Depth of cut on a Stanley No 50
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16 September 2013 at 3:45 pm #18914
Hi All
A while back I bought a Stanley No.50 from eBay. Seems to be pretty much perfect. Very little use, all the blades and fences etc. seem to be there. Anyway, having had a ‘play’ with it a while ago and didn’t do very well, I gave up in frustration. Anyway, as often happens when you give up trying and leave well alone for a while, an idea as to what I was doing wrong popped into my mind. Sure enough, the penny had dropped and was able to achieve lovely fine shavings with the blades I’ve sharpened (cutting rabbets). With the addition of an additional (supplementary) fence the tool now works great.
One question I have though is around depth of cut. I know there is a depth stop fitted, but even with this removed or at it’s highest (away from the surface of the wood), it doesn’t seem able to cut more than about half an inch deep. Does this sound about right or am I doing something wrong? I would have though it was possible to go a fair bit deeper than that, but maybe not?
Any ideas?
Thanks
Jon16 September 2013 at 4:56 pm #18920Thanks Ken.
I just went and double checked the max depth that I have been able to achieve and it’s exactly 1/4″. Not sure how I’d get another half an inch out of it. I could squeeze out another 32nd maybe by physically removing the depth-stop from its housing. That would only give me the depth of the depth-stop foot i.e. about a 32nd.
The only thing I can think of it lowering the blade further below the bottom of the skate. The way I have it now I get a really nice smooth shaving, lowering it further would expose too much blade I think.
How do you manage to get down further? 1/4″ doesn’t seem anywhere near enough to be useful, especially for cutting shoulders.
Cheers
Jon16 September 2013 at 9:51 pm #18943Thanks Ken. That would seem about right then. Think I might need to look at a shoulder plane to get things a bit deeper on the old rebates. I was looking at one of those quangsheng shoulder/block planes recently. Have you ever used them?
Cheers
JonHi Jon, yes I do have one, they can be quiet useful at times. I like to use the RECORD 778 REBATE PLANE buddy, not bad on price.
http://secondhandtools.co.uk/new-woodworking-allied-trades-tools3.htm
Cheers
Ken
hello sorry to intrude in on your thread.
I am new into woodworking and I too have bought the Stanley number 50.
I have bought it to be a sort of early birthday present and have been trying to use it. The idea was to replace my electrical router with fence and table and extraction system which I obviously cannot use late at night.I am having trouble to set it up properly and trying to use it now has been a frustration so far.
1 the first problem I have is when I try to cut rabbets is that the skates seem to wander off toward the side of the fence. I can start up a groove nicely but when going deeper I find that the plane is shifting towards the left of course not making my rabbet straight and it’s nearly impossible to correct this later on.2 when I have sharpened the chisels according to Paul’s convex camber method which works fine. (I can have them cut paper or fingertips very easily) I discovered that after setup in the plane the cutting edge was no longer presented to the wood. So I ended up creating a much shallower angle (about 25 deg. as opposed to the 35 deg. originally).
It sort of works now but the cutter does not seat properly, there is some play in the back of the groove. The effect is that the cutter is moving when shaving so when you start with a very shallow setting it actually digs into the wood which is makes it very hard to get thin shavings.3 I have tried to use the spurs to aid in the tracking of the plane. but the problem is the spurs even when sharpened they sit proud off the skates. this means the groove I cut is actually wider than intended.
4 I would like to use the plane for cutting a tongue and groove. as you can imagine I then have a combination of the problems above.
I saw some YouTube videos where somebody I used a 45 plane to do this and it really seemed very easy. I later found out that my boards were too thin they were 18 or less millimeters of thickness where they should be three quarters of an inch which means 19 or more millimeters.In all it appears that I have a very frustrating birthday present right now. I can find a lot of tutorials on how to setup a normal plane but there is very little information on how to setup a combination plane like this.
I am by no means an expert and I am seeking advice on how to proceed. I would like to turn this into a user but I am afraid that I might ruin it trying in the process.
Would you be please be so kind to share any tips on how you set it up so you can get it to work properly. I thank you in advance.Diego
19 October 2013 at 2:11 am #20142All I can do is offer how my No.45 works. The maximum depth of cut I can achieve with the No.45 is 11/16ths of an inch. There is three depth stops on the plane body of the 45. There is one on the trailing end of the plane that also can accept the slitting cutter. This one should be removed. The skates should support the underside of the cutting iron. The cutting iron should sit proud of the skates. If you retract the iron always go more than required then advance and take up the slack to prevent the iron from shifting.
To achieve parallel consistent grooves and rabbets, I always start my cuts at the front end of the work piece and progressively work backward until I get full length shavings. See one of the pictures below it is the one with #1 through #6. I never use the scoring spur. Pardon the super amateur pics. Pic #429 is the depth stop that should be removed.
Hope this helps.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.19 October 2013 at 5:15 am #20154I did some research and the No. 50 is a totally different plane than the 45. I was getting confused between the No. 50 and the No. 55. The smaller width irons on the 50 require a holding screw. Disregard my previous post if you wish. Sorry I couldn’t help with this one.
Dan, thank you for your reply I will post pictures later when there is more light. Right now it is dark here in Belgium…
Timothy,
thank you for your replies. I do realize that yours is a different than mine however did you need to do anything to set up the skates ?
Mine has some unevenness on the bottom side of the skates, the part that touches the wood I was thinking I would need to grind it down so we get a smooth underside.
I will try to post a picture of it later on
thank you Diegookay the Sun is up so I got to taking some pictures
sorry for the crappy quality but they were taken with the cam of my pad
the first three pictures show the space between a 1/4″ cutter and the body, hopefully they are detailed enough so you can see what I mean.
If I ajust just the cutter so the backside sits flush with the main body I find that I have less problems creating a groove. but there is still a tendency for the cutter to move inside the plane so after a while I have to readjust which seems rather difficult and useless to me if you want to use this tool properly.the last pic shows the underside of the skates for Timothy especially in the bottom side of the picture you can see the effect that I have on the whole of my skates.
I am thinking of sanding that a little to get a smooth sole just like you would do on a normal plane.I can see that the plane has not been used very much so I suspect that the original owner had the same kind of problems that I am facing now. only I am a little more persistent in getting it to work properly…
thank you people for looking at this
diegoAttachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.19 October 2013 at 3:24 pm #20166You could dress the bottom of the skate if you wish. My No. 45 didnt require this. I would avoid grinding it down. Maybe a few light passes over some 220 on a flat surface to remove the machine marks. Any more than that may compound the problem you are trying to remedy. I myself am not too familiar with the No. 50. So I can’t really help in regard to the cutter adjustment of this particular plane. As I have stated above start your cut at the front of the workpiece as one would with any plane equipped with an integral fence/guide.
Bare with me a couple days, I have an old 45 and a 50 I just got. I’m going to give it some test runs to see what the difference is between the two planes.
I have a question with the skates.. Are the skates moving causing the blade to shift or are the skates wondering away from the shoulder of the rebate causing the rebate not to be square the bottom…
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