Stanley #71 Router Plane?

[Bill White]

Just picked this puppy up yesterday for a stupid low price. Never been used, sharpened, etc.
What's the good, bad, ugly about this model?
It is U.S.A. made.
It has a 1/2" cutter. Are other cutters available?
Bill

[Brian Hale]

Check the Lee Valley cutters, i believe they fit

[Bill White]

Thanks Brian.
Any tricks for the use? I have a basic knowledge but, as in anything related to planes, there is user-based info.
I'm in the process of flattening the sole and sharpening now.
Bill

[Brian Hale]

My experience is limited but in general it's a tool that doesn't like to remove a lot of material per pass so start lite cuts and sort of bump it along. I'm sure others will have more input......

[Judson Green]

I wouldn't bother flatting the sole. These planes are most often used with a sub base attached.

317951

Here's a picture of mine (a 71½) with the subbase attached and a fence I made.

[Robert Engel]

Shallow passes/very sharp blade.

Bit of a learning curve on sharpening one, but doable.

When using the often work best doing a shear cut rather than straight into the grain.
Do this by using a slight oscillating movement.
There is a spear head blade available that works quite well.

You'll get the hang of it. I use mine alot for levelling tenons.

[Todd Burch]

I used mine recently to complete the hinge mortises for some pre hung doors I bought that the MONKEYS working at the millwork company screwed up. Grrrrrrr.

[Archie England]

The 71 is typically a great tool, and unless you can see it's out of plane, don't mess with flattening it further. The LV blades DO work. I've found that a thin base plate enables them to work even better. As stated above, the 71 is not for hogging out material but for incremental stock removal. IMO, it's a great, undervalued vintage tool. Sounds like you got a steal! Congrats.

[James Pallas]

Bill I don't have a 71 but I do have both a large and small LN versions. I believe you will find it an invaluable tool. Cleaning dados and stopped dados, sliding dovetails, inlays, bandings and leveling tenons are just some of the things it does well. Check out Derek Cohens sharpening jig for hollow grinding blades. You could look at the console I built there are pics in one of my earlier post. I used my LN to do a lot of the work on the bandings and inlays. I think I could say with confidence that a router plane touches every build for me.
Jim

[Jim Koepke]

Bill, can you post pictures? We would all like to see which particular type #71 you have.

My Router Plane is the Sargent equivalent. It has a sub-base and works fine with the LV blades. Without the sub-base the adjusting nut needs to be flipped.

As others have mentioned it isn't good at hogging off wood. It is great at taking a few thousandths to leave a smooth bottom to dados and hinge mortises.

On the adjusting nut I put marks at 90º and then halfway in between those so there are 8 marks around the perimeter of the nut. The screw on mine moves the nut 0.056" per revolution. This makes every mark about 0.007" of blade movement. When doing the final smoothing I move a half mark. For rough work the blade can be moved as much as two marks for soft woods.

jtk

[Bill White]

Jim, I've not gotten the hang of posting pics. Guess that I need to get with the bride 'cause she's the guru.
Mine is the nickel plated 71 with depth rod, shoe, reversible fence, and red paint on the Stanley logo.
The knobs were painted black, and the paint was coming off. I just stripped them, sanded, stained with a cherry then walnut stain to give the color I wanted.
Soda blasted the body, and it cleaned up very well.
Just need to find the spear point and 1/4" cutters to make it complete.
Bill

[Archie England]

Lee Valley is the place!

[Stephen Rosenthal]

Like James, I have the large and small closed throat LNs. LN's website has an excellent video on how to use them off of the Router Plane link.