Bay Area Dave wrote:

Chuck, I have one of my routers in a downdraft cabinet router table, so
dust AND noise is minimized. I can hook up my Fein shop vac to the
fence, and the DC to the downdraft. That pretty much covers the mess.
The cabinet muffles a lot of the noise, but because my ears are
sensitive (actually ONE ear -- lost the hearing in the left to an
acoustic neuroma a few years back) I wear ear protection.

And kevlar body armour? :-) I woodwork to relax, and all of the
safety safety precuations necessary for using a routah don't make me
feel very relaxed.

I spent several hours last night perusing the Lee Valley catalog where
some things were jumping off the page, screaming for a home. Namely a
Veritas low angle block plane, some gouges, and scraper.

Which leads me to a question(s): There are scraper blades that you bend
with your thumb, scraper handles almost like a spoke shave, and scraper
inserts for a plane. Is one style more popular and useful, or does each
style have it's proponents, OR is there a need for each type in one
woodworkers arsenal? I work oak and will be working cherry and maybe
maple.

Yes, except for the scraper insert. (I consider that one so far
inferior to the other LV scraper variations that IMHO it's a waste of
money.)

The simple card scrapers are handy for spot work where you need to
get rid of a bit of tearout. If you do curved work, buy a gooseneck one
as well. (Personally, I keep about a half-dozen different profiles
around the shop.) The one that looks like a spokeshave is their
knockoff of the Stanley cabinet scraper (#80). It's an excellent tool,
and has some definite improvements over the original Stanley. It's
handy for larger surfaces, as the base gives you a good bearing surface
that is lacking with the card scraper.

But, my new personal favorite is their scraper plane. It's based on
the Stanley #112, but once again, it has some definite improvements over
that design. They've added a thinner blade with a thumbscrew
arrangement that can flex the blade much like the #80 does. With the
extra-large sole, comfortable tote and knob and flexibility of using
either the thick or thin blade in the same plane, this will probably
replace the #80 in my shop.

For the woods you mention, a well-tuned smoother would probably
handle most of your needs, but a scraper is always handy to have around.


Chuck Vance