Some time ago I
saw a chisel plane (I think it was on e-bay), made from a
Stanley #78 Duplex Fillister and Rabbet Plane.
Now, I'm not one
to just arbitrarily destroy a perfectly good tool, or even a
decently good one. So I spent quite a while looking for the
right #78 to modify. I finally found this one at the flea market
for $3; it had been broken an repaired by brazing. Look closely
and you can see where the tote has been brazed at the sole and
where it curves down to meet the body. This is the condition the
plane was found in, before purchasing it I checked to see just
how badly the sole was out of plane and square. It turned out
that it was fairly close.
Making a chisel
plane from a #78 is a simple matter of cutting the front portion
of the plane off; in this case I used a hacksaw.
And as simple as
that the #78 is now a chisel plane!!!!
I did work on
flattening the sole a little...
As you can see
it's out of flat by a couple of thousandths or so but I don't
think it will affect how well the plane works.
I also decided to
clean the plane up and repaint it...It isn't rejapanned just a
fresh coat of black paint baked on. Here it is finished...
