The Stanley "55" Plane, the Universal Combination Plane, "A Planing Mill Within Itself." The height of 19th Century manual tool invention, the Stanley 55 combined a shelf-full of molding planes with rabbet, plow, dado, filletster, match, beading, sash and slitting planes. It is certainly the most versatile hand tool ever created, and, when properly adjusted, the most useful. It is, also, unfortunately the most intimidating tool imaginable.
An elaboration of the Stanley 45, which was already an advanced combination plane (above), the 55 looks like a something from a modern steam punk fantasy.
The two fences make the plane formidable, but, although Stanley recommended that both fences be used whenever possible, the 55 could be used most of the time with one fence on the left side.
It could even be used for most purposes without the "tower", the adjustable center bottom, or skate, which provided a third supporting surface for the cutters or plane irons used in making moldings with both convex and concave profiles.The fact that the plane could serve so many purposes meant that it had to be set up properly when the purpose changed. The adjustments were many, and precision was not only possible but necessary. This precision capability/necessity led to some people calling the plane finicky. They compared it to the dedicated molding planes, which, at most, had one adjustment, that for depth. While not really a fair criticism -- after all the plane was doing the work of a dozen or more planes, it has had the effect of giving the plane a reputation for being difficult to use. Use is seldom a problem, in fact. If the plane is reduced to only the necessary elements for the particular purpose at hand, the actual number of adjustments needed is small. Once they have been made, the plane will cut even a complex molding profile quickly and easily.
