Cleaning up a Stanley 45.

[Rick Barton]

I bought this old girl at a farm auction for $5 and have never done anything with it. It seems a shame not to give it a whirl, so I'm cleaning all the crud off and will sharpen the cutters ect.



Be not deceived by the first photo, none of these cutters are actually sharp.



I think this plane is a type 8, putting it around 1905 or so, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.




Does anyone know if the Veritas plough plane cutters will work in the 45?

[Alan S]

It looks to me as if you have the cutters you'll need, and they are not hard to clean and sharpen.  

If you are itching to take advantage of the current free shipping, note that Lee Valley says you can use 45 or 55 blades in their small plow and combination planes here.  You could ask them if it works the other way around too, but I suspect so.

[bandit571]

Mine is a wee bit newer..
  Roxton Pond, QUE, Canada,  SW Type 20...mid 1920s

   

IF I remember correctly, there is a difference in length between the Stanley and Veritas cutters....

[Bill_Houghton]

People talk about how hard the 45 is to use - I find it pretty straightforward and like mine, to the point that I have two available.

[Rick Barton]

I'll touch base with Veritas and see what's up vis a vis blades. It states that 45 blades can be used in their plane, but doesn't make a claim for the other way around.


What I think I'd like to try first with this thing is tongue and groove work. Anyone have a favorite tutorial or video on how to set up a 45?

[IcecreamLtDan]

Looking forward to this as I recently got one off of Ebay, just waiting for it to show up. The only issue with the cutters that I can think of is the Veritas is indeed a shorter cutter.

[jppierson]

The item next to the adjustable skate is a depth gauge for a miter saw, it clamps to one of the vertical posts that holds the saw using the thumb screw in the middle. You got a heck of a deal on that for $5. On that auction site each blade can go for about that same amount. It looks like all the interior curved edges of your beading cutters are already pretty shinny, so just sharpen by working the back flat sides. If you need to work the interior beads use a slip stone, or dowel and appropriate sand paper or honing compound (like the green crayon for stropping). Some of your straight cutters look a little skewed so there is some work there. Take it a little at a time and have fun breaking in each cutter as you go!

[Tynyyn]

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but my 45 is lousy. I was jonesing for one and when an affordable sample came into my hands I bought it. But once I got it home and put it to wood I found that it was too fussy and fiddly for what is needed. Heck, as much as I hate wood specialty planes, I'd take thirty specialty planes over one 45 with thirty cutters. It's just the time needed to pull the blade out, set up the new blade, dial in the blade and then realize the blade is dull, then you will understand my disappointment with the 45.

Now, if you can get yours to work with minimal fuss, then I tip my hat to you. But mine will make a fine addition to my tools which collect dust.

[bandit571]

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but my 45 is lousy.  I was jonesing for one and when an affordable sample came into my hands I bought it.  But once I got it home and put it to wood I found that it was too fussy and fiddly for what is needed.  Heck, as much as I hate wood specialty planes, I'd take thirty specialty planes over one 45 with thirty cutters.  It's just the time needed to pull the blade out, set up the new blade, dial in the blade and then realize the blade is dull, then you will understand my disappointment with the 45.

Now, if you can get yours to work with minimal fuss, then I tip my hat to you.  But mine will make a fine addition to my tools which collect dust.

Have had zero such troubles with mine.    Have found the single purpose wooden planes to be more fussy, and less likely to HOLD their settings.

[Admiral]

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but my 45 is lousy.  I was jonesing for one and when an affordable sample came into my hands I bought it.  But once I got it home and put it to wood I found that it was too fussy and fiddly for what is needed.  Heck, as much as I hate wood specialty planes, I'd take thirty specialty planes over one 45 with thirty cutters.  It's just the time needed to pull the blade out, set up the new blade, dial in the blade and then realize the blade is dull, then you will understand my disappointment with the 45.

Now, if you can get yours to work with minimal fuss, then I tip my hat to you.  But mine will make a fine addition to my tools which collect dust.

The thing about most any vintage 45 combination plane is they can be fussy to get set up properly at first, and experience and practice setting them up will definitely help smooth that process out.  That being said, once you have one with a full set of cutters (or at least the cutters you would use regularly), orphan 45 bodies can be had for not much dough, and you can leave one set up for, say, drawer bottoms, and have that as a dedicated tool.  I do have the LV small plow and find it excellent but I've not fondled the new LV combination plane, and I'd be interested in doing that to see what improvements have been made over the 45.  And heaven knows when the LN version will come upon us, but I don't think it would be as innovative as the LV given LNs history of sticking pretty closely to the Stanley designs, but I'd love to fondle that one as well and give LN the benefit of the doubt on that score.  That being said, I have absolutely NO use for a 55, if you think 45s are fiddy, the 55 is in a whole 'nother league, which is why every one I've ever seen for sale has been lightly used, with all the parts, etc.