How do you deal with plywood?

[Brian Sommers]

do you use a cheap saw? I've heard it's not good to use good high quality hand tools because of the glues in ply, it gums up the teeth. I don't use ply in my pieces I want to sell, but for shop storage and other items I want to.

suggestions?

[Ray Selinger]

The glue doesn't gum up, it dulls. Good place for carbide or hardened teeth.

[Trevor Goodwin]

Yeah hardware store crosscut/universal saws are a good option here. They almost all have induction hardened teeth these days.

Some Japanese saws are designed for plywood and similar sheet goods. I reckon you'd want a cheap kataba (non-backed single-sided) if pull-saws are your thing.

You can plane plywood edges with a low angle bevel up plane quite easily.

[Jim Koepke]

How do you deal with plywood?

As infrequently as possible...

Almost all of the plywood I have used is 1/4". I have used a electric reciprocating saw.

jtk

[Stew Denton]

Hi Brian,

When cutting plywood, after marking where the saw cut will be, I take a utility knife and score the plywood a tiny bit to the good side of the line. This is to help minimize or prevent splintering of the ply. If you are using a handsaw, American type, you will want to score the back side of the ply, if using a pull saw, you will want to score the side nearest you.

To do the scoring, I use a metal straight edge, like the rule from one of my combination squares. Score very lightly for the first stroke or two, and once your line is established, you can score progressively heavier strokes. Us a sharp utility knife blade.

If the edge of the ply is going to be inside of a dado, you can score the ply even 1/16th inch from the cut, since that's a bit easier.

Stew

[Patrick Chase]

I use the Bahco "disposable" saws for engineered materials. They have induction-hardened teeth as others have recommended. They're available with both traditional crosscut and Japanese style toothings, though they're always used on the push.

Their "XT" toothing in particular is "Ikeda-esque" in that it has alternating high- and low-set teeth, and like the Ikeda toothing it seems to work well on ply.

[Reinis Kanders]

I like Irwin Jack 880 saw. I have tried bunch of disposable saws and that one has the feel closest to real saw and pretty decent kerf size. I use it a lot when building utility stuff for my garden structures. That saw has replaced circular saw for me, stays sharp for a long while and even rips white wood pretty well. I like it so much that I have bought some extra, just in case. ebay has a case of 10 saws for sale right now for $70 shipping included, I was really tempted, but did not want to have to store them properly.

[Bill Houghton]

saws that use electrons.

[Patrick Chase]

saws that use electrons.

Wrong forum. We only use Traditional Neanderthal (tm) tools and techniques. like saws with impulse-hardened teeth :-).

[Paul Sidener]

Wrong forum. We only use Traditional Neanderthal (tm) tools and techniques. like saws with impulse-hardened teeth :-).

That may be. Plywood is the reason I have kept my table saw.

[Josh Nelson]

I have two Stanley Fatmax impulse hardened saws. One for the car for the occasional side of the road exploit and the second for the shop for plywood and roughing. They are ugly saws and uncomfortable but they do the job and do it well.

[Patrick Chase]

That may be. Plywood is the reason I have kept my table saw.

Apparently the self-referencing sarcasm in my post wasn't obvious. IMO impulse-hardened teeth are about as far from "Traditional Neanderthal" as any power tool, so my point was that at that point there's no "purist" reason to insist on using hand tools at that point. I personally use such hand saws for convenience (I share a garage with cars, so the power tools have to be rolled out and anchored for use) and dust/noise.

Also and as I've said in other threads, plywood isn't neander to begin with.

[Patrick Chase]

I use the Bahco "disposable" saws for engineered materials. They have induction-hardened teeth as others have recommended. They're available with both traditional crosscut and Japanese style toothings, though they're always used on the push.

Their "XT" toothing in particular is "Ikeda-esque" in that it has alternating high- and low-set teeth, and like the Ikeda toothing it seems to work well on ply.

FWIW these work well for me:

https://www.amazon.com/BAHCO-2500-16-XT-HP-Professional-Handsaws-Toothing/dp/B006MI7VIS/ref=sr_1_2?rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1469372135&sr=8-2&keywords=bahco+xt+saw+16&refinements=p_85%3A2470955011
https://www.amazon.com/BAHCO-2500-22-XT-HP-Professional-Handsaw-Toothing/dp/B0001IX7LK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1469372221&sr=8-3&keywords=bahco+xt+2500+saw

[Frederick Skelly]

Only with power tools with carbide tipped blades. I don't want to dull my handsaws prematurely.