Replies

1. 
   Samson | Jul 26, 2005 05:11pm | #1

   I've used a handplane on the edges of plywood many times.  I've never noticed that it did any damage to my blades other than dull them at the same rate any use would.  The tricky thing about handplaning plywood is to be careful not to shave off any of the thin face ply when planing an edge that meets another piece at a corner.  It's easy to suddenly realize you've gone into the face.  I like small block planes for this work as they are easy to control and monitor even on these narrow edges.  A jack plane, for example, might take a bite of face ply before you realize it.  Hope this helps.

2. 
   JohnWW | Jul 26, 2005 11:19pm | #2

   Kenney,

   I presume you are talking about planing the edge not the face of the plywood.

   For small jobs, I use a manual block plane.  For long edges, or large jobs, I'll break out a hand held power planer, with a fence and carbide disposable blades. 

   The glue in plywood is very rough on steel jointer knives, but does surprisingly little damage to the steel blade on hand planes - don't know why. 

   If you use the jointer, which is fast and accurate for medium size pieces that need to be kept square and straight, move the fence either all the way back or all the way forward, so you'll damage just the ends of the blades, leaving the center of the knives for real wood.

   Hope this helps, John W.

1. 
   Elcoholic | Jul 28, 2005 07:55am | #7

   "The glue in plywood is very rough on steel jointer knives, but does surprisingly little damage to the steel blade on hand planes - don't know why."

   My guess is that it's related to the impact force on the relatively hard glue.John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking

   The more things change ...

   We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized.  I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.

   Petronious Arbiter, 210 BC

3. 
   nikkiwood | Jul 27, 2005 06:18am | #3

   The conventional wisdom is that planes and plywood do not go together.

   If you have one, a belt sander would be better suited to this task.

   ********************************************************
   "I tend to live in the past because most of my life is there."
   -- Herb Caen (1916-1997)

4. 
   Fiddler | Jul 27, 2005 09:01am | #4

   I fully agree with Samson's comments. I've often used a block plane on plywood to touch up fitting joints. Use a fairly fine setting. Works great and doesn't seem to dull the iron any faster than other types of wood.

1. 
   kenney66 | Jul 27, 2005 05:34pm | #5

   Thanks everyone.  The question was directed at the concept of fine tuning the joints not the face.  I used my little block plane and that worked well.  Also thanks for the tip regarding the jointer.  I will try and avoid that as changing blades is a little scary for me right now.

   Kenney

    

1. 
   ram | Jul 27, 2005 07:16pm | #6

   Kenney, a bit off topic, concerning your remark about changing jointer knives being scary:

   I'm a "mechanically challenged" beginner skill level ww hobbiest.  I waited a really long time to get a jointer so I could save and get a good one (Powermatic 54A).  Imagine my woe when one of my first projects using it put two huge nicks in the knives due to a knot ;-{!

   On the other hand, it forced me to learn to set the knives.  I got one of the magnetic setting jigs but it didn't work.  What did work was buying two inexpensive dial indicators and magnetic bases.  With those I was able to get the knives within +.002"-0 of dead even with the outfeed table.  If anything the results after changing knives were better than before.

   Edited 7/27/2005 12:16 pm ET by ram