Wine,
Here’s a good one: http://www.whitemountdesign.com/Stanley45Info.htm Failing that I’m sure Paddy will jump in and offer you his wisdom.
Try to use it on straight grained wood if ya can. Lots easier and works a whole bunch better. Lapping those cutters is a royal pain in the patoot. I made up a jig for it that makes it a whole lot easier.
Have fun with it. I really like mine.
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Replies
The first thing you need to do is polish the backs of every single straight cutter, every single bead cutter, and every single flute cutter. You'll be more than halfway home at that point. Hone the bevels on the straight cutters as you prepare to use them. Get the backs done and out of the way. Trust me.
Here's a link to the PDF you need:
http://www.tooltrip.com/tooltrip9/stanley/comb-planes/45man.pdf
Edited 2/27/2008 4:38 pm ET by BossCrunk
Don't ignore bosscrunk's advice. The 45 is fun if the cutters are suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper sharp.
Anything less ... headaches and frustration.
Hi dan,
Anything less ... headaches and frustration.
Whoa, that's a BIG 10-4! Learned that the hard way.
I made a simple jig to flatten the backs first. It's made out of a short section of 2" x 4" flat & square timber. Laid the 2x4 face side down and made a rip cut on part of the sole, about the thickness of the TS blade (1/8") stopping short of the end so as to leave a heel. Squared it off with a chisel. Made a mortise in the sole to accept a magnet and put a steel screw in the bottom to hold the magnet in the mortise.
Then you can set the blade on the sole and the magnet will hold the blade to the jig and voila! Now you can lap the backs easily. Ever tried to hold those little buggers by hand? No fun at all.
Hey, maybe I should submit this to Methods of Work!
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 2/27/2008 8:09 pm ET by KiddervilleAcres
Bob
Whatever it takes. If they aren't razor sharp.. its just painful to look at tearouts.
When its set its fun.
d
W, this book is a source for the history, patents and a copy of the original user manuals for the #45 and #55, All the best Paddy.
http://www.astragalpress.com/Stanley_combination_plane.htm
Put paper on desk, set #45 on paper, paper will stay put. I couldn't wait to sell mine. (And yes I had all the cutters lapped an honed).
Woodcraft sells a book titled "Planecraft". It is a reprint which covers the line of Record planes (at the time the book first came out it was a great marketing tool). This book is a good primer on using planes and I believe only costs around ten bucks. In it is a pretty good chapter on using the Record #405. The #405 is a copy of the Stanley #45. It seems the #45 or #405 is a plane folks either love or hate. I have the Record #405. I use it as a rabbit plane, plow plane, and moulding plane. I keep the cutters as sharp as I can and have gotten good results with it. If cutting across grain use a knife to score the cut line first, it helps you get cleaner results.
A good topic for us #45/#405 owners would be a list of tricks & traps you've come across using this plane.
I use my Stanley 45 primarily as a plow plane. I own a Tormek sharpening machine so I sharpened and lapped the back of the straight blades with it. The profile blades I honed by hand but still used my Tormek to lap the backs of those blades as well. I found having sharp blades is critical in using the plane effectively. Having dull blades will cause the user to feed too much of the blade into the wood causing a great deal of tear out.
Start by placing the blade into the plane with the blade flush to the skates. Make sure the skates are set at the same width or a shy narrower than the blade. If the skates are set wider than the blade, the plane will jam while being used. Then start advancing the blade just a tad until you start producing a thin shaving. Once you have a nice shaving, lock the blade into place with the brass screw on the side of the body. Next, set your fence to where you want your groove to be in the wood. Make sure your fence is parallel to the body or you will experience chatter as you plane. Lock the fence into place and hold the tool firmly as you use it. Some models of 45’s will have a little screw on the side of the fence which acts as a micro adjuster. I have found this screw to be problematic as it tends to loosen up during use moving the fence out of alignment. Tighten this screw as best as possible without damaging it so it doesn’t loosen during use. Set the depth stop to the desired depth you want your groove to be and lock it tight. The depth stop adjustment is nice but not critical as you can always check the depth of your groove as you plane.
When you plane the wood, start at the front end and work your way backwards the same way as you would a wooden molding plane. You want the skates to track into your groove as much as possible so you don’t fall off course. Continue backward until a shallow groove is created across the work piece. Then start at the back of your groove and plane all the way forward just like a using regular bench plane. Continue this until you’re at the desired depth.
Selection of the wood is also critical as you want to use straight grain wood as much as possible. Curly or knotted grain will cause havoc with your operation. More likely than not, you’ll have to use your chisel to bust through the knots and curly grain will have a tendency to tear on top of the work surface. However once you start your groove, tear out will be less of an issue as the blade will fall into place and continue in groove without any problems. Tear out on the bottom of the groove really isn’t an issue as the groove will hold a panel of some sort and no one will see the bottom anyway.
Using the other blades of the Stanley 45 is where you start to see the planes limitations. Because the 45 doesn't have a sole but rather uses skates to glide over the wood, the wood fibers are not being pressed down prior to the blade contacting the wood. This ends up creating the tear out you so frequently hear from frustrated users of the plane. You can’t really get a nice clean profile using these blades unless the plane is set up perfectly, your blades are razor sharp and the grain is running in your favor. If you plane against the grain you’ll probably end up having massive tear out on your profile. I often end up using my set of hollows and rounds when I need to form curved profiles or I simply switch over to using a router.
So all and all, I believe the Stanley 45 is a nice plow plane but not a great anything else. It may be the reason why Veritas recently introduced a small plow plane without offering any profile blades along with it. They may know it’s limitations as well.
Mike
The Stanley 45 can be quite fun to use. I mainly use mine for the bottom grooves on the drawer sides to accept the bottom. It can be just as quick to do with the plane as it is on a tablesaw so long as you don't have a whole bunch of them to do.
Mine looks good in my cabinet too. Gives me the impression like I really know what I'm doing with wood when people see it. ...ahhh what they don't won't hurt them. : )
Mike,
Course ifn they question your abilities you can always whip out yo 45 an show 'em!
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
You gotta point.. Maybe if they give me a dirty look I'll whip out my Stanley 55 and really show them. Use the both fences at a 45 degree angle... Giddie up cowboy!
If people would just take the time to pick stock that didn't have grain running off the edge and sharpen the cutters they'd have much more success. Standard practice when running mouldings - whether with a 45, 55, or dedicated moulders/H&Rs.
I agree..... stock selection is one of the most important aspects not only in creating moldings but all other forms of woodworking as well. Think about the stength of chair legs or the spindle backs in Windsor chairs. Without proper stock selection paying close attention to the strength of the grain, these parts will split under pressure. I know when I first started woodworking, a piece of wood was a piece of wood. Now that I've gotten better I try to look for grain that will accuate the workpiece. No longer is it a task to see if I can build a piece but for my ability for the work piece to have a voice of it's own.
Try this location
http://www.cornishworkshop.co.uk/combihow.html
Lots of instructions from a multiplane nut, including, if you can find it, a cool video
Malcolm
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