stanley 71 1/2 router plane question

[Robert Culver]

Ok So I got my blades from veratis the other day and they do infact fit with the adjustment knob turned up side down. but the thing is at least with my plane its cutting it pretty close on the treaded rod. has anybody put a longer threaded rod on this to give it a little more clearance? im wondering if its another one of those wacky threads like on my record 043? It would be nice to get a little more clrearance on the treads any idea?

[Jonathan McCullough]

Robert I've got the same setup from an old beater that had a mashed up threaded rod riser thingee, and yes, they are whacky threads. I went to HD looking for them--I think they're 24 threads per inch or something--and the guy there said very authoritatively that he had worked in a machine shop and that thread "doesn't exist." "No," I said, "it does exist. You're holding it in your hand! Here's a Starrett thread checker right here, see? 24!" Well I ended up getting a replacement from Stanley and with the Veritas cutters it just works. I've mostly done tenons with them so the blade comes down half an inch or so. The fine tuning adjustment on those old router planes leaves much to be desired anyway. One thing you can do if you're creeping toward a certain depth with your router plane is to keep a deck of cards handy and put a couple under the sole and drop the blade on to the work. That way you're always advancing the depth of the blade down the thickness of one card.

[Robert Culver]

Jonathan thats good advise thanks Its funny how they dont make those threads and your holding them in your hand they need to say alot just for hand planes to forceyou to buy from stanley hahahah i yi yi......

[Rob Young]

You can make the rod "longer" by adding a sub-base to the router plane.

[Jim Koepke]

One thing you can do if you're creeping toward a certain depth with your router plane is to keep a deck of cards handy and put a couple under the sole and drop the blade on to the work. That way you're always advancing the depth of the blade down the thickness of one card.

That works well, another method I used was to mark my adjuster nut into eight sections.

182819

In the case of 24 threads per inch moving the nut one mark will lower the blade about .005". Moving half a mark about .0025".

My marks are not real accurate, but what the heck, my router is a Sargent and has 18 tpi anyway.

jtk

[Robert Culver]

Jim I like your trick to. its interesting to see how people work things out. Rob I understand what your saying but then that leave the problem of neededing a longer screw for the fence that I have for under the plane. hahaha and I bet thats an oddball tread to. I just cant win. Ok guys Im heading to the machine shop again to see what I can come up with. its not that it dont work I just would feel alot better if it wasnt hanging on by a tread.....

[Rob Young]

Jim I like your trick to. its interesting to see how people work things out. Rob I understand what your saying but then that leave the problem of neededing a longer screw for the fence that I have for under the plane. hahaha and I bet thats an oddball tread to. I just cant win. Ok guys Im heading to the machine shop again to see what I can come up with. its not that it dont work I just would feel alot better if it wasnt hanging on by a tread.....

True, but I'd be willing to bet you don't use the fence that often. You can always just clamp on a shop-made fence with some small C-clamps assuming you are working where there would be clearance for the clamp heads. My 71-1/2 is an earlier model and does not have any grooves in its base for a fence so it has never troubled me.

One final thought, very early 71's and 71-1/2s (too I think) did not have the threaded shaft and adjuster nut. Just the collar. So you could just snug up the collar and be happy even if there are only a few threads engaged on the adjuster. The collar is doing bulk of the holding anyway.

[Bill Houghton]

Rob I understand what your saying but then that leave the problem of neededing a longer screw for the fence that I have for under the plane. hahaha and I bet thats an oddball tread to.

Actually, at least on the later router planes (post-war), it's a common machine screw thread pitch. Stanley made few changes in thread pitches once they started building a plane, so it's probably the same on yours.