Dimensions of Stanley 46 Cutters

[Phillip J Allen]

Dimensions of Stanley 46 Cutters


I just purchased a Stanley 46 plane with no cutters. Before I drop ~100$ on some very nice reproduction cutters I was thinking of trying to make a few myself. I have some 1/8th O1 steel that I bought for making some custom cutters for my 45 & 55.


I have read that the long-side angles are ~20 degrees and the lower/short side angle is ~29 degrees.


Does anyone have the dimensions of original 46 cutters? How long are they? I know the length isn’t critical since there is no fine-depth adjustment like on the 45/55 but I would like them to match any originals I might get in the future.


The 1-1/2 inch filletster cutter has a curve on the upper left side. Does anyone have the approximate dimensions of that? I assume that cut-out curve is to accommodate the skate and/or fence?


Regards,


Phil

[Jim Koepke]

Howdy Phil,

One of my spur of the moments purchases was of a Stanley #46 that had been through a fire. It came with one blade. If it can be found I will try to check the angles and other measurements.

For me the depth adjustment on planes like this is done with the fingertips against the plane body. After a while one can get pretty good at rolling the fingertips to either advance or retract the blade minute amounts. Thought the length isn't critical, there is a window between too short or too long.

I have no idea about the curve, but you might try looking at:

http://www.supertool.com/

This is the first page of Patrick Leach's web site. There is a lot of interesting links on the first page, what you want is Patrick's Blood and Gore. Read the shotr statement of use, then "Click Here To Proceed."

His history is interesting but what you want is at the bottom of the page, "Planes #46 - #54."

Top of the page is the #46 with images. It might be possible to extrapolate a the measurements for the bade cutouts from the image.

The cutouts look be vary slightly based on blade size. They also look to be more elliptical than round.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

Found the blade, it appears to be a parallelogram with the sides at about 65 or 66º.

The length of my cutter is approximately 3-1/4".

You might also check the slot on the main body and the sliding section to determine the angles.

jtk

[Phillip J Allen]

Jim,

Thanks, So your blade is just a bit shorter than the 45/55 blades (~3-3/4 inch).

Maybe later this week I will begin filing this week.

regards,
Phil

[bradley hannum]

Hello Phil;

I scanned my 46 cutters alongside 2 rulers that might help in determining the measurements you need. I tried to keep everything full sized but in converting from a high res scan into PowerPoint and then to a resized PDF file (hopefully attached here) things might have shrunk or grown a bit. I added the blade chart from Patrick's website onto the scan. Hope this all helps.

Brad

[Phillip J Allen]

Thanks everyone for your assistance.

I just finish yesterday making my first 46 cutter. It is a bit over 1-1/4 inch wide dado blade. I started out with some 1-1/2 wide O1 1/8 tool steel I bought to make some 45/55 blades in the "future". It seems to work well after hardening, polishing and cutting a bevel.

But to all the Stanley 45/55 users a note of caution: Do not sweep the shavings out from the 46 with your FINGER! The blade and angled and you will cut your finger. Uses a small wooden stick!!!! .......Yea I did that......

Phil

s46_blade01_rough_cut.jpgs46_blade02_edge20deg_fileguide.jpgs46_blade03_lower_angle_marking.jpgs46_blade04_finale_shape.jpgs46_blade04_first_cut.jpg

[Jim Koepke]

Good show Phil.

But to all the Stanley 45/55 users a note of caution: Do not sweep the shavings out from the 46 with your FINGER! The blade and angled and you will cut your finger. Uses a small wooden stick!!!! .......Yea I did that......

For me a 1/2 - 1" paint brush works fine. One has the bristles cut short to make it a bit stiffer.

jtk

[jim hanna]

I recently bought a Stanley 46 without cutters.

I wanted to make some metric sized cutters so I had to make some calculations to get the starting square stock size for a particular cut width.

The spreadsheet values I used (with square stock sizes for both inch and metric sizes) are at
http://www.woodworkforums.com/f152/s...cutters-219892
The values shown are for 3mm thick steel stock, the cl chamfer loss figure will be slightly larger for 1/8 thick stock (1.16mm instead of 1.09mm)

I also made a match cutter depth stop for the 46 (on the same thread)

Regards

Jim

[steven c newman]

There seems to be a problem with some #46 planes.....the sliding skate does NOT touch a cutter..unless the skate is way out to the end....might want to check?

[jim hanna]

There seems to be a problem with some #46 planes.....the sliding skate does NOT touch a cutter..unless the skate is way out to the end....might want to check?

I thought all #46 planes were like this. The sliding section skate doesn't support the smaller blades, they're skewed so the edge of the blade is at a different distance back depending on the width of the blade. The sliding skate would have to be adjustable forwards and back to touch all the blades.

Am I wrong, did some #46 planes have a movable sliding section like the #55 ?