Quick Stanley 46 question

[Kory Cassel]

Hi, I just got my set of reproduction blades from St. James Bay yesterday, and the sliding section skate does not make contact with the back of the fiillister blade. There's a gap. Is this the way it's supposed to be? This is my first fenced plane and I know nothing about it. Please excuse the horrible pictures.

[Rob Luter]

Following....

i have a #46 (sans blades) and have been thinking about ordering a set.

[Mark Rainey]

Kory, the blade is supported by the body of the plane - the sliding skate does not contact the blade. How about some better pics

[Mark Rainey]

My Stanley 46397699

[Kory Cassel]

Thanks Mark, I was afraid to try it out if the sliding skate was supposed to support the far corner of the fillister. I try to get some better light for pics, but I'm using an old iPod touch so no promises.

[Bill Houghton]

The sliding section, at the mouth opening, would only ever support one width of blade if it had been engineered to do so, since the blades slant relative to the body and the fence rods are at 90 degrees. If you compare the blade bed on the 46 to that on the 45 or 55, there's a lot more support for the blade on the 46 because of this.

I own a couple of No. 46 bodies, but none of them came with blades, so I can't answer the question of whether the sliding section supports the widest blade - maybe someone with a full set knows the answer to that.

Just be grateful that Stanley didn't engineer some complex arrangement that slid the rear section of the sliding section back and forth to support the blade - if they had, probably every No. 46 you could find would have parts missing from the sliding section rendering it unusable!

[Kory Cassel]

Best I can do at the moment. And sunset walking back from the shop.:)

[Kory Cassel]

Hi Bill,

Don't I know it. I was despairing at finding the little screw nicker for the skate for a second, until I found a great parts guy on ebay.

[Kory Cassel]

Yeah Rob, I bought it mostly on strength of Patrick's Blood and Gore. Something about it planing dados around the 45/55. I was looking into a wood plough and then considering one of the more complex combo planes when I read the type study. Seems like it might work out. I'll let you know.

[Mark Rainey]

Nice sunset Kory. I put my 1 3/4 blade in my 46 & even that did not touch the skate...there is still a 1/3977073977088 inch gap

[Kory Cassel]

Thanks again Mark. That's a relief. I was a bit thrown by a users guide I read online that said 'the sliding skate along with the main section form the bed of the fillister'. I guess that meant sole. I was worried for a second that I had a mismatched sliding section.

[Kory Cassel]

So playing around with the 46 this morning and the palm router is officially retired from through rabbit and groove duties in pine! The learning curve was not nearly so bad as I expected.

A few hiccups: 1 the slitting depth stop has to be removed...DUH! 2 that little arched handle does my gnarly old gorilla fingers no good. I ended up wrapping my thumb around the front fence rod and pressing my fingers into the side of the fence. 3 I didn't pay attention to the above post that I wrote about the fillester sole. My first rabbit with the fillester blade was a disaster because I pushed the fence past the sliding skate and the plane had no support on that side of the blade. After I noticed it I scooted the skate over just past the fence to give the plane a sole and Miracle of Miracles...it started cutting like butter. Smooth, perfect spills piling up in my hand.

It took all of 10 minutes to really start liking this plane!:D

[Kory Cassel]

Rob,
The set I got from St James Bay is looking like a really good buy.

There are signs that it is small-batch production. The sizes punched into the blades are in inconsistent locations. The cutting edges were not all ground to the tip, some will cut straight out of the box, some are quite blunt and need a good bit sharpening.

But I'm very satisfied as the bevel and skew angles are all perfect The blades arrived well oiled with not one flaw or speck of rust to deal with. And compared to collecting a vintage set one at a time they were a lot more affordable. One vintage blade I still might buy is the 1/4" tonguing blade. The St James Bay reproduction does not come with the depth stop like the original.

[Bill Houghton]

Kory,

I've got a Stanley 46 that needs cleanup; you're motivating me to do just that (and get cutters), when time permits!

Incidentally, this is a rabbit:
397797

What you're making with your plane is a rabbet:
397798
If you were British, you'd call it a rebate, but in the United States, that means getting money back.

[Kory Cassel]

Bill
Yeah, I had read something about our usage in the States deriving from the Scottish rabbette. Rabbit, rabbet, rebate, step. LOL. I really love watching the backsaw guys get hotted up about the British calling every type of backsaw a 'tenon' saw. Hilarious!

Thanks.