I recently bought a Record 078 fillister plane off eBay which, while complete, was rusty and covered in dirt.

The first thing to do is dismantle the plane as much as possible. Most of it came away freely but I struggled to remove the fence due to the rust. In the end, it required some careful taps using a soft-faced mallet to get it to move enough that the fence bar could be unscrewed.

Once unscrewed, the fence bar can be gently tapped to remove it from the fence.

To remove the rust, all pieces except the body were placed in Evapo-Rust which I’m currently testing. I have to say, so far, Evapo-Rust proving to be great!

While they soak, the body was lapped using sandpaper on a flat surface which removes the dirt and flattens the sole. I don’t think sole flatness is important with a fillister plane but the rust needed to be removed and this was the most efficient way.

The soaked parts were taken out and given a quick wash with water before reassembly. The final result is a nice clean and flat plane.

The plane could be cleaned up further, or even repainted if desired. It is now fully working and clean which is all I care about.

The lever cap on these planes has a guide on the right side which moves shavings away from the body above. I’ve noticed the lever cap sometimes requires adjusting with a file to stop shavings from catching although even a properly set up 78 will clog sometimes, especially when starting a rebate. Always worth keeping something like a pencil handy to clear any clogs.

The plane performs well leaving a very nice finish on a scrap piece of wood I tried.

Well worth the effort of cleaning it up.

The instructions for the Stanley 78 which this is a copy of are available from archive.org. I’ve added a copy of them below to save some time.