Dan Beck wrote:
>[...]
>I'm wondering since I have this 55, do I really need a Rabbet Plane?

My two cents is yes.

I'd look at it this way.  The problem is that if you had only the 55
but no other rabbet plane, and you needed to do a bit of rabbet-ing
--even a couple quick strokes-- this means you'd need to break down
the 55 from whatever configuration it was in, set it up to the rabbet-work,
and then next time you wanted to do something that involved the 55
set it back up to do this.

Or to put this another way:  There are specialized things a 55 can do
quite well. most notably cut a wide assortment of mouldings.
But OTOH a 55 will never work as well for the "normal" jobs
--e.g. rabbets, plow, etc-- as a well tuned dedicated plane of
the appropriate type.

(While I don't have 55 a do have a 45 with a spare body.  I basically
reserve one body as a "semi-dedicated" dado plane.  Saves me from
acquiring a stack of those, as well as giving me a nice assortment of
sizes.  But I can't imaging not having the rest of a standard arsenal
of planes.)

Any way, that's just my opinion.  I think the best advice was Don's.
Take it out for a spin and see how it works for you.  If it works for
you great.  But if not, it'll help you get a good idea of what you're
looking for if you do decide to get a dedicated rabbet plane.

N
(P.S.  Oh yeah.  Congratulations on the great get.)