Unplugging the cord???

Have you ever considered going total neanderthal?

  • No...I love my power tools

    Votes: 38 77.6%
  • Yes...but hand planning all my rough sawn wood scares me

    Votes: 4 8.2%
  • Maybe: I thought of doing a project or to two that was hand tool only

    Votes: 7 14.3%
  • Yes: all my power tools are currently for sale

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    49
Messages
2,369
Have any of you considered unplugging all your power tools, selling them and then doing total Neanderthal woodworking?

I must admit I have, but making rough sawn lumber into planned lumber just plane scares me. I mean that is a lot of work. Plus I like my old powered woodworking tools,like my Witherby, Ruggs, and Richardson jointer and Canedy Otto Drill Press..

So what about you? Any Neanderthal thoughts (and yes I promise not to tell the Mrs that you considered having less power tools :) )
 
I think I'm a modern hybrid of sorts, I like to use both, and both have a good spot in my Dungeon, to forgo either is not something I would do.

My power tools, we are talking big saws etc, do the work an old world craftsman's apprentice would have done, I don't have an apprentice (nor am I an old or new world craftsman) so I use the electrons. Time is an important factor to me, I have way too little of it, with a list way too long to get done.

Cheers!
 
No category for me. I considered it and was working towards that pure goal when age happened. Still have a few Neander tools, there are times they are the tool of choice. But, don't unplug me.
 
I voted , maybe a project or two. I love the few neander tools I have and will be adding to the collection, but I like the middle of the road philosophy! I think there is a place in any shop for both.
 
I do love a sharp chisel or the feel of little curlies jumping off a board I am working. My shop time is short enough and my joy lies elsewhere. Power tools allow me to get pretty close if not 'done' on many parts of a piece. I do use hand tools liberally for fitting joints and final adjustments but would not want to build a whole dresser without some kind of tailed tool.
 
Nah. I believe that if the Goddards had had access to powered tools they would have used them for the rough stuff and the hand tools for the fine work. That said, I don't own a surface planer and my old Craftsman 6" jointer will be up for sale soon. Same with the old Delta contractors saw. I'll replace the saw with a modern light Bosch and forget about the jointer. If I need a piece of lumber dimensioned and it's a biggy, I'll go to my local friend and have him do it on his heavy stuff. I see nothing spiritual in hogging a half inch from the top of a rough oak board of 5 or 6 feet in length... by hand.

Now of course most of my wood cutting has to do with refinishing and convservation but once every few years I actually build something. But no, I am not going to give up my cordless drills for those times when I have tons of holes to make and precision is not a factor.

He says this while looking at a basement in a total mess after a recent minor flood... woodies all over the place, boxes of hand tools piled up and significantly outnumbering the corded Daemons.

Gary
 
No way. But there are specific things that I think are easier done with hand tools. For example, I bought a drum sander to flatten glued up panels and it was more trouble than it was worth. Then I learned to a) glue up the panels pretty flat to start with by watching David Marks and b) to use a hand scraper to smooth the glue line to where 30 seconds with a ROS and I'm good to go. I thought I'd learn to joint edges with a jointer plane, but went back to the jointer for that followed by a quick pass with a hand plane for finished edges on higher quality projects. Lower quality projects just get sanded. And I decided that I'll do dovetails by hand rather than use a router jig which is expensive and somewhat limiting. But for mortises and tenon joints I plan to go the opposite way. As soon as I have the money I'll be buying a Domino.

For me its about a means for achieving the end. I've figured out that I don't like doing tedious repetitive stuff--I want to make things. And I've tried enough different ways of doing various things that I know I want the easiest way to get an acceptable end product. I'm not a purist. If pocket screws will make an acceptably strong widget then that's what I'll use. If I can use a plane faster than sanding or cutting, then I'll do that.
 
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My backlog of projects is so big I'm thinking of getting some more power tools to get things done quicker :D

Now I can understand the fascination of hand power tools, I think they are very cool. But then your hobby has become the collection, tuning and use of hand tools. Thats fair enough, but stuff actually gets built as a by-product almost.

Now if you just want to 'get R done' it's power tools all the way :thumb:

I do have a set of chisels, some hand saws and a rasp, just for doing those odd little things that I dont have a power tool for ;)

Cheers

Ian
 
When I first started woodworking - in the eighth grade - we were only allowed to use hand tools. The next year we could use the table saw. The first time I used the table saw and experienced how quickly it did things and how accurately, I was hooked.

I use hand tools but only for for things that I can't do easily with a power tool. I have a very small shop and don't have a jointer so sometimes I actually flatten a board by hand. But once I get it flat, it goes into the planer (the POWER planer) to finish the work.

Mike
 
This poll doesn't offer me the proper answer, so I'm not voting. This is a common problem with these dumb, err...I mean online polls

I kind of agree with you. Polls are silly, but what I do like about them is that they give multiple choice questions which gives people a chance to think in different ways. No matter how many choices are given, there is always something not covered. Still they tend to get quite a bit of responses,and allows a lot of people a chance to say how they feel on the subject.

I really did not expect to many people to unhook the wires going into their shops sub-panel to be honest with you, but hopefully I have let you look at these polls in another light. Are they silly? Yeah on the surface, but I do like making people think about stuff. Polls do that really well.
 
No way. But there are specific things that I think are easier done with hand tools. ...

I agree with this statement entirely. Improve the quality of your work and you can decrease the time spent and the need to turn to massively destructive machinery. Hand tools and machinery.. each has it's place which is what I was trying to say in my not too elegant manner.

Gary
 
I vote "G". Oh, thats not a option. For me I like useing my brace and bits, hand planes and other hand tools, but I would not be willing to go full tilt. For one my shoulder would not hold up to all that hand planning. The other which has been mentioned is the amount of time needed to get the lumber surfaced. I do find hand tools sometimes are very relaxing on a stressfull day( no noise issues).
 
I am pretty attached to my drill press other wise I might get more involved in hand braces and stuff. The idea intrigues me,but as I said.Man I really love my drill presses.
 
Neat video. I also clicked on the Lie-Neilson video from a wood working show. I was surprised to see that the man himself, Lie-Neilson is fairly young. I had thought the LN stuff went way back to antique days. Interesting. But, I'm sticking with the tailed stuff.
 
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