Silence is Golden

The vast majority of my woodworking is done with powertools. The mitre saw to cut to rough length, the table saw to rip to rough width. Flatten two sides using the 6" jointer, then plane to the final thickness.

Back to the table saw to rip it to the final width and the mitre saw to the correct length. Depending on the piece it may be sanded before or after assembly with a 5" random orbital sander. Maybe I'll need to add a profile or dado using the router, pocket holes using a drill or biscuit slots with a biscuit cutter.

All these tools are noisy and generate lots of dust. I attempt to catch most of the dust at the source with a shop vac or the 1hp dust collection system. There's also an air filtration unit hanging in the middle of the shop to catch more of the fine particles.

I always wear safety glasses (prescription for me) and over the ear hearing protection when using these tools. I'm happy that these tools perform well and allow me to do more woodworking in the little time that I have available to do it.

However once in awhile I get to do a little bit of work with my meager collection of hand tools. Yesterday while I waiting for some glued up panels to dry I used my bargain basement hand plane to ease the edges on the rails and styles of the head/footboards.

Just two or three swipes of the plane produces some fine shavings and eased corners. No noise or dust. Nice.