stanley dado plane ?

[Jeffrey Larsen]

Good evening:

I have heard that stanley 46s are great planes for doing dados. With this in mind, I just purchased one for probably way too much money; Ah well.

anyway--Any woods of wisdom on this machine vs stanley 39 or stanley 45? do they have differeing capabilities?

I have one 46 with all the cutters, a 45 with all the cutters, and a 3/8 inch 39? Of course, in terms of options, I have a back saw and stanley 71.

Insights, please?

Thanks, Jeff

[Mike K Wenzloff]

Hi Jeff--no words of wisdom...congrats on the #46. It is a better user plane than the 39 series, which while they work great are a bit harder to place the forward hand on. Shows up after a few dadoes--that forward hand gets sore!

Stopped dadoes are a task for the back saw and #71 and it sounds like you're all set there. The #71 in conjunction with the back saw will do stopped rebates--and it helps to use a brace or power drill to bore out the stopped in in either stopped rebates or stopped dadoes.

The #45 is a good plane for rebates and both simple moldings and wasting wood in prep for dedicated molding planes (wood ones). Doesn't do dadoes well at all.

Take care, Mike