Rebate planes V's...

[Midnight]

Yo Alf.... congrats on the new promotion btw...

Question for ya....
Reading your web page the other day got me thinking... brace yourself... in a shop with half decent routers / router table, is there still a place for a rebate plane? If so, what can it do that a router can't (except negate the ear protection that is).
If the answer is in the affirmative, which make / model would be recommended from a reliability/ease of use and spares availability perspective??

<(asking cos I'm gettin sick of fiddling with a collet reducer whenever I need to make a decorative edge)
Thanks

 

[Alf]

Hiya Mike,

Ta muchly.

In all honesty, and it pains me to say it, the router does have the rebate plane pretty well sewn up. Apart, as you say, from the noise, dust, safety, job satisfaction... But if you were going to see the light then plump for a Record 778. Quick, before they're all Made in Uzbekistan or whatever. Otherwise go for something with two fence rods, rather than the Stanley's/Record 78's one. Unless you feel like taking on a woodie...

Cheers, Alf

 

[Midnight]

<778 duely noted...

2 follow up questions....

firstly... is there a practical limit to how far from the edge that the plane can work? <realising that the greater the extension, the less stable>

secondly.. woodies...???

 

[Alf]

Mike,

Extension? The practical limit is the length of the fence rods really. Not so easy when you're towards the limits, but it can be done with a certain amount of care. Fortunately the majority of use means the fence is never further away from the body than the width of the iron. Unless you're going in for sash work?

As far as woodies go, there are three types, and I hope I get this right :roll: ; the standing fillister, the moving fillister and the sash fillister. A standing one has a fixed fence and depth stop, usually formed as part of the body, to plough a rebate of a fixed width and depth. i.e. It's a bit limited, but cheap. A moving fillister has an adjustable fence on the sole that allows you to stick a rebate on the same side of the stock that the fence bears against. A sash fillister on the other hand, lets you stick a rebate on the side opposite the edge the fence bears on. Its fence is more like that of a plough plane. The big advantage of the woodies is that the blades are skewed. I've yet to happen across either of the adjustable type yet, but I'm always looking.

Confused yet? :lol:

Cheers, Alf

 

[Anonymous]

Further on this ...

I had cause yesterday to make a stopped rebate in the lower edge of my workbench (mounting a Record 52 1/2 ... why do they have to have casting webs and a lip to hold a cover plate over the QR nut just where it contacts the lower edge of the bench?) Anyway, I didn't want to get the router out for such a small job so I ended up doing it with a chisel. Question is though: Is there a hand plane which would've done the job neater / quicker? I don't see how a rebate plane could do it unless the blade was mounted at the very front (isn't this then a chisel plane though ...) and approaching the rebate from either direction up to the stop mark. How do I cut a stopped rebate (or dado for that matter) without using a router?

Thanks
J I-T

 

[Alf]

How do I cut a stopped rebate (or dado for that matter) without using a router?

Juan,

You use a router. Just one without electrikery. Or more properly, as you did, a chisel and then clean up with a router plane. Or, where appropriate, a saw, then chisel, then router. Stopped anythings are always a hassle with hand tools, which is why the "old fashioned" way to do many things avoids using them altogether. Cunning fellows, those craftspersons of yore

Cheers, Alf

 

[Adam]

Not only did I have exactly the same problem last week when I fitted a Record 52 1/2 (I also used a chisel, and with extreme difficulty a saw upside down), but last night I was to be found using a rebate plane, by choice, to "clean" up a rebate I'd made in rough sawn outside timber with a router.

I don't know. This bloody slope gets slippier at the bottom. To be fair though, if the router hadn't removed 99% of the material I'd have been cursing that plane all evening - so slow - when you have 2 x 6 foot posts to do, and a rebate of approx 1 x 1 inch x 12 foot in total! It'd take forever.

A

PS: I just made a ton-up an' all

 

[Alf]

Wadda you mean "slippier at the bottom"?! You're only just over the edge as yet, you know Rumour has it The Slope doesn't even have a bottom; it just keeps on like one of those M C Escher staircases... :shock:

Cheers, Alf

P.S. A polite round of applause for the century, please.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info.

Glad it's not just me that's had problems fitting a 52 1/2 then ... I also found the tenon-saw-upside-down to be a new experience - actually got into the swing of it and had to concentrate to avoid sawing a large chunk out of the bench! Still ... if it'd been a tailed tool I probably would've got carried away and ended up with two benches ... :shock:

Getting slightly off-topic here, but are all Record vices plagued with poorly placed casting webs? :? My Paramo down the other end has none ...

Cheers,
J I-T