Stanley 78 vs Record 778 Our impression

During a visit to a friend of mine, Michele, owner of a Record 778 plane, we enjoyed to compare it with my Stanley 78 in order to verify technical differences and performances.Both planes are suitable for cutting rebates up to about 3 cm wide.

Looking to two planes, leaps to the eye the difference between parallel guides. That of Stanley (left ) is supported by only one circular bar , unlike the Record that provides two circular bars support.

In both planes there is  a stop on the right side for rebate depth adjusting.

Another difference  regards the depth adjustment system: The Record 778 has a comfortable wheel for finest regulation,

while in Stanley 78 the task is

provided by a coarser lever, easy to  move downward accidentally during the pushing action , compromising the blade adjustment. The blade sits on the bed with a double contact, on the top and on a machined

area just above the mouth. We measured the extension of this area, important for the good stability of the cutting edge. For Stanley 78 this portion was about twice than the the Record one . If we look  at the two parallel guides more closely, we see that the Record guide has three holes useful for adding an auxiliary  wood fence, important to increase the plane stability while planing . Unfortunately, both guides were out of square (more for Stanley 78)  but for Record 778 the gap can be easily correct,

adapting the auxiliary hard wood fence.

Both planes also have a spur just before of the mouth, for  cutting cross grain  rebates (but we have not tried to). We then sharpened blades with  25 ° bevel and 30 ° microbevel and tried the  planes  on a well flat and square pine board (Michele in the pic).  We not  found very different performances (we even tried to exchange blades to highlight any differences in steel quality ) . The Record 778 seemed to us better prepared in technical solutions , especially for the two supporting bars, the possibility to add a larger hard wood fence and the more accurate  and easy to operate cutting depth adjusting system. However its cost in online auctions significantly exceeds that of  a Stanley 78.

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Shooting Board

The shooting board task is to allow planing a piece square to the surface that rests on the table. There are various models, with different building solutions. The board I am proposing is useful for planing and square end grain sides or to finish a 45° angle, such as is necessary for frame assembling. As the shooting board fundamental characteristic is plan and angle accuracy, using pre-worked material can be convenient.

I used lamellar beech, but plywood is a good alternative. For the base I used a 3 cm thick board, while the plan upon which the

workpiece is held is 2 cm thick. The length is about 60 cm, width about 25 cm. The support board is narrower to make room for the plane side.

After screwing the upper board to the base, I installed two holders (3 x 4 cm section) that will serve for workpiece supporting. Their precise positioning is critical for proper shooting board working. The pieces are screwed flush with the upper board edges and have an elongated hole at the rear to allow a fine angle adjustment. Place the two holders to exactly 90 and 45 degrees respect to the sliding edge. Chamfer the holder rear edges (not that one where the piece rests) in order to prevent their damage when the plane will produce the first shots.

Another holder is placed under the board so that it can be hooked to the workbench and/or locked in the vice. In my case I have used two holders, so I can firmly held the board between the vice and the bench well. A useful operation will be to cut a groove at the plan intersection in order to collect chips and dust and avoiding problems with plane sliding.

The first shots will remove some shavings from the sliding side, but only until the lateral sole portion under the blade will not come in contact with the edge.

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