Thread: Special hollow and round bases for a Stanley 45 / Record 405 AND a Stanley 55

Special bases for a Stanley 55


Knowledgeable readers will be shaking their heads. Stanley made special hollow and round bottoms for the 45 and Record the same bases for their 405 copy of the 45 but there were never any special bases for the Stanley 55.

True but below is a metal Record base on my 405 and the same base ready for use on a Stanley 55
Also a home made wooden special base number 8 which will fit either a 405 or 55.


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I should add that I did not modify my Stanley 55 to mount the Record 405 special base. I didn’t have to change either the 55 or the base in any way, the same technique will work for all of the larger special bases, no 6 special bases might have clearance problems.


I have a few bases for the 405 but am missing the number 8 set. I’ve given up on finding these so I began to think about making my own wooden set. After all a wooden hollow or round plane is just a blade holder with a profiled bottom. With the 405 body I have the blade holder so I needed a shaped base.
While thinking about the possibilities I made a kerfing blade for the 405(here) and then adapted the same blade to work in the 55( here).


That let me see that the rear bar and the blade holding mechanism in both planes is similar so I slipped a Record special base onto the 55 rear bar.
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Now I was really interested, the special base sat exactly the same as on the 405, everything but the front bar is the same on the 45/405/55 planes.


The solution seemed obvious, I needed a spacer bar with two holes to bridge the gap and a short length of rod to hold the special base to the spacer bar. Of course this sounds easy in theory but multiple circular connections could prove unworkable in practice.


I made a spacer from 20 x 10mm solid bar. I marked and drilled one bar hole the correct size (25/64 and I was lucky to find a drill that size or I’d have had to drill smaller and file to size), put a special base on the 55 rear bar and aligned it correctly. The front bar of the special base went into the spacer block and I marked through the front bar hole of the 55 with a drill point for the second hole on the spacer.

I didn't want to be dependent just on the screws against the bars so I found an easy way to lock the spacer in place.


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Trying it on the 55 it was rigid enough to use when the screws were tightened but to fix it more rigidly I drilled a hole at the front of the spacer and use a bolt to locate in the recess at the front of the 55.
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I scribed the spacer above the 55 body and used this mark to get the position for the locating bolt. The bolt nose slots in here(red circle in pic, ignore the coin) to lock the whole thing rigid.
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I needed a short length of 25/64 rod between the spacer and the special base. I can’t just use one of the short rods, still too long and would foul a close fence.

25/64 drill stock isn’t easily obtained locally but 25/64 is 9.92mm
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I found a 10mm rod in my parts bin. I chucked one end in a drill and held a piece of 80 grit paper around the rod. Ten minutes got me a sliding fit in the plane. I didn’t sand for that time, most was waiting for the rod to cool so that I wasn’t misled by the thermal expansion.


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The result is that with a simple spacer I can use my 10 and 12 hollow and round bases (or the nosing base) on the 55 as well as the 405. If at all possible I like to leave a plane set-up and not change fence positions or depth stops while I’m working on a project, so it’s better to have more versatility in being able to use my bases (or kerfing blade) with either the 405 or the 55.


I trimmed my short bar length to accommodate the 405 nosing tool and then with this base fixed in position I put a straight edge across the three bars, they’re co-linear which will help in lay-out when drilling a single top rail to fit both planes.
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Stanley could easily have made special bases which would fit either the 45 or 55, all that would have been needed was another front bar holder just over 15mm further forward, everything else would be the same.


So to the main point of all this, making a wooden special base which will fit either a 405/45 or a 55.


The special base has three elements, a hardwood top bar drilled for the bar holes and tapped for fixing screws against the bars.
A support between the top bar and the base (I used ply).
A profiled wood base
For the bases I used a couple of bits of birch. The bottom of the base has to be able to fit below the skate so after cutting the profile I made a rebate to fit the skate as shown in the pics. Once on the plane the base is adjusted in or out to locate the blade relative to the profiled bottom correctly so the depth of the rebate for the skate isn’t critical, just needs to be deep enough to allow this.

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I’m lucky I have the appropriate blades for a number 8 hollow and round special base as part of the 55 blade set and could use these to cut the bases but the lack of these isn’t an insurmountable problem.


If I hadn’t had the 55 blades I would have found a dowel the correct diameter, trimmed down the edges and then used this with a bit of sandpaper wrapped round it to make the hollow profile in my base. Once this hollow base was on the plane and the blade slot was cut I’d then have put a bit of tool steel protruding through the base and marked the profile. File the rough circle and then make the bevel by clamping the blade at 30 and use sandpaper round the dowel, easy to maintain the correct profile since the dowel is always held horizontal.
I don’t have pics obviously since I didn’t need to do this but I did use a similar technique when I made ovolo blades for the 405.


Cutting out the rough shape and then making the bevel.
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The centre blade is a Record original, the outer two are home made.
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Heat treating O1 tool steel after shaping is easy, my post on blade making for a 46 (here) shows a simple set-up with a blowlamp, a brick and a oil container.


Once you have a hollow base and blade then use this to make the round profile for the matching round base. And use a piece of sandpaper on the hollow base to shape the final profile and bevel on the round cutter.






Having shaped the bases the construction is simple enough. Mark a centreline along the top bar, drill one 25/64 hole in approx the right position for the rear bar. Slip this onto each plane in turn and mark the two front bar positions.
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Drill the two front bar holes and drill and tap the top for the fixing screws. After tapping I put some superglue on the threads to harden them a bit.

Glue to the plywood spacer and then drill the bar holes through the plywood.


Glue and clamp the base to the ply with the right hand side of the base below the skate and the rebate against the skate.


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The skate is used to mark the blade slot.

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I had planned to make an initial saw cut slightly away from the line and then use a mitre jack and long paring chisel to try to cut exactly to the line so that in use the base helps to support the blade. However this bed for the blade, while essential for support in a wooden plane, is probably not as important in the metal body. The blade holding mechanism on the 45 is similar to the 46 which only holds similar sized blades on one side and has no other form of support for the blade.
In the end I just cut slightly away from the lines with a small dovetail saw, the waste chopped out easily with a small chisel and I did final fitting with a wide chisel and a straight file with a safe edge against the ply.
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I did have to seat the outside blade edge into the ply in the round base to allow the blade to centre in the profile,just a couple of saw cuts with the dovetail saw and then cleaned out with a small 1/8 chisel I previously made for small lock fitting. This was a bit of tool steel I’d originally intended as a plough plane blade for a 043 but it got repurposed as a small chisel.


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I now have two wooden number 8 special bases which work on both the 55 and 405.


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I probably should get some knurled head bolts for the bar fixing screws, the screwdriver adjusted bolts work ok but hand tightened bolts will be a bit more convenient.


The only critical bit was making sure the bar holes are drilled square, if they aren’t square then the base will bind on the bars. I checked for squareness after drilling by sliding the wood bar onto the plane and checking that the fence would slide on after it without binding.

Result, home-made number 8 special bases which can be used on either a 45/405 or a 55.
Also the metal Record hollow and round 10 and 12 bases (and the nosing tool) can now be used on the 55