Cap iron squirms on Stanley 78

[Nicholas Lawrence]

I just looked at mine, while watching your video. I am not going to post pictures because I think Steven pretty much covered it. My cap is also flat. There is no counter-sink for the lower screw.

On mine the lower screw is extended about twice as far as yours is in the video. In watching your video it looked to me like backing the lower screw out a couple of turns might change the angle and perhaps make a difference when you tighten the upper screw, but I tried different settings on mine and could not get the the cap to slide. Might be worth trying though before you break out a file.

There are also caps listed on the auction site for about $5 (or someone here may have a spare) if nothing else works.

[Richard Line]

I'll pass on the photos I just took - Steven's do it quite well. My 78 is a late model Stanley, probably the same as your's. As with Steven's, there is no counter sink in the cap iron. It may be the slot in your cap iron isn't long enough, but first I would back the lower screw out some more, as Nicholas suggests. The cap iron needs to be at an angle to the blade so that when the upper screw is tighten it bears on the blade near the edge. The lower screw on mine has worn a very slight countersink in the paint.

[Ray Bohn]

This is a totally different application, but the results were the same. I had a new Stanley Sweetheart block plane that did the same thing when I tightened the cap iron. It slid up. When I checked my cap iron with another new one, my cap iron was bent from overtightening or just bent from manufacturer.