First Time Use - Stanley 45

[Richard Gillespie]

I have two different editions of the Stanley 45 plane, one I inherited from my father and was told it was his grandfather's and the other was a gift from a neighbor (mini gloat). I don't know which is the older model. The gift one has a floral design on one of the skates and a fine tune adjustment on the fence. My great grandfathers doesn't have either but that's not important to me.

My great grandfather's is in the original cardboard box and seems to be complete though very rusty. The second one doesn't have all the blades and accessories but is less rusted.

I've been trying to build a box out of Ash for the gift plane and had decided to do it with all hand tools. I decided to use the Stanley 45 to cut the dado's for the bottom. As it turned out, my great grandfathers plane ended up being used because it was more complete and the handle is more comfortable because it's sharp edges have been worn down by use.

I sharpened the 3/8" blade I wanted to use as well as the cutters that fit into the skates to define the cuts. I set the fence and the depth gages and tried a test piece on pine. It worked much better than I expected. I remembered the advice that with this style plane you start the cut at at the end and work your way back to the beginning. I then started cutting the dado's in the Ash that I'm using for the box. Three sides went very well but the last one was against the grain and wasn't as easy. All in all, the plane exceeded my expectations.

I've read horror stories on how hard this style plane is to use but I found otherwise. Both copies will now find use in my shop. I'll now have to find the missing pieces for the one. There are some pieces I have no idea what they are for. What are the cam shaped piece and slitter(?) used for? I also understand that the cutters for the style 55 plane can also be used on a style 45.

[Mike Wenzloff]

Well Richard, welcome to the boat anchor society!

There's a How to Manual on Stanley's site in PDF form. Also, the book Planecraft has been reprinted by Woodcraft and is worth the few dollars they charge.

The cam is a depth stop/guide. The slitter can be used to literally slice a piece of wood from a board in place of a saw--and it works fairly well and depending on the wood, is fairly quick.

Mike

[Doug Shepard]

I haven't seen it yet, but my uncle just got hold of a 45. It was his FIL's who passed away quite a while back. Apparently the 45 was in a "special" place and nobody realized it was there for years. So Uncle Dave ended up with it. It's in the original box with all the parts/cutters and supposedly pretty clean. My Uncle's idea of hand tools pretty much stops at screwdrivers so I think I'll be able to borrow it from time to time.

[Mike Henderson]

I'll tell a story here, with apologies to the old tool fanatics.

A professional woodworker friend of mine, who also teaches woodworking, commented to me one time about these tools with a multitude of parts.

“Every now and again” he said “a student comes in with one of those tools and brags about what a great deal they got on it.”

“They never stop to wonder why a hundred year old tool, with so many parts, is still complete.”

“They quickly learn” he continued “the same lesson that everyone else who owned the tool learned. The thing is just so dang hard to use that it gets one use, then goes into the back drawer, never to see light again until it is pulled out to sell to the next enthusiastic buyer.”


Mike Henderson
Tustin, CA

[Mike Wenzloff]

I'll tell a story here, with apologies to the old tool fanatics.
LOL,

Usually there are actually parts missing...could be from being flung against a wall...

But aside from that, they can be used very effectively. In many cases, they are not too effective in less than ideal woods and certainly not as well as the single-purpose wood planes good ol' Stanley sought to replace.

Perhaps the teacher just needed to be taught how and when to use it...certainly how not to over-generalize :) .

[Charles Stanford]

Most of the horror stories emanated, I believe, from the write-up on the 45 and 55 in "Patrick's Blood and Gore."

They work fine if you keep the cutters sharp. I use both the 45 and 55 very effectively in my operation.

The fact that you can buy these complete is testament to the fact that tool collectors, as opposed to users, existed a long time ago just as they do today.

These units can be used effectively and the learning curve is not that steep at all. Yes, you have to learn more about them than where the on/off switch is.

[Roger Nixon]

The #45 is a good and useful plane. I heard the horror stories and was reluctant to try one. Once I used it, I found it easy to set up and it worked well. I have since found most people who have used one like it and the ones who don't like it really haven't tried it. Even Patrick Leach admits it is as good as a wooden plow plane and it will plow larger grooves than the woodies.

[Jerry Palmer]

I've just recently forced myself to use mine, which I've had for a few years. Somewhere on the web I once read that "really sharp" was not a neccesity of the cutters for the 45/55 etc. I can only venture to guess that who ever had said that was in the business of buying them at depressed prices in order to turn a handsome profit. My initial attempts at using mine with not "really sharp" cutters ended in more than one fiasco of tear-out, anger, and frustration.

Once I convinced myself, after having heard/read several postings and articles touting combo planes, I determined that I was gonna make another go of it. First off, of course, I applied my own experience that sharper cutters made cleaner cuts and set about sharpening the straight cutters to arm shaving sharpness (don't try this at home . . . as well as removing arm hair, the smaller cutters, like the close cousins the narrow chisels, also make surgical incisions along either edge which bleed a surprising amount for your not realizing that you've been cut). Once I obtained a level of "really sharp" I found that reading the grain and planning your projects accordingly created very nice clean cuts and with the cutter depth set just right, one could quickly, albeit cleanly, remove substantial amounts of wood in just the right place.

Once I found how well the straight cutters worked when "really sharp" I set about the more tedious task of sharpening some of the other cutters and found them to work much better when "really sharp".

So the next time someone tells you that any sort of cutting iron doesn't need to be really sharp to work, ask him about any bridges he might have for sale.:D

[Bob Smalser]

Most of the horror stories emanated, I believe, from the write-up on the 45 and 55 in "Patrick's Blood and Gore."


Among the many talkative tool collectors these days who don't know much about working wood.

What your Grandfather had that you don't was perfect wood....and apprentices to do the grunt work if he was a professional. These aren't Makita routers....they require tight, crisp, perfectly-straight-grained stock. Try some good H. Mahog and you'll see what I mean here.

Their niche today is duplicating small runs of molding in restoration work...for which they are priceless.



A professional woodworker friend of mine, who also teaches woodworking, commented to me one time about these tools with a multitude of parts...

That doesn't mean that modern cabinetmakers know very much about hand tools, either. ;)