Handtools win again!

[cwarner]

Grandfather calls today to have me come down and help him take their sliding barn style bathroom door off the rail as something was "rubbing " and causing some resistance when operating the door. My uncle happened to stop by as well.Take it off and it's obvious that the door is slightly rubbing the floor on a few spots. The ensuing conversation was classic:

Uncle: " I wish I'd known and I would have brought my belt sander"

Grandpa " Well I have an orbital and a palm sander"

Me " Or I can run home and grab a hand plane and make quick work of this and easier to clean up". (I live 3 blocks away)

They both jumped at that.

As I was using the block plane my uncle just watched in amazement and said " look at that! Why did these ever things go away, that thing is great"

I just replied that they didn't go anywhere, people just jump to power tools thinking they are better by default.

[hbmcc]

[Window Guy]

........ Great story I have most of the powered tailed cousins but other than my Bandsaw and 3/8" electric drill I use occasionaly I seldom use them. Much prefer the handtools myself. I even used my Goodall Pratt Miter Box with a 28" saw to put up a chair rail and crown molding in my Daughters home next door. My S-I-L couldn't understand why I wouldn't use my Makita SCMS on this. I told him him he needed to learn how to hold boards to give him something to do and to keep him from getting hurt grin:.


Steve

[Carl Grover]

That would have been a slow miserable job with a powered sander. Would have been really easy to wreck the door with a belt sander too.



Carl

[Peter Tremblay]

Good for you!

Truth is I don't often think of how easy the clean up is with a plane verses a power tool.

But I don't clean my shop often enough

[cwarner]

Peter Tremblay said:

---

Good for you!

Truth is I don't often think of how easy the clean up is with a plane verses a power tool.

But I don't clean my shop often enough

---

Peter,

This operation happened right outside the bathroom in the house. Knowing grandmother, keeping the mess minimal was appreciated. The task was done in less than 1 minute of block plane work.

[AHill]

How ironic that the younger generation is reintroducing hand tools to the older generation! Good on you!

[Bill_Houghton]

I had a similar experience some years back, cleaning off a corner of a door that was rubbing. Dad was grumbling about the inefficiencies of the tool, even as I got it done; and I really should have sharpened the plane before going down to his house!

I remain grateful to him for all he taught me, even if much of it was power tools oriented.

[C. in Indy]

I had a contractor in for a house room-remodel estimate last week (so I'm the lazy one.... but I digress). In the basement he walked by my recent hand-cut dovetail practice piece, and he definitely noticed.

I sent my brother a Millers Falls 14 jack-plane 5 years ago, freshly sharpened, and he went on and on about it. We agreed that lots and lots of folks with the big-box home-improvement experience have never really laid hands on a sharp plane.

[JimReed@Tallahassee]

A sharp handplane in action pulling wispy shavings is a sight of beauty.