Being a "Tim the Toolman" type

[Ken Fitzgerald]

of woodworker, I love my power tools. Thus I will never be a Neanderthal but there is something to be said about learning to use hand tools in certain situations.

I choose to use standard plywood or leftovers from previous projects to build new shop tools. Recently purchasing 1/2" plywood for drawers has been a lesson in frustration as I could get any at either of two local suppliers that didn't have certain amount of warp to them. After sorting through their stacks and highgrading the best of the poor quality I still couldn't get flat 1/2' plywood.

So I bought the best available (such as it was) tried working with it. When used for bottoms, the warps really caused havoc as it would distort the shape of the final box. I tried graduated relief cuts on the bottoms of the drawer bottoms. Finally I settled on relief cuts and.......

Taking a sharp block plane, I shaved the edges of the plywood bottom. I was able to reduce the effect of the warping to at least make useable boxes. Again...these drawers are going into a outfeed table I am making for my shop.

A local cabinet shop has offered to sell me 5'x5' 1/2 Baltic birch plywood for my actual projects. I think that's what I will be using in the future.

Though my sharpening system won't hold up to the rigid standards of most Neanders, having a way to efficiently sharpen plane blades and chisels to a reasonable level of sharp, has gotten me to the point where more and more I find a manual solution that makes more sense and is quicker than setting up a power tool to do a similar operation. The block plane proved to solve the issue this time!

[Rod Sheridan]

It's funny Ken, I use a combination of hand tools and machinery.

Often the best and fastest solution to a few items is a plane or chisel.

Now if it's 100 items machinery wins.................Regards, Rod.

[glenn bradley]

There are tasks I would not want to do with hand tools and therefor am a hybrid woodworker of sorts. I too do not have an alter for sharpening but, do have a drawer for my sharpening arsenal and a method that works quickly and reliably for me. I am constantly amazed how often I reach for my Lee Valley Apron Plane.

Coincidentally the carcass on my current outfeed table project has used up the last of my "shop" plywood that I ever care to deal with. The balance is BB ply. I have used BB ply for my better work for years but, always got bit by the bug that tells me that a high grade shop ply ought to do well for shop fixtures. This just hasn't been so in my experience or I expect too much from plywood ;-) At least BB ply is available at my local yard so availability isn't a problem.

P.s. I have 1/4" BB ply bottoms glued into 1/2" BB ply drawer boxes full of clamps that have seen hard use over the years. The bottoms are fine and show no signs of strain.

[Mike Cutler]

Ken


A block plane, shoulder plane, and chisel set, are almost always on the bench when I'm doing any work. Some times they are the fastest solution.

You'll be a lot better off with that BB ply. Where you may have needed 1/2" junky ply for the bottoms, the BB in 1/4" will more than suffice.

[Brian Holcombe]

I've slowly but surely gone down the neander path due to this type of discovery. I do not have room for many power tools in my shop and so I originally took to hand tools for that reason and come to find I've replaced a lot of tasks that I was capable of doing by power tool with their respective hand tool replacement. If I ever need to turn out a larger volume of work I may decide to buy some power tools to speed things along, but with the understanding that they're not always the ultimate for the task. Often times hand-held power tools are more fiddly then the respective handtool.

[Brian Tymchak]

I've had several 5x5 sheets of "BB" ply warp like mad. I suspect there are low quality suppliers in the BB space, just like there are in the 4x8 sheet space. You still need to be on your guard with BB.

However if you have contacts with a local cabinet shop, you will likely get the better grades.

[Justin Ludwig]

5x5's of Baltic Birch almost always appear warped as a single sheet. Once you break them down the warp usually ceases to exist. I've had plenty of pieces still hold some bow or cup (usually the larger the more prominent), but nothing that couldn't be manipulated into what I needed.

Here's some small drawers I made using 5x5 russian birch. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?229325-Big-drawers-real-big

[Jim Becker]

While I primarily work with my big power tools, I covet my chisels, hand planes and hand saws for all kinds of precision work. Which reminds me...I'm over-due for a sharpening extravaganza! :eek: :o