjustment?
The groove doesn’t have a corresponding ‘pip’ to mate inside the housing, nor is there a corresponding ‘pip’ on the thumbscrew.
I’m pretty sure the 271 irons would fit your router.Hi Alan,
Because the tool worked usefully on the few occasions that I needed it over the last couple of years, I wasn’t in a hurry to replace the blade but if it had become unsatisfactory I certainly would have attempted to track down an alternative, perhaps a 271 blade or altering an Allen key. However, it seems to be just as hard to get 271 replacement blades as 722 replacement blades & most of the advice is to get the Veritas small router blade from Lee Valley or grind an Allen key.
The cross section of both Veritas & Record blade shafts are circular whereas the cross section of the Stanley is sort of gibbous with a grooved flat section & that of an Allen key is of course hexagonal. That’s not to say that the Stanley or Allen key couldn’t have been made to work in the double notched shaft that holds the blade shaft to the body but once I realised that the Veritas was a better match & that it had a matching depth stop which improved the functionality of the 722, it was a no brainer to go with that.
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