Small Plane, Interesting day

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Oddly, Paul Sellers had a video about setting one of these up yesterday. One of those 'sign up' jobs, sorry. Worth it imho.
In case of confusion: different plane with a much lower bed angle, which makes it bevel up. Nice little plane looks a lot better than the dreaded 75. Pricier too
 
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So what's the verdict on this plane? Get a 90 if you need a bullnose, or a 92/93 shoulder plane because you'll be able to use that most of the time anyway?
 
Hmmm, it doesn't look like a low-angle bed to me. I've just spent 15 minutes trying to find out what the bed angle of a 75 is, but all sources I consulted remain stolidly silent on that point. Could someone with a 75 & a protractor of some kind measure the bed angle? It would be a very handy parameter on which to base any rational advice on which way the blade should be.

Roberto, looking at your first lot of pics, it seems to me you have a pretty steep bevel on that blade, so clearance may have been the issue when you had it bevel-down. A good rule of thumb is to have at least 10 degrees of clearance. If the bed is 45 degrees and your sharpening bevel ends up at 30, you have 15* of clearance, which is adequate, but if the bed is x* lower than 45, the clearance angle will be less by that amount.

In your pic with he blade bevel up, it just doesn't look right - if your bed is 45 and your sharpening angle is ~30 you now have a cutting angle of 70*. That is not very practical on a larger plane, the cutting resistance would be excessive. On a little thing like the 75, just knocking corners off, cutting resistance won't be such an issue.

Lastly, bull-nosed planes are always tricky things to use. They are very sensitive to pressure over the nose, you can alter depth of cut quite markedly by pressing on the front of the plane. They are also very awkward to start cleanly from an edge, you just don't have enough surface area on the toe to register it & begin the cut properly. I would suggest any small plane with a toe 1/4-1/3rd of the overall sole length would be much better for your stated purpose than the 75 or any other bull-nosed plane - the Stanley 100 or any of it's multitude of clones make very handy one-handers, ideal for knocking sharp corners off....
Cheers,
Ian
 
Hmmm, it doesn't look like a low-angle bed to me. I've just spent 15 minutes trying to find out what the bed angle of a 75 is, but all sources I consulted remain stolidly silent on that point. Could someone with a 75 & a protractor of some kind measure the bed angle? It would be a very handy parameter on which to base any rational advice on which way the blade should be.

Roberto, looking at your first lot of pics, it seems to me you have a pretty steep bevel on that blade, so clearance may have been the issue when you had it bevel-down. A good rule of thumb is to have at least 10 degrees of clearance. If the bed is 45 degrees and your sharpening bevel ends up at 30, you have 15* of clearance, which is adequate, but if the bed is x* lower than 45, the clearance angle will be less by that amount.

In your pic with he blade bevel up, it just doesn't look right - if your bed is 45 and your sharpening angle is ~30 you now have a cutting angle of 70*. That is not very practical on a larger plane, the cutting resistance would be excessive. On a little thing like the 75, just knocking corners off, cutting resistance won't be such an issue.

Lastly, bull-nosed planes are always tricky things to use. They are very sensitive to pressure over the nose, you can alter depth of cut quite markedly by pressing on the front of the plane. They are also very awkward to start cleanly from an edge, you just don't have enough surface area on the toe to register it & begin the cut properly. I would suggest any small plane with a toe 1/4-1/3rd of the overall sole length would be much better for your stated purpose than the 75 or any other bull-nosed plane - the Stanley 100 or any of it's multitude of clones make very handy one-handers, ideal for knocking sharp corners off....
Cheers,
Ian

If I remember correctly, the bed angle on the 75 is about 45/47 degrees. Even with a 25 degree angle on the blade, the thing wouldn't perform any sense. My BU Record 076 is much better, but as you say, they are not easy to set up and use.

Nigel.
 
Bed angle - 75 is 40º. Mine is anyway. Sellers looks half that or less which would give a cutting angle of 50º with a 30º honed blade
 
If I remember correctly, the bed angle on the 75 is about 45/47 degrees. Even with a 25 degree angle on the blade, the thing wouldn't perform any sense. My BU Record 076 is much better, but as you say, they are not easy to set up and use.

Nigel.
Just measured mine the bed is 40 degrees. I do have a very shallow primary bevel of 25 degrees on the blade with a secondary bevel a few more degrees up. It is bevel down.
IMG_1797.jpeg
 
Got a 90j here and when doing fittings its handy, but then anything is handy. Elongating a rebate, knocking off edges, in fact anything.
OK, not its exact job, but many fitting and inbuilt cabinets, its a case of whatever works, or whatever can get in to tight spaces and its width I've found is very good for that.
A chisel plane would also be handy,but it can be too wide, or a shoulder, but again each are 'specialist' but if it works for you, then add it to the arsenal.

One job i found it useful for was taking the years of paint off architrave edges,both by running it flat on the wall for the outside edge, and for the slight return on the door thingymabobbities.
 
Just measured mine the bed is 40 degrees. I do have a very shallow primary bevel of 25 degrees on the blade with a secondary bevel a few more degrees up. It is bevel down.
View attachment 98617

Yours looks like an American model, and older than my English one. I don't think that the blade on mine, although original, was much good. I could certainly not get shavings like that.

Nigel.
 
Yours looks like an American model, and older than my English one. I don't think that the blade on mine, although original, was much good. I could certainly not get shavings like that.

Nigel.

I'm pretty sure this one was in a tool box belonging to my grandfather. A lot of my tools are from my grandfather, great grandfather and great great grandfather. They were all carpenter/cabinetmakers in the UK. It's possible it is an American model but I would have though more likely English. I did spend six years in Canada so it might have come into my possession there, though it isn't a plane I would have bought through choice :)

That shaving was a soft bit of pine so easy to work. Here is one from oak
IMG_1800.jpeg

And end grain ;-)
IMG_1801.jpeg
 
Paul, your blade has Stanley New Britain Conn. U S A stamped at the top, and looks much thicker than mine. There is no way that mine would ever take shavings like that. Perhaps the newer English versions were very cheaply made using inferior materials.

Nigel.
 
..... Perhaps the newer English versions were very cheaply made using inferior materials.

Nigel.
You could be right and is often repeated but I strongly feel that this is workmen blaming the tools!
By the time people have worked their way through sharpening alternatives, polished everything, practiced using the tool, swapped a blade or two, they will have simply got better at it and would have done just as well with the original blade.
I don't think I've ever had defective blade, except where they've been nibbled and over-heated on a bench grinder. Even that is remediable if you just grind off a bit more, but carefully.
 
You could be right and is often repeated but I strongly feel that this is workmen blaming the tools!
By the time people have worked their way through sharpening alternatives, polished everything, practiced using the tool, swapped a blade or two, they will have simply got better at it and would have done just as well with the original blade.
I don't think I've ever had defective blade, except where they've been nibbled and over-heated on a bench grinder. Even that is remediable if you just grind off a bit more, but carefully.

Jacob, I am blaming the tool in this instance.
I've had no problems with any of my planes other than this one and a small coffin smoother with an unmarked blade which, once replaced worked well. The blade on my 75 is thin. It will sharpen up ok but tends to chatter if the cut is set only the tiniest bit thick, it just seems hopeless. The cap iron? doesn't extend far enough down the blade to lock the lower end of the blade down properly, which doesn't help the chatter. Paul Barnard's is much more substantial. My Record 076, which is definitely older is more substantial, and a much better plane.

Nigel.
 
Jacob, I am blaming the tool in this instance.
I've had no problems with any of my planes other than this one and a small coffin smoother with an unmarked blade which, once replaced worked well. The blade on my 75 is thin. It will sharpen up ok but tends to chatter if the cut is set only the tiniest bit thick, it just seems hopeless. The cap iron? doesn't extend far enough down the blade to lock the lower end of the blade down properly, which doesn't help the chatter. Paul Barnard's is much more substantial. My Record 076, which is definitely older is more substantial, and a much better plane.

Nigel.
Well as I said you could be right. Later Stanleys definitely deteriorated.
Presumably Record just stopped without letting things slide first. Record 076 is a much better plane, more expensive and very different from the 75.
Lot of 75s about, I guess because they were the cheapest plane on the market and novice buyers wouldn't know it was a peculiar and specialised plane with limited use. Thats why I bought one myself and it was years before I found a use for it!
 
That may be a thinner iron. I bought one of those at one point here (someone later gave me a bullnose slater plane, so that was the end of the 75) and it was a little later and had a very thin iron.

They have a reputation here as being a plane that's hard to get right, but I don't think it's so much a quality issue with the plane, it's just the design using a cast detachable nose that creates a very short front sole.
 
Paul, your blade has Stanley New Britain Conn. U S A stamped at the top, and looks much thicker than mine. There is no way that mine would ever take shavings like that. Perhaps the newer English versions were very cheaply made using inferior materials.

Nigel.
Very good point. I didn't read that :) I must have stolen it in Canada.

I just put the callipers on the blade and it is 1/16" thick
 
I’ve had one of these Stanley planes for about 25 years, but have used it only on the odd occasion. The blade should be bevel down, and when it’s set right it can produce fine shavings. The major problem with it lies in setting the throat. This is a nightmare because the screw governing the throat opening and closing is virtually impossible to access and thus tighten by reason of the blade neck extending over the screw head. Get the throat wrong, and the plane is unusable. I cut the blade neck shorter to allow a driver to be used, and that helped a bit, but it was still hit and miss.
I much prefer my Record 311.
 
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