Record No 078

[Osvaldd]

Bought this the other day. Was playing with it today and I must say its very fiddly to set up, dont like the blade adjustment mechanism at all. I noticed that the rather than sitting flat the blade pivots on these two adjustment teeth, is that by design? And then when you tighten the lever cap screw, the blade pushes down onto this adjustment mechanism and it becomes impossible to advance or retract the blade..

 

[jimmy_s]

I haven't got a 078 but normally when you have the pins on the adjusting mechanism the plane iron has grooves milled in the back that those pins sit between, as far as I know the iron shouldn't pivot.

 

[Osvaldd]

the iron does have grooves but I guess they are not deep enough or the pins are protruding too much?
its a Stanley blade, but it shouldn't matter

 

[Bod]

Dat der way of the world.
With these planes, the natural place to put your thumb, is on the blade adjustment lever. Leading to the blade retracting under the weight of your thumb!
Two solutions, keep thumb away, or tight blade clamping.
The first is the official Record advice.

Bod

 

[samhay]

Yes, adjustment doesn't work nearly as well as the engineers clearly thought it would.

Something else to watch is that you set the iron so that it is hard against the side/ wall of the casting. Or at least, that seems to work for me.

 

[Trevanion]

That's why they came out with the Record 778 later on (After buying Woden out who originally had the innovations), It improved on the features of the 78 that people didn't like such as the lever adjustment or the single rod fence.

 

[AndyT]

I've just been and checked my old Record 078.

First off, it's an entirely practical design which works well. Some people prefer it to the 778 because you can adjust the depth of cut on the fly if you want to.

In use, the iron rests flat on the body and does not rock on the adjuster. Indeed, the adjuster has some play in it, so even if you tighten the screw right down, it will still rattle.

I measured the depth of the grooves with a depth gauge and they are almost exactly one millimetre deep at the centre, where the adjuster goes.

If yours are shallower than that, you need to make them deeper, swap the iron or very carefully file down the teeth of the adjuster.

Or simpler and reversibly you could stick some paper or thin aluminium onto the iron or the bed, with a cutout for the grooved part, so the iron is raised off the bed a little, and the teeth don't bottom out.

 

[Jacob]

(Edited - I didn't spot it was the Record in the title, thought I'd leave this in anyway, having gone to the trouble to write it!)
Stanley 78 is excellent.One of my favourite tools. Very versatile beyond their designed purpose, which is why you find so many of them thrashed to bits and missing accessories. The depth stop and fence are occasionally useful but most of the time you would use them just the same as a woody rebate plane.
They have a particularly good design feature in that the fence covers the exposed but unused parts of the blade. The Record 078 and others don't - you get cut fingers if you use the fence.

 

[Vann]

Off on a tangent, but:

That's why they came out with the Record 778 later on (After buying Woden out who originally had the innovations)...

This view is often aired - but I don't believe it's the case.

The Woden W78 is definitely a development of the WS Tools A78 - with beefed-up rods, etc.

However the Record shares almost none of the detail of the A78/W78. Method of holding the rods is different. Spacing of rods is different. Knicker design is different. Depth adjustment is different.
There's very little in common between the 778 and the A78/W78 except the basic concept.

I believe Record came out with the 778 as a competitor to the W78 - and later bought out Wodens planes.

My tuppence worth...

Oh, and I believe Jacob means the Record 778, as their 078 is almost identical to the Stanley 78.

...They have a particularly good design feature in that the fence covers the exposed but unused parts of the blade. The Record 078 and others don't - you get cut fingers if you use the fence.

Cheers, Vann.

 

[Jacob]

..........

Oh, and I believe Jacob means the Record 778, as their 078 is almost identical to the Stanley 78.

...They have a particularly good design feature in that the fence covers the exposed but unused parts of the blade. The Record 078 and others don't - you get cut fingers if you use the fence.

Cheers, Vann.

OK I'm getting there! It was Derek Cohen who flagged up the finger cutting prob
with a LV rebate plane ,some years back . Similar to the 778 with two fence bars instead of one.

 

[Osvaldd]

Appreciate it gents, special thanks to AndyT. The grooves in the Stanley blade are 1mm as well but the adjustment mechanism pins are protruding 2mm, so that's the problem. Going to have to file them down a bit.

 

[Jarno]

I was going to mention the 778 as well, the depth adjustment is the reason for finding one of those rather than 078. Gotta say though, I hardly adjust the depth, and the fine adjust is not THAT great, there's a bit of space between iron and adjuster, and adjusting it, it tends to bind a bit.
I just set it to a sensible depth and leave it there.

The two bars for the fence are really nice to have though, pretty stable.