#45 or #55?

Re: #45 or #55?

Ernie Miller

>I have a 45 and it will do most of what you want never played with a 55. but I don't think either one will do moldings. Well you can get a set of H&R shoes for the 45 but you can't aford to use them. so you will need some dedicated woodies for that or some H&R's to do some of the profiles. Most people here will tell you to get both one will get lonely on the shelf with out the other.

Easy choice

Jim Reed @ Tallahassee

>The #45 is lighweight and inexpensive. The #55 is a heavy brute and will set you back some serious coinage. Acquire your #45 and get a 1/8 cutter. It will work so easy that you swear will off power tools. Good luck.

Re: #45 or #55?

Barry Va Beach

>David, there is an article in a FWW book on planes in which the author talking about buying a 45 and after he used it a while he wished that he could move one skate vertically so that he could make certain moldings, and then he found the 55 and realized that such a tool had been made. I have both a 45 and 55. The 45 is fairly easy to use for making gooves of various widths and several sizes of beads. If you look at the profile of the 55 cutters, you will see it is possible to make more complex shapes, such as ogees. See this link http://www.rosewoodandbrass.com/images/55%20Blades.JPG

Unfortunately, the 55 is harder to set up. If you want something to do quick grooves or beads go with the 45. If you aren't afraid of adjusting a bunch of settings, and want the ability to do a passable job of a few other moldings, go with the 55. Barry

Re: #45 or #55?

Ron in Kokomo

>I am using the 45 now to make a frame for a mirror. I have used it before several times, and my recommendation to you is buy and USE the 45 and then you may or may not want to take the next step.

Ron

Re: #46

Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI

>I can't say that I have used my combo planes a lot, and in fact still have not used my #46 any. But when I saw one I had to have one, so now I do. All I have to find is time to sharpen it and the right project. With the cost of energy I am only heating my shop on Saturdays this winter so it may be a while. The big difference between the 45 and 46 is that the blade is skewed on the #46 so in theory it works much better.

Dont tease us like that

Ron in Kokomo

>Get out there in the cold shop and to a test and give us a report. Just kidding but I'd sure like to know what you find out. I'm thinking you'd have to have special cutters for the 46 right. The gometry would be different??

#45 vs #46

Derek Cohen (in Perth Australia)

>They are very different combination planes, with different objectives.

The #45 is geared towards planing a wide range of grooves and beads, and to do so with the grain (it can cut across the grain, but not so well). The #46 is primarily a grooving plane, specializing in cutting dados across the grain. The #46 cannot cut beads (unless you invent blades for this purpose).

I have both these planes, but no experience of a #55 (prefer woodies for mouldings anyway).

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: #45 or #55? *LINK*

Frank D. in Montreal

>I don't have either, but I have a few friends who use their 55s for mouldings and one of them has posted a few pics if you want to take a look (the text is in French but the pics are in English). This was his first shot at using the plane. A bunch of us on that site are getting into combination planes and I have put a 55 on my list (I got a 50 recently):

http://www.lamortaise.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=3775


http://www.lamortaise.com/modules.php?name=Forums&

Nice Translation by Babelfish...

Christopher Fitch@Memphis

>I liked how one line was translated as:

"An orgy of shavings."

hehehe...

I'll have to remember that one.

Too bad my french is VERY rusty and was never good to begin with.

"...the pics are in English." -LOL!

Greg B�tit, Vergennes, VT.

>I see that not only did Stanley make a French version of the #55, but Lee Valley makes French shoulder planes too!

Greg