Stanley 55 - The beast.

I have always been wondering about the Stanley 55 universal (is it?) plane. Based on my readings it looks like a beast that needed to be tamed. So, when I found one for sale for an affordable price, I jumped on the occasion.

The plane came in a wooden box. The box is in good shape and just shows some damage at the top. The lid was missing though.

The Stanley 55 box.

The plane came with a set of 4 boxes of cutters, none was missing. Most of them show no use at all.

The cutters boxes.

I need to figure out how to sharpen/hone few of these cutters like roman ogee as they look not to have been used at all and not very sharp.

The plane itself came with no missing part to my knowledge. I check on manual and online and everything looks to be there.

Overall, the plane is in very good condition. The wood parts are not damaged. A small chip on the tote but this is it. The two fences are good.

One sure thing is that this plane is heavy, but this does not matter for me, I even feel more comfortable that way. Considering the number of moving parts, I guess it takes a while to get used to it and to set it properly, but again, this is a learning curve, maybe longer than with another tool but still not worrying me too much.

 The seller joined a printed copy of the manual so at least I have that reference.

Printed copy of the original manual.

I must admit that people who created this tool were clever. The way it is set, and working, is brilliant, but at the same time it can intimidate for sure.

I already put it at work, only with simple cutter and as a dado plane to build my greenhouse door, but I liked it a lot.

Will see with time and when using moulding cutter if I still like it or not.

I saw in the manual that a set of "special" cutters was available at that time but doing some search I only find them at an insane price that I will never be able to afford. But still with more than 50 standard cutters I guess I have enough for some time.

Finalizing the greenhouse

Last winter I left my greenhouse in an unfinished state as snow was coming, so I covered it and it stayed that way for winter:

Ready for winter.

Not a very glamour look but this was all I had time to do before freezing hard for 5 months.

When spring came it was time to pursue the adventure, quite some work to do. First step was to build the interior workbench and shelves.

Building the interior, part 1.

I added a sink at the back of the greenhouse so to clean tools and have easy access to water. I recycled an old sink that was unused and sitting in my basement and an old faucet removed from my boat.

Add water to the mix.

The faucet with red handle is to connect a watering hose. The sink hole will go direct under the greenhouse as it is only water with no chemical.

So after adding one shelf on each side and some hanged boxes on the wall I am done with the interior.

Finished interior.

The longer job was to build the windows. With 10 windows to build, 2 battens each it was quite a long run. I had to size the stock, do the assembly and install each of them but I got there, and I am pleased with the result even if not tinted yet.

All windows set.

The last step will be to build and install the door, hopefully before snow catch me again, but this will be the subject of another post.