router & plough plane advice

[Bigbud78]

Looking for as router plane and plough plane for impending workbench and tool chest builds, I was looking at the Record 44 and a record or stanley 71. Am I best try to get them with all the cutters and I noticed most of the routers dont have the fence, do I need it ?

Any buying advice would be great thanks

 

[AndyT]

The 44 is fine as a plough. It only has one skate which is fine for narrow grooves but not so good if you want to cut rebates with it. A no 50 is more versatile and might be about the same price.

It's nice to get sets of cutters if you can but you probably won't use them all. There are lots of variations between cutters especially in the position of the adjustment notch but you can often adapt them.

The only time I ever used the fence on my 71 was when I had no plough plane and was using it to cut grooves. If you mostly use it to cut housings you won't need the fence.

 

[Argus]

It's exactly as Andy said in my opinion.

As far as ploughs go, the next size up from the 044 is the No: 50 size. There are very good, complete, boxed and almost unused No 50 planes to be had for around £30 - £40 odd quid and bearing in mind that most of them are in the order of 50 years old at least, represent good value.

Again, in my opinion, The Record version of the No: 50 is far and away a better tool than the Stanley.
But.... if you only need a single, quick, narrow groove, then you can't beat the good old Record No: 043; it's the plough equivalent of a little block plane on the bench.

However, whatever plough plane you buy, it is likely to need a bit of fettling to get it to its best working order.

The same goes for routers. The later Stanley versions (1970s and 80s) featured plastic handles, so again, good condition older ones (pre-war or 1950s) are better tools ......in my opinion!

As with anything else, you may go for a router model with all the bells and whistles and never use them to do more than basic trenching (or dados) across the grain. Personally, I have never needed a fence on one of these routers and only ever use one size of cutter - the biggest.

Over to you............ good luck

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

A fence on the router plane is very handy when you plough grooves on curved pieces ..

Look out for a later model of the Stanley (or Record) router plane that has this feature.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[PAC1]

A fence on a router plane is not essential but it makes the plane far more usable. I think the Veritas model is good value given all the options they have. I bought direct from Lee Valley.

 

[woodbrains]

Hello,

The Record 050 combination plane is brilliant. I got one a couple of months back for 25 pounds, absolutely mint with all cutters, most unused. Being a combination plane, it will plough, bead and do T and G boards. If you do opt for one of these, make sure you get the 050 and not the later 050C with the blue handles. Horrible by comparison. And get the narrow blade conversion with it, if you plough grooves at 1/8 and 3/16 widths. It will be hard to find later if missing.

Mike.

 

[Bigbud78]

Thanks, will see what I can pick up