Stanley 45 and 55 planes

[Joe Fabbri]

Hi guys,

I'm looking into a few Stanley 45 and 55 planes. While, I'm not crazy about having an all in one plane--just for setting up reasons, it might be complicated and bothersome--still they might be a good alternative to looking for many old individual planes, especially old wooden molding planes.

Anyway, does anyone here have experience with these two types of planes, and if so, could you give me your opinion of them please?

One question I have is, regarding the cutting of dados, I see for instance the 45 described as having a dado cutter. But it has no skew to it, so it won't be able to cut a dado really. It will just plow a groove, right?

I've read they are annoying planes, but I've seen them used on youtube, and they seem to work decently. What do you guys think? And what should I expect to pay for a decent one with all the cutters?

It seems for the 45, $100-150 is the going rate.

Joe

[David Weaver]

About the only thing they are practical for is plowing grooves. Find a 45 with all of the bits and pieces (it will help you sell it later when you find out how much nicer a wooden plow is to use).

Make or buy good wooden moulding planes if you want to do mouldings (good doesn't mean new, just means good).

About the only good thing I can say about any of them is that they aren't too hard to sell when you decide you no longer want them, and from time to time you can find a 45 body with a single iron really cheap, cheaper than you can get a decent plow.

For practical purposes, their moulding irons leave you with a lot of work to do (sanding and such) and are too sensitive to wood type and grain direction.

[Erik Manchester]

Joe,

I think that the Stanley 45 and 55 combination planes are best left on the shelf if you are looking at serious use. While they look neat in a collection, and are fun to fiddle with, as David points out, there are better performing options aval with a good set of hollows and rounds or wooden plows. LV makes an excellent small plow plane with all of the excellent engineering and customer support that they are noted for, and wider blade will be available.

For skew cuts, the LV Skew Rabbet Plane is great, and will do a far better job on rabbets than a Stanley 45. They also come in LH as well as RH to follow the grain.

Since you mention the Stanley combination planes, I will offer my opinion that the best one for dado cuts is the 46 with its skew blade. I have a set of new blades from St James Bay and it dadoes really well, though it is a bit of a pain to set up. I actually have three of them set up for 3/4", 5/8" and 1/2" to avoid the adjustment fuss when I need one. The nickers need to be kept sharp but they make nice spiral shavings without any trouble. The planes are easy to find but blades are not cheap, and the skew angle is absolutely critical for proper function.

Were I to do it again, for serious use I would stick to the new products from LV or buy a half set of new H&R planes from one of the noted manufacturers and leave the original Stanleys in the collection.

My two bits.

[Jim Koepke]

I like my Stanley 45s & 55.

They can be a bear to get to work.

If you want to do some moldings, a set of hollows and rounds might be a good start.

The 45/55 is not the best plane for doing dados. They are OK for through dados but stopped dados are easier to do with chisels and a knife.

The real draw back to the 45/55 is that for every job it can do, a dedicated plane will likely do better.

One example is a rounding plane can work a corner and the 45/55 would be difficult if not impossible to do the same job.

You will also find if you start using them, you will want to have a few bodies so you won't always have to be changing the set up.

A big problem with the Stanley multi-planes is most of the blades are not sharp enough to do the job. The beading blades are a pain to sharpen.

One good thing about the #45 is a lot of bodies and parts can be had cheap if you want to put one together.

I think this post will also cover a few other points on the #45:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?116419-Planes-and-a-Few-Things-to-Look-For&p=1176704

jtk

[Adam Cherubini]

Have we talked you out of buying one yet Joe, or must we continue?

[Joe Fabbri]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the response. I figured that you would say as much. Okay, but not great to work with, but the setup is not worth it really. Yes, I think you have talked me out of it.

The Stanely 46 looked interesting, when I was researching it the other day, but as you say finding the old cutters for them will be expensive probably.

I'm going to check out LV, but I guess I'll just have to keep my eye out for individual planes. The regular Stanley 39 dados look interesting and simple enough, as well as the 78 rabbet. I guess if I want metal planes, I should look into those.

Joe

[David Weaver]

The 78 is a decent plane to have around, and it's cheap.

I have never gotten a 39 dado because they are too expensive when I see them, and I already have a few wood dado planes that I don't use (saw, chisel, router plane instead). I'm sure they work fine, they have support in front of the iron.

I have two 46s - just body and fence, haven't used either yet. I didn't get a set of irons, just one iron in each. If I ever feel the need to use them, I wouldn't fret about the irons, you just need one to figure out what the skew angle on the iron needs to be, and then a bit of 1/8th O1 stock and the irons will be *very* easy to make * (they're small and can be heat treated with some vegetable iron and a single small torch. The small size will make them easy to rough out by hand with a hacksaw and a file, as long as you can scribe the metal).

[Harlan Barnhart]

Joe, I use mine for plowing grooves. It's not worth the bother for anything else. I used it once to make tongue and groove joints. I'm looking to upgrade to a proper wooden plow. I keep this one be cause it has a full set of straight irons.

[Don Dorn]

They are a little big and complex for me. I've never tried a wooden one so I may not know what I'm missing, but it sure seems it would be hard to beat my Record 044 for ploughing. I also have a Record 050 and use it primarily for beading, but it works equally well as a plough. For dados, I bought an Anant 39 which is a 1/2". Based on the small sole footprint, I was hoping it would work well enough. It does the job, but I find it better to use a saw, chisel and a 71 for clean up.

[Archie England]

The 55 I wouldn't pay much for, it's a gizmo-thing. And, like others before, the dedicated woodies really work. However, I like and use my Stanley #45. I've got a cheapie plus one in near mint condition with a full set of blades. Cutting grooves with either is a snap!!! Rabbets, skinnier ones at least, work well, too. It's really a matter of technique. Woodies work intuitively; not the 45. Nope, there's nothing intuitive. Thanks to the gracious folks here and at other boards, I've gleaned enough to like the #45. Now, I've never done beading or tongue and groove; but, that just means I can't comment about what I don't know. So, rescue a 45 and make some grooves and rabbets (heck, I like mine tons better than my 78s). YMMV!!!

Arch, near NOLA

[James Owen]

I'm going to go against the flow of this thread.... I own 2 #45s and LOVE them. It is, most certainly, a "play with it and find out what it will do" kind of plane. My experimentation has yielded that it truly is a particularly finicky plane, fiddly to set up, and just all-round cranky. Regardless, it can do a lot of things effectively, if you "treat it right" (not arguing that a dedicated plane won't do any particular function better.....). OK...maybe I'm weird and just like to mess with stuff until I get it to work.....

So far, I've discovered that:

1) The irons are particularly sensitive to sharpness. Sharp(er) = much better results with a #45; even more so than with most other planes.

2) Lighter is better. The #45 seems to be averse to hogging material off. On the other hand, if you set it up for lights cuts (and have a sharp iron - see #1), it does a really fine job of rebating, cutting flutes and beads, cutting grooves, etc.

3) It is a two-handed plane: one to push the plane forward, and one to keep the fence tight against the edge of the wood.

4) Set up is very finicky.....very small adjustments in "_____" make big differences in performance. Play with it and see what it likes and doesn't like.

5) Once you figure out what your particular #45 likes, set up and use is very fast and easy, and a lot of fun, with great results.

Just my tuppence worth......

FWIW, I like the #45 enough that I want to get a #55 and play with that..... (No accounting for taste, eh?)

[Archie England]

Yeah, +1, that's what I meant, too!

[Jim Koepke]

+1 on what James said.

You also need to pay attention that the #45 is following the same path on each pass and is kept at the same vertical angle.

BTW, did James mention the blades have to be sharp?

jtk

[Elmer Nahum]

Here's a link on using the Stanley 55. There are several posts regarding this plane on the site.

http://bringbackthehandtools.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-stanley-55-planemore-than.html?m=1

[Bradley Gray]

Another +1 for James. I also have used my 45 with cutters made from power hacksaw blades for matching mouldings for restoration work.

[John Powers]

"they can be a bear to get to work" that's it, what would possess someone to buy a plane that a reputable guy says that about. I threw mine away. But, if you like endlessly putzing around, buy one.

[Brian Ashton]

I'm going to go against the flow of this thread.... I own 2 #45s and LOVE them. It is, most certainly, a "play with it and find out what it will do" kind of plane. My experimentation has yielded that it truly is a particularly finicky plane, fiddly to set up, and just all-round cranky. Regardless, it can do a lot of things effectively, if you "treat it right" (not arguing that a dedicated plane won't do any particular function better.....). OK...maybe I'm weird and just like to mess with stuff until I get it to work.....

So far, I've discovered that:

1) The irons are particularly sensitive to sharpness. Sharp(er) = much better results with a #45; even more so than with most other planes.

2) Lighter is better. The #45 seems to be averse to hogging material off. On the other hand, if you set it up for lights cuts (and have a sharp iron - see #1), it does a really fine job of rebating, cutting flutes and beads, cutting grooves, etc.

3) It is a two-handed plane: one to push the plane forward, and one to keep the fence tight against the edge of the wood.

4) Set up is very finicky.....very small adjustments in "_____" make big differences in performance. Play with it and see what it likes and doesn't like.

5) Once you figure out what your particular #45 likes, set up and use is very fast and easy, and a lot of fun, with great results.

Just my tuppence worth......

FWIW, I like the #45 enough that I want to get a #55 and play with that..... (No accounting for taste, eh?)

I'm like you on this. Had a 45 from 18 years old to about 30 or so and never had any complaints about it. Moved up to the 55 soon after selling it to a collector for way more than it was worth and again I can't find fault with it. The caveat to these planes is you need a fair bit of woodworking experience and knowledge to get the best out of them. I.e. They work great at ploughing in most woods but if I were going to cut some mouldings with it I would save the best, straightest and finest grained material for that, and make extra because there will be some blow out… Also I probably wouldn't try working hard rock maple or something like that, or gnarly grained woods… You'd probably end up breaking something on it if you did. They also need other planes to compliment them i.e. a set of hollows and rounds to do the bigger sections of the moulding, and then you can make some pretty complex mouldings…

As has already been said your mileage may vary...