Thread: what is a FILLETSTER cutter?

It cuts rabbets, the others cut grooves.

Yep, "fillet" is just another name for a 'rebate' or 'rabbet'. "Filletster" is also spelled without the T, i.e., "fillester" by some....

Then there are "side filletsters" and "sash filletsters", the difference being one has a fence attached under the sole for planing rebates on the near side of the workpiece & the other by bars/rods/wooden screws so it can reach over the workpiece to plane the rebate on the far side.

Wot's in a name, eh?

Cheers,

Originally Posted by raffo

It cuts rabbets, the others cut grooves.

thanks raffo

Originally Posted by IanW

Yep, "fillet" is just another name for a 'rebate' or 'rabbet'. "Filletster" is also spelled without the T, i.e., "fillester" by some....

Then there are "side filletsters" and "sash filletsters", the difference being one has a fence attached under the sole for planing rebates on the near side of the workpiece & the other by bars/rods/wooden screws so it can reach over the workpiece to plane the rebate on the far side.

Wot's in a name, eh?

Cheers,

so its just a marketing thing to call the widest one a filletster cutter and the others by a different name.
fair enough.

thanks

Originally Posted by forunna

so its just a marketing thing to call the widest one a filletster cutter and the others by a different name.....

Well, sort of. According to my book the 45 evolved from the 50 (the first "combination plane" which in turn was an evolution from the 41, the 'Miller's Falls patent plow', which was the first metal plough Stanley offered. The transformation from plough, with a single skate for a sole , to something with additional support for doing mouldings, happened in stages to get something that was practical & not too cumbersome to set up. Over time, extra blades were added as Stanley's chief designer of the day dreamed up new uses for the things.

Back in the day, they made more of a distinction between the capabilities of rebating planes, I think. We are used to versatile rebate planes like the 78, which can cut rebates on either the left or right side of a board because the the blade is the same width as the sole, so the plane can sit with just a bit of the sole on the work when cutting a rebate narrower than the blade width, on eithger side of the board being stuck. I'm not familiar with the 45 - I suspect it can't cut a rebate on the fight side of a board with the fence running against the left, or do so very clumsily, so it is really a filletser or fillister, and calling the blade a 'fillitser blade' just makes that distinction???

And if you can set the 45 to cut either side, my explanation is wrong (again).

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

And if you can set the 45 to cut either side, my explanation is wrong (again).

Yeah... sorry Ian! You can set the fence on a 45 on either side; and the 55 has a fence on either side anyway. Pretty sure the RH depth stop can be popped into the beading stop position on the LH skate too; I'm not at home to check though. Technically you can use the plane left handed too but it would be bloody awkward. The Record 778 also allows the fence to be used on each side, but you do lose the nicker and depth stop.

In my view the history and evolution of these goes something like this:

First was the humble rebate plane; a fairly simple design that would be guided by a batten and followed a knife line. Variations included making the bottom wider to increase cut width while keeping the weight down.

Wooden rebate plane.jpg T rebate.jpg

Next came the fillester plane; wide bodied with a nicker and fitted with a movable fence and depth stop.

Fillester.jpg

Closely followed by the sash fillester; with the depth stop and nicker moved inboard of the fence. This allows a rebate to be cut parallel to another edge.

sash fillester.jpg

Stanley etc by then had introduced metallic beading and plough planes with a fence, depth stop and different widths of blades so adding a wide cutter to make it a rebate/fillester plane was a no-brainer. By adding spurs they then gave them the ability to cut trenches or dados. Adding a tongue cutter then turned the plane into a match plane for T&G boards; and all of these are apparent on the Stanley 50 and clones.

The 45 was the rich man's version of the 50 with wooden handles, better depth adjustment and a fence with a wooden face with fine adjuster; but it's only major improvement was to give the ability to act as a LH sash fillester (by allowing the fence to swing to the other side) and the addition of a sash cutting iron. Other than that there's not much more a 45 can do that a 50 can't unless you delve into the special extras that were offered such as additional sizes of beading cutters, "hollow & round" bases, reeding and fluting cutters and a LH sash cutter.

Thanks for putting me straight Chief, though I think we are talking at slightly cross-purposes. I was talking about cutting a rebate on the right hand side of the piece as a sash fillister does, when you don't shift the fence to the other side of the plane, the whole idea is to keep the fence running against one side of the workpiece only, so that for example, the sliver of wood remaining between the two glazing rebates is parallel, making it easier to cut any necessary joins.

You can fit the fence either side on a 78 too, of course, you don't have to find a 778 to do that, but as I said, the 78 doesn't have a nicker on the near side, nor a depth stop, so it's not a 'real' sash fillister.

Thanks to Stanley's frog-in-a-bottle numbering system, the 45 was born after the 50 so the 45 is an "improvement", but the cynic in me tends to agree with those who say the Stanley combination planes all promised far more than they delivered. I think that's partly because you need to spend a bit of time getting a good understanding of the tools to make them really sing. Most people simply don't take the necessary time to figure out how to get the best out of them, and often give up in disgust. Several times in my career, I've read someone's opinion that that's why so many combination planes are found in virtually unused condition, with the cutters showing no sign of ever being honed.

Of course there are exceptions, FWW had an article on the 55, the mother of all combos, in a very early edition, written by a devotee who knew how to get them to dance, judging by the intricate mouldings he produced with one. It made me lust after a 55 at the time, but I didn't have the means to indulge by a long shot (& you could probably pick one up in the 70s for a tenth or less of what you'd part with today!). In retrospect, it's probably a good thing I could never afford one, I doubt I would/could use it to its full capacity, and since then, I've picked up enough one-trick moulding planes to satisfy my modest needs, so I reckon I've saved myself a deal of trouble trying to figure out how to get a 55 to do what I want.....

Cheers,
Ian

thanks for the discussion people. I am hoping to use mine for some fancy picture frames. We shall see if I live up to that.