Lie-Nielsen type 271 small router plane depth stop

[jim_hanna]

Santa kindly brought me an Axminster own brand small router plane. I’m very glad he did buy back in November at £26.94 since I see the own brand small router plane, with the same specification and illustration but a Rider name tag, is now priced at £44.96.

I find the small plane handy to use but I missed the depth stop of a larger router plane and the ability to return consistently to a standard depth.

The Lie Nielsen 271 uses the same type of ¼” blade with a square shank and there is a depth stop collar available for that plane, $20 in the USA and £20 here

Using a drill depth stop or a small clamp on the blade would be a quick and cheap way to get a depth stop on the plane but the Lie Nielsen stop looks very easy to use, always square to the blade shank and easy to use hinges or other hardware between the stop and the top of the blade holder to set the depth.

Then it occurred to me I have a box full of collars with a ¼” square hole, old sockets.
I found an old cheap socket, perfect sliding fit on the blade shank. Sockets are hardened, not to the same extent as plane blades and chisels but my drills struggled and I was scared of breaking my M5 tap. Solution, heat the socket red hot with a blowlamp and let it slowly cool to soften it (hence the strange blue colour in the pics).

Result a cheap depth collar.

 

[rxh]

Well done Jim. That's a clever idea.

 

[bugbear]

What's a depth stop for on a hand router?

Surely you set the depth, use, job done?

(this is not a critcism of your implementation, I don't understand what the LN equivalent
is for either)

BugBea

 

[jim_hanna]

What's a depth stop for on a hand router?

Surely you set the depth, use, job done?

(this is not a critcism of your implementation, I don't understand what the LN equivalent
is for either)

BugBear

I must admit I always like to creep up on a final depth cut and not do the whole thing at once.

I liked the idea of being able to set the depth above the plane with the depth stop with the plane sitting full contact and stable on the bench. To me this is preferable to sliding a bit of metal underneath the plane close to the cutting edge (which is awkward to sharpen in the first place) and trying to tighten the blade holder while keeping the plane square and level.

I know not everyone agrees, Schwarz’s techniques
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/w...arz-blog/a-router-accessory-you-cant-have-yet
seem to have a Marmite quality (people either love them or hate them) but a few replies did agree with his thinking on his blog concerning a small router depth stop.

Regards

Jim