Stanley 78 learning

[Bill_Houghton]

I may not be fast, but at least I'm slow; I figure I'll be a beginner all my life.

I've had problems in the past with shavings bunching up in the throat of my Stanley 78, a plane I find very useful. Yesterday, I realized that the lever cap's chip diverter (see pic below) needs to be right against the side of the plane body in order to do its work of diverting chips; otherwise, it blocks them, causing clogs. This is particularly true when cutting rabbets (yes, yes, that's what it is, a rabbet plane; but it's often useful in other ways, too).

Experienced folks will say, "well, duh!" But I post this for new kids; that I get to look like an person by stating the obvious is just a side benefit.

It's a bit tricky, getting the cap oriented properly, keeping the iron so that it just barely pokes out beyond the body of the plane, and so on. But was it ever worth it.

You can see the chip diverter, below, in the mouth of the plane as the lever cap holds the iron down.

[blackhat]

First time I've seen such a contrivance.

[Downwindtracker2]

I will have to look ,Bill. THX

[lilrichard2]

I can only imagine the frustration you probably would have experienced if you had this Stanley 78 instead of the one originally posted. I have no idea why the previous owner would have configured a Stanley 78 this way.





r2

[Bill_Houghton]

Lil Richard,

Do you mean with the two irons and two lever caps? Actually, mine's set up that way - I wound up with duplicates - and it's no issue, because I only have one iron at a time in use, the other being back in the mouth, as I note is true with the example you show.

It hasn't been a big deal, and actually provides a little more grip surface at the front of the plane.

[Admiral]

I like the Sargent design, with a little lip for grip on the front of the plane; they made a lot of them with lips for Craftsman back in the day.

[Bill_Houghton]

And the Sargent "wave" model is even cooler:



Sargent really liked decorating their castings.

[blackhat]

Let me amend that to say I never noticed its presence before now. My 2 users have caps the same width as the iron so it is in place if the cap is aligned and that's kind of automatic. The older one has a lever cap much narrower than the iron and I can certainly see it not being correctly positioned.

[RobinOfKingston]

Bill_Houghton said:

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Experienced folks will say, "well, duh!" But I post this for new kids; that I get to look like an person by stating the obvious is just a side benefit.

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One of my favorite Will Rogers quotes is, "Everybody's ignorant, just on different subjects."

Thank you for the timely advise.

[Bozz]

Thanks, Bill. I got so frustrated with clogs I stopped using mine. I'll have to take another look.