Craftsman shoulder plane

[Brent Cutshall]

Weeeell, I was down at a local antique shop for reasons that are needless to say, and I narrowly purchased an iron bodied duplex rabbet plane(minus the duplex, didn't have fences). When I got home and blew the dust off, I noticed that the iron said Craftsman, I thought uh-oh. I had never seen a Craftsman plane before and I thought maybe it was lower quality than what I could have got. So, I did some research from my resources and found out that it was a #107.1 and placed it around 1950(ish). It cuts well so I really don't care if McDonalds made it:p. Anyway, I was wondering if anybody was familiar with this plane and also if anybody knows if a Stanley No.78 fence would work on it.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

Sears had different manufacturers make the "Craftsman" line. I am not an expert on these things, but I think in that time period Millers Falls was making a lot of their woodworking tools. They made a plane similar to the 78 (I do not have one, but think it was the 85).

[steven c newman]

The "107" would be a Millers Falls made plane. Not sure how a Stanley fence would work, or not work. It would depend on the diameter of the rod for the fence.

[Bill Houghton]

The thread size/pitch for the fence rod, and, if I recall right, the offset from fence rod to the top of the fence, differs from Stanley to Millers-Falls. If you've got a digital camera and are comfortable posting a picture here, that could help us ID it, which could then send you in the right direction for the fence.

It's not technically, by the way, a shoulder plane. Shoulder planes are low-angle (the metal-bodied planes usually bed the iron around 12 degrees) and therefore bevel up planes, designed to clean off the end grain on tenon shoulders (thus the name) and similar spots. What you've got is considered a carpenter's plane, for making rabbets mainly along the grain (and thus the higher bedding and bevel down layout of the iron). That's what they say, and it does indeed work quite well for that application; but I find that, when the iron's sharp, my Stanley 78 is a very capable plane; and your Craftsman probably is, too.

[steven c newman]

Rotate the cutting spur ( nicker) and it will cut across the grain nicely. I have a Wards, but it is made by Stanley. It will also find some use as a "bullnose" plane, as there is a second bed for the iron out in front.
345819
something like this.

[Tom Bussey]

The rod has different threads on the Miller Falls and the Stanley. As some of you know I resurface planes and I just redid basically 3 Stanley 78s. One is a Craftsman one was a Miller Falls and one is a Stanley. I had the parts separated but my granddaughter help me out and mixed them up. The fences interchange. I don't remember if the miller Falls rod and the Stanley rod interchange but the craftsman doesn't fit either of the other two and not all feet interchange.

Tom

[Brent Cutshall]

Give me until tomorrow for the pictures, it's in rehab and quite unbecoming at the moment. As for the fence, if anyone knows the rod size and coarseness of the threads of the Stanley 78 I can match it to mine. Thanks for the info folks!

[Glen Canaday]

It's a Millers Falls. It's a #85 in disguise, and if you have the 107 number on it, it is a 107-37039, iirc. I have one and it's my go-to rabbet plane. All of the MF parts are interchangeable with it, which means if you need a fence or depth stop or iron you can raid a broken #85 or (shudder, due to scarcity) #95.

107 was Sears' OEM code for MF after they got away from the short-lived two letter codes. Check out vintagemachinery.org for the codes list, or do a google for it. I'm on my phone so I can't provide a direct link.

[Bill Houghton]

Seems to me I had a Millers-Falls duplex plane for a while, and it used a special thread pitch, possibly the same as Sargent.

[Brent Cutshall]

345879 Before
345880 After
345881 Before
345882 Well, you get it.
345883
See, all it says is Craftsman on the iron.
345884
It does good rabbets(for a plane that ain't sharpened yet) so I really don't care who made it, but it is a nice thing to know. All I need to know now is the thread size and bolt diameter of the fence(suggestions on the restoration are welcome).

[Bill Houghton]

Nice clean up job.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I once had, if memory serves, a Millers-Falls No. 85 duplex rabbet plane; and a Stanley fence rod didn't fit it. It's been my experience that the plane makers, when making a specialty plane model on contract for the department and hardware stores, would usually just "badge engineer" it - change nothing but the logo from their own model. So the likelihood is that your plane, if it is Millers-Falls, is just like the M-F No. 85.

Your photos help. The shape of the handle is NOT Stanley, but the presence of the adjusting lever (common on both the Stanley and the M-F) argues against its being Sargent (on which you adjust the iron by feel/guess/delicate fingertips). The adjusting lever, with that little down-turned tag at the end, is also a Millers-Falls shape. This all triangulates it toward being produced by Millers-Falls.

I went out to the shop last night, and confirmed my memory that the thread size/pitch on the fence rod on a Stanley 78 is 1/4" - 28, or standard fine pitch thread*. So, take your newly shiny plane to the nuts-n-bolts aisle at your hardware store, find the 1/4" fine pitch bolt drawer, and test a bolt on the fence rod hole. If it threads all the way in, you can use a Stanley fence.

If it doesn't, then probably a M-F fence rod will fit. These aren't as common as the fence and rod for a Stanley 78 (I found just one M-F fence and rod, searching the recent sales on eBay, versus probably ten for the Stanleys). Expect to spend about $25 on eBay for one.
------------
*Those jokers at Stanley - just when we're conditioned to think that every threaded fastener on a Stanley plane is some special, non-modern-standards pitch, they throw in a fastener that fits modern standards!

[Brent Cutshall]

Thanks very much, Bill!