Rebuilt the 78 with nice new parts
Stephen Kirk in Quakertown PA
>Stanley Tools was able to send me everything to put the 78 back into service. I had to get creative with the lever cap screw, since the one they sent me didn't fit the lever cap they also sent. No big deal, a few minutes in a hardware isle and a dollar later found an allen head screw with the grooves for hand tighening.
I put it together (even before sharpening and honing), and it did cut. So now I just have to put a real edge on the iron, clean up the sole a bit, and away I go. I've already found uses for it too. I just made some molding for a table. I routed the dados, but sometimes I need to be just 2 or three shavings deeper - hard to do on the router.
By the way, a new lever cap for a Stanley 78 apparently uses a screw that is metric - M6 x 12, 1.00 point (I think some of that is for the hex key part on the screws I got).
A nod to Stanley Tools - they didn't list one part as being in stock, but an e-mail confirmed that they did have it, and they shipped me the whole order, saying to just write them a check once I got the invoice. Customer service was very responsive and fast. I had all the parts within a week (but they say allow up to 10 days). Nice to see service like that these days.