Hi All,
I have owned my Stanley 45 for very close to 50 years, and have hardly used it. However, I used it again the other day, and really like using it. I haven't used it much because I have not had a place to do much woodworking, other than carpentry projects, for most of those years.
When I did woodworking projects, I seldom, if ever, did anything that needed the 45. I used other tools primarily. I only used the 45 when it was the only way I could figure out to do a particular task on a project. When I did use it, it was always as a fillister plane, and that was the use I put it to Monday.
I needed to cut a rabbet on a threshold I was making for our back door, and needed to add a rabbet to one side to compensate for a difference in floor height. The rabbet had to be about 7/16" inch deep, but had to vary in width from about 1/4" on one end and 9/16" on the other, and it had to taper that way because if I had cut the rabbet 9/16" wide for the length of the rabbet, it would have made the part of the threshold very weak at the 1/4" end. I had previously cut the rabbet to a constant width of 1/4", but soon figured out it needed to be wider at one end.
I was having trouble figuring out a good way of doing that. I thought about using my table saw, or other power tools, but thought about the 45 and decided that it would be the simplest set up. I used a batten to set the width of the rabbet, retracted the nickers, set up the tool with a 3/8" iron and went at it. I had trouble keeping the plane riding on the shelf it was cutting at the narrow end because the width there was almost zero, so I cut that end with a sharp chisel, but the 45 cut the rest of the rabbet cut extremely easily. I have enjoyed using the 45 a lot, but just never needed it much, and again only used it when I could not figure out an easier, or any other way in fact, to do a step in a project than to get out the 45.
At any rate I really like using it, and look forward to using it a lot more once a shop is built and I have most of the remodeling of our current house is basically done.
How about you, what projects have you used it for when no other good solution to a woodworking problem showed up? On the other hand, what type of woodworking task do you use your Stanley 45 for?
Thanks and regards,
Stew