The Franken-Side-Rabbet Creature
I recently
purchased a Stanley No. 79 Side Rabbet plane from Jim Reed of Tallahassee,
Florida. Jim’s hobby is creating blades and cutters for obsolete woodworking
tools ... combining his interest in woodworking with his new interest in
metalworking … a concept very close to my own heart. This little plane is
designed to neatly trim the sides and shoulders of rabbets and tenons.
The one that I purchased was acquired by Jim without a number of its original parts. Perhaps it led a tough life. Scratched onto the top of its sole is “Mair-Son Assembly Line”. A quick search of Google turned up nothing for “Mair-Son”.
Jim had made a replacement for one of the two blades as well as a replacement blade retainer. Thumbscrews attach and secure the blade retainers. The fence was attached by two thumbscrews as well. It is likely that the thumbscrews were not original to this plane but salvaged from another Stanley plane as they were not alike and didn’t seem to fit just right. The fence thumbscrews also prevented the fence from moving to take advantage of the full width of the blade.
With these
changes from the original, I decided to further corrupt the plane and make
additional modifications to customize it for may own needs. Let me make this
clear! Had the plane retained its original parts I would not have made these
changes. This plane is no longer made. It would be a shame to modify it (as
well as a costly devaluation) had it been all original.
The plane, as received from Jim, worked well and produced a very clean cut with fine shavings. First I wanted to modify the new blade retainer to make it match more closely to the remaining original. The remade retainer was also a bit to large to fit the casting properly and didn’t seat flat on the cutter. It was also shaped somewhat differently. But the skill in shaping the odd angles on both the blade and retainer were completed by Jim, to which I am in his debt.
I also wanted
to replace the poor fitting thumbscrews retaining the fence with regular screws
(tightened by a screwdriver) so that they would not interfere with the
adjustment of the fence.
The Stanley 79 does the job of two other Stanley planes … the 98 & 99. However, these two side rabbets have a nice rosewood knob on the rear, setting them off nicely as attractive planes. Since I was replacing the fence screws anyway I decided to make them an inch longer and attach two Cocobolo knobs on top for a better hand grip and as an attractive feature as well.
The knobs, on the top side, would now interfere with the blade retainer thumbscrews. I replace the thumbscrews with flat head screws which now needed to be countersunk into the retainers.
The two
cocobolo knobs we
re
made from a single piece cocobolo drilled through the center for a 3/8 in piece
of drill rod. Drill rod is carbon tool steel sold dead soft for turning,
taping, or treading. It can also be hardened to use as a cutting tool. In this
case hardening was not necessary. I cut the drill rod to length, faced the
ends, and tapped each end for the fence retainer screws. The drill rod was
secured with epoxy into the cocobolo through hole. The cocobolo/drill rod
combination was turned in a lathe to their final size and polished.
Light filing and hand sanding on the body and fence removed any burrs that had occurred during the side rabbet’s hard life. Since the plane was plated any loose plating was removed with a small scraper.
The fence is
of formed (bent) sheet metal construction. I shaped a piece of 1/8 X1/2
inch
Cocobolo to fit the face of the fence and attached the wood with epoxy. The
wood was than shaped and finished to a final fit. The cocobolo was finished
with a rub-in Minwax finish followed by beeswax and lanolin (sold as leather
waterproofer by Kewee).
With a final sharpening and setting of the two blades, the side rabbet once again takes fine shavings and performs as designed.
William Johnston
913-492-6942
Comments, suggestions, and corrections are welcome.
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