Why I love my power plane
A couple of years ago I was working on a large wall-to-wall, built-in bookcase, which had a hardwood face frame. I needed a quick, easy way to plane the edges of all the mahogany stiles, rails and shelf aprons.
A hand plane would've taken forever--there were over 200 linear feet of edges to smooth--and my benchtop jointer was too short.
So, I went out and bought one of the very few tools I didn't already own: a portable electric power plane.
Little did I know then, that the power plane would soon become one of my all-time favorite tools.
Since the bookcase project, I've used the power plane countless times, including to scribe baseboard molding to fit a wavy floor, to taper the legs for a small end table, to trim a kitchen-cabinet filler strip, and to face-plane narrow boards to exact thicknesses.
Another time I used the plane to precisely shave down a wall stud that had bowed out into the room. A couple of passes with the plane and the offending stud was back in alignment with its neighbors.
Just yesterday I used the plane to remove paint from the wood trim around my garage doors; a job that would've taken more than an hour to complete with a hand scraper, took less than 15 minutes with the power plane.
And the surface wasn't only clean of all paint, it was also perfectly smooth, so no sanding was necessary. Man, I love this tool!
Posted by Joseph Truini | Categories: Power Tools | Permalink
(2) Comments
I can see that this is the perfect tool for your application. And I'd say, in general, use the tool that you feel makes the most sense for the job. And doing large jobs with lots of repetition, power tools are a great way to go.
But as an aside, for certain tasks, hand tools and hand tool skills might also be just what the doctor ordered. Sometimes a hand plane can make quick work of the right job. Keith (www.woodtreks.com)
Very, very nicely done!