Improving the No. 75 to mediocre (rambling)
Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA
>Every few months, Wood Central hosts a thread in which we collectively - and rightly - insult the Stanley No. 75 bullnose rabbet plane.
Today, I needed to trim an existing closed (that is, not running all the way through) rabbet on a screen door I'm installing in our houses, so I decided to try my never-really-used No. 75 again. I was immediately reminded that it's very uncomfortable to use, mainly because there's no way to grip it without the top of the iron cutting into your finger, palm, etc.
So I decided to fix this problem by cutting out a maple palm rest and fastening it on with a screw through the back of the body. It took me just a few minutes to trace the shape of the back of the body, guess at a good shape for the rest of the shape, cut it out on the Neanderbuddy, and round off the palm rest area with rasps, files, and a little sandpaper. I recommend laying out the shape in from the end of your piece of wood so you can grip it in the vise, then cutting out the palm-rest area and doing the rounding off first, and finally cutting out the rest of the shape.
The No. 75 in factory trim is not the most attractive tool, resembling a Barsoomian pickup truck. With my added palm rest (below, and I apologize for the fuzzy picture - still learning how to use the digital camera), it resembles a Barsoomian pickup truck headed for the dump with a load of yard waste tarped down - but the rest improves the tool remarkably. I found I was able to use it like a real plane.
It's still not a fine woodworking tool, but it's no longer a paperweight. I recommend this quick fix to anyone who owns one of these planes.
