Plane (router) Restoration Question

[JohnM Martin]

Today I became the proud owner of this old Stanley 71 router plane.

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I've always wanted one of these old planes so I picked one up in a trade. Anyway, when I got the plane it had some rust on the bottom seen in the picture below.

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I decided to try to remove the rust with a granite plate and some 220 adhesive backed sandpaper. After a couple of minutes of lightly working on the plane, most of the rust is gone, but now there is sort of a weird purple tint in a couple of places (directly below the handles).

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What is this purple tint? I have used this method on a couple of old stanley baileys, and I don't recall seeing any discoloration like this before.

[steven c newman]

Before they nickle plated it, Stanley used a copper plate...so, you copper with cast iron under it, and maybe a bit of nickle on top?
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What my 71-1/2 looked like when I walked home with it..
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After a good clean up (brass wire wheel)

Wax the sole, call it done.

[Jim Koepke]

It shouldn't be anything to worry over.

If you worry about leaving marks on light or soft woods, a wooden base is easy to add

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A wood base helps when using Veritas router blades.

jtk

[JohnM Martin]

Thanks, Jim. I ordered a couple of veritas blades yesterday. I guess they are too tall and thus requiring the wooden base?

[steven c newman]

Turn the adjusting wheel upside down, is all you need to do..

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks, Jim. I ordered a couple of veritas blades yesterday. I guess they are too tall and thus requiring the wooden base?

As Steven posted, turning the adjusting wheel upside down may be all that is needed.

The wooden base will be kinder to your work in soft woods like pine and other fir species.

Here is a trick that might help:

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The lines are helpful to keep track of how much the blade is being advanced.

My router is a Sargent #62. If my memory is working the adjuster has 18 threads per inch. This works out to one revolution of the adjuster being ~0.055". With 8 equally spaced marks, advancing the blade, a 1/8th turn lowers the blade ~0.007", a 1/16th turn ~0.0035".

The Stanley router plane likely has a different thread, in other words, 424002

Found my thread pitch chart:

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jtk