Stanley No 71 Hand Router
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Got myself a really nice Stanley No 71 hand router on ebay a few weeks ago, for Β£91.01. Expensive but it’s a really good one.
I’ve just started to use it on the tenons for my workbench but I think I need to fashion a (not sure what it’s called) wooden bed/surface/jig the router is supported upon when using it for larger tenons.
Does anyone know what it is called so I can research making one, please?
Thanks all
6 September 2018 at 9:52 pm #550961I used a bit of oak for mine, which is not ideal because its very open grain created a lot of friction. However, a few coats of shellac took care of that, and it will be easy to renew when needed.
6 September 2018 at 10:44 pm #550964I used 3/8″ oak on mine as well and it’s held up for a couple of years now. I didn’t use any finish but the piece of white oak I used was very smooth. You could use just about anything including plywood but I think a hardwood like oak or hard maple will be the best.
Paul filmed a video on making one. It might be on the DVD which came with his book, but they’re quite straightforward.
A wooden sole/sub-base improves glide significatly. You can wax it too. You also have the added advantage of screwing a decent fence to a wooden sole – if you’re going to use it as a plough plane. Much more practical than that 1″ affair Stanley provided.
The 71s and 071s weren’t always machined accurately after casting and, if seldom-used, were never properly fettled by their previous owners. I have seven. All were slightly wonky.
Before you make your base:
Check the iron is seated vertically. Check with an engineer’s square. It should be cutting squarely (full-width) at all depths. Sometimes it’s a sharpening issue, sometimes the vertical channel needs filing slightly. Search Mitch Peacock on YouTube.
You can flatten the sole as Mitch does. I wouldn’t; it’ll ruin the nickel plating if you have any left. You’ll have a flat new wooden sole anyway.
Check also that your threaded screw-post is vertical, especially where the iron’s screwed further down. My Record 071 had a slight curve to the screw-post which only became apparent when the iron was lowered further to pass through the wooden base.
You could end up chasing-your-tail; adjusting the thickness of your base to compensate for poor alignment, only have it all out of whack again when the wooden base is removed.
File a slight chamfer on the leading and trailing edges of the wooden sole; as you would on the toe & heel of a smoothing plane.
One of my gripes with the Stanley 71 is the lateral grooves on the sole for the fence. No wonder a wooden sole improves things. What were they thinking? Amazingly, others went and copied them – grooves and all!
I’m looking to buy some oak online. I found this
http://www.dgheath.co.uk/product/409/kiln-dried-oak/per-metre-oak-kd-x-32mm-x-12mm
It’s a metre in length and 12mm thick, which is perfect. But, only 32mm wide?
Am I reading that right?
@mark68 yes, that’s how I read it, too. I think you’re going to find that making the base is so quick and easy that it’s fine to use whatever you have. Ply is excellent and easy because it is flat and wide. Solid wood is more amenable to being planed or sanded if you decide you need an adjustment for some reason. I’ve never had to tweak mine, though. It’s a Veritas, if that matters.
Really, you just cut a hunk of wood, screw the plane to it via the holes in the base, trace the opening in the base, remove the plane, cut out the tracing with a coping saw, and reattach the plane. Done. If you have a scrap of ply, you’ll be done in fifteen minutes. If you have a scrap of pine or just about anything else, add more time to flatten it and to make the two faces parallel.
I’d use ply, myself. Good plywood, but plywood. Easy.
- This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by Ed.
7 September 2018 at 12:59 pm #550988Some guys use clear acrylic sheet for a base. Even premium grade plywood (the expensive stuff) might be flat and it might not. I wouldn’t go down to 3/8″ if I were using plywood because some of it will be wavy and if you order it through Amazon or wherever without being able to see it first, who knows what will show up.
7 September 2018 at 2:51 pm #550992Acrylic will be the higher priced option and I haven’t used it for this purpose but I have seen it discussed before. You can even use MDF but I don’t think it will hold up as well. MDF is usually dead flat though, and tends to stay that way so it might be a starting point for you. Getting an edge on the cutter is something that has to happen, but that should be dead simple to accomplish. If it has any kind of edge at all, try it on a scrap piece of wood and see how it behaves. If it seems to want to make a relatively uniform cut, polish the bottom side and sharpen the bevel on the cutter and you’ll be fine.
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