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I should use my planes more often

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I should use my planes more often

#1

I should use my planes more often

Stephen Kirk in Quakertown PA

>I just finished finishing about 20 some parts that go inside a wine cabinet (bottle holders, glass holders and such). Took me about 2 hours with a random orbit sanders (electrons - bad, I know). I need to clean up the edges too, so i tried using a drum sander on the drill press, but it just wasn't working too well. So, I figured why not set my little block plane for a thin shaving and clean up the edges. Sure enough, about 2 passes on each side the end edges were good as gold. Only took about 10 minutes to do all the boards, and it probably would have taken an hour or more with a powered sander. Now I wish I would have just sharpened up and used my smoother on the board faces. Probably would have been faster too, no annoying dust, and I wouldn't have that wonderful "vibration hand" from using a powered sander. Next time I'll be smarter.

Re: I should use my planes more often

#2

Congrats Stephen...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond,CA

>Your lungs will like you a lot better too. You took your first steps into the darkside...so to speak. Power tools quicker eh? Hmmmm...

Re: I should use my planes more often

#3

Re: I should use my planes more often

Tom MacGregor

>Taking saw marks off the edges of many feet of pine trim is what really opened my eyes to the virtues of the handplane. It was faster, easier, cleaner, quieter, more precise, and gave a higher quality finish. It was actually fun to do! Power sanding is not. Can't ask for much more than that. I've graduated to hardwoods & experimenting with tropicals & am about to try messing around with back bevels. Lumberyard cedar shingles seem to average about 4-1/2 degrees, might be good for making a sharpening jig...

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