Reply To: Stanley 45
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My flippant reaction is just do it. You will someday anyway, and they only get more expensive. 🙂
People either love or hate combination planes, depending on what their tolerance for a steep learning curve is.
First off, don’t expect either tool will replace a moving filletster or rabbet plane, though they theoretically perform those functions. The lack of a real sole makes them inadequate to the task.
They work best for beads and where the bottom of grooves, dados, and rebates will be hidden.
The 50 is a lighter tool, but has fewer cutters available for it. It was originally for beading, and other functions were added later.
The 50 doesn’t have a knicker on either side, ( at least the one I had didn’t) so if you want to use it cross grain, you will need to score the work with a knife. And the older 50’s didn’t have a very robust fence.
If you want to use the narrowest blades, make sure your plane comes with the piece for narrow blades. The sliding skate wont hold them.
Also make sure the chip deflector is there or curse the tool.
Wider blades are held with the sliding skate.
Beyond that, there were so many versions of the 50 made its hard to say more.
The 45 is a beefy tool for what it does, and some people don’t like the heft. That said, I’ve seen people who dont like the heft use the secondary moving skate when it doesn’t need to be used at all.
And you will find that you don’t really use all the cutters. I’ve never used the sash cutter, for instance. And only one reeding cutter.
1/4″ grooves, for instance can be cut without that added weight of the secondary fence, and then the difference isn’t great. The 45’s cutters are held in with a rather odd wedge thingy, and some people never seem to get the hang of using it, so for them the learning curve approaches an asymptote.
The tool is fine for cutting grooves up to 3/4″ or so, a bit bigger than what the 50 does well. It also works fine cutting most of the available bead and reed profiles and does quite well cutting both the toungues and grooves for that joint. And with knickers on both sides, it will cut dados cross grain.
It’s pretty useless trying to cut profiles cross grain.
I find combination planes do well if you keep the cutters very sharp and pay attention to grain direction and take small cuts. By that i mean you have to hone the back sides of the cutter to a shine as well as the fronts. Almost nobody takes the trouble to do that, then they complain. I never see sets for sale where people took the trouble.
None of the combination planes have a sole ahead of the cutter or a cap iron, so you need to pay special attention to grain direction or you won’t get good results with any of them. That often means eschewing odd grain patterns. Don’t expect to cut beads in bird’s eye.
I can’t speak to the hollow and round attachments, as I’ve never purchased any. Hollows and rounds are cheaper.
If all you are interested in is grooving, there are lighter planes than either Stanley. The record 044 and the incredibly cute 043 are good tools, but limited in what they do.
So expect there will be a trying entry level experience, but from what I read on the web, there is also a learning Curve with even the new Verites combo plane that copies many 45 design elements ( it will even take the same cutters)
one of the reasons you still see 45’s in great shape and with cutters that look like new is that few people actually took the time to learn how to use the tool effectively. The cutters didn’t come from the factory ready to use.
45’s quite often are missing the spiral depth stop, the beading depth stop, and the slitting cutter. You can get by without all of those.
Try to get the long and short bars, though.
As to whether you need one, well, no. But they are satisfying when you learn to use them. Other planes perform the functions, depending what you already have in your till.
90% of what you use either tool for will be grooves – maybe some beads. The reeds and tongues are a bonus.( you can cut tongues with a grooving plane, rabbet plane, or filletster plane, though more slowly). Expect you may have to clean up rebates with a small rebate plane.
It is possible to instead invest in a few wooden dedicated planes that cut grooves and beads, etc, but you will probably spend as much or more, and they take up more real estate in your tool box. And wooden planes have their own learning curve. Used ones may be beyond their useful life, and new ones can cost hundreds.
The advantage of having dedicated planes is you don’t have to spend much time with setting up for each different use.
You could also make some planes, and there is fun in that as well. And if you are only doing a few beads, look into scratch stocks.