Millers Falls #67 Router Plane

I've thought for a long time that it would be nice to have a second router plane.  But I wanted to hold out until I found one in the wild.  At an estate sale recently, I spied a 1/2" router plane iron, but no router plane.  The guy running the sale said he let someone in early who took the plane.  I gave him the iron so it could be reunited with the plane it belonged to.  But he gave me the number of the buyer, who is a reseller, and might want to sell me the router.  Apparently he just buys stuff at estate sales and resells on eBay or elsewhere.  Long story short, I saw the buyer and bought the plane from him for more than I really wanted to spend - $80.  At least he threw in an old drawknife and a plane blade with it.  I went back to the estate sale to get the 1/2" iron.  And I combed the garage to see if there was a 1/4" iron or any attachments, but couldn't find any.

The router plane disassembled

It was a little dirty, but otherwise in great condition.  Clean-up consisted of a soak in simple green, a toothbrush to clean off old grunge, and some work with a wire wheel in a drill to clean off the hardware components.

All cleaned up

The iron locking mechanism in standard position ...

... or turned around to use with the iron outboard

This router plane has the "open throat" front and it came with a throat-closing attachment.  I don't know if I'll ever find a use for an open throat and will most likely just keep the attachment in place.  And even with that, I'll probably have an auxiliary base on it most of the time.  BTW, the foot of the attachment wasn't even close to parallel with the plane's sole.

I've read that the throat-closing attachment helps when working on thin edges like this

The sole had lots of original machining marks on it, so I worked it on sandpaper for a while.  This also helped get the foot of the throat-closing attachment closer to parallel.

After several passes on the sandpaper.
Note how the throat attachment is also getting flattened.

Complete with auxiliary base

When I sharpened the iron, I had to do some work to make the cutting edge parallel to the sole.  Then I took it for a spin.  It worked nicely - the depth adjustment feels a little different from the Veritas, but I think that will be easy to get used to.

First dado: sides sawn, most waste chopped out
and bottom leveled with the router

I was researching a little about this router plane, so I thought I'd add a little information about it and about Millers Falls.

On the Old Tool Heaven website, the #67 is described as an:

"Open-Throat Router.  Includes an attachment to close the throat for use on narrow surfaces.  Cutter can be reversed for bull nose work.  Earlier models shipped with 1/4" and 1/2" cutters.  Shipped with additional pointed cutter (1/2") and fence by 1949.

• Early production - nickel plated frame (mine seems to be nickel plated)
• Later production - frame is black enameled
• By 1955 - frame is painted gray; hardwood handles are lacquered black"

Some good info on MF on the Collectors Weekly website here.

More to come about this plane: stay tuned.