John_Barclay

The poll question is a fine example of what's wrong with a truly great magazine. It is so clearly evident in the choices that someone feels that plywood carries the plague and other dread disease along with giving away the work product of a hack. (No... not Garrett).

"saschafer" hits the nail on the head when proclaiming that the "fine" in "fine woodworking" has little to do with the work. And "michael2160" is spot on with his rhetorical question... if Goddard and Townshend had plywood available to them in 1750 Newport there is no question that they would have used it for cabinet backs and drawer bottoms and even case sides for "upstairs" pieces.

Taking an editorial position that is "anti" plywood in this day and age is absurd and, frankly, irresponsible. When a customer insists on all solid wood and no plywood I turn the job down. As has already been pointed out... anything with veneer on it is "plywood" and anyone who is acting responsibly should be using the stuff when it saves material and extends the life of the finished piece.

• I noticed that the dividers in 2-liter drink cases closely resembled Bessey's KP blocks. After cutting down on the band saw they work perfectly with all bar clamps when trying to arrange at right angles.

•The iPod is a constant shop companion... running through a dumpster saved old Kenwood receiver and resurrected car speakers in plywood boxes along with old television speakers.

• Every year our city has bulky item pickup where folks put out junk for city disposal. I have found that broken office chairs with gas cylinder height adjustment make terrific adjustable spray stands when the seat and back are discarded and replaced with a 22" diameter plywood disc. I have four of these now and having parts on wheels is a great time saver when spray finishing.

• Harbor Freight small movers' dollies are always on sale for $9.99 or less. They represent instant wheels for large pieces in and out of the spray booth. Where else can you get four swivel casters for under $10?

• At Office Depot years ago I bought a $19 Xacto wheel paper cutter for one of my children doing a major school project. It has served me now for 9 years for precision sandpaper cutting. While it no longer cuts school paper very well, it has never failed me for precise sizing of sandpaper for two different size sanding blocks.

• Also at Harbor Freight I have bought a dozen or so giant carabiner hooks which I hang randomly from the ceiling joists around the benches in my shop. They are the perfect size for hoses to sanders and routers, keeping hoses and power cords out of the way. Cords are "taped" to hoses with velcro organizer straps.

• Old speaker magnets serve to keep drill press chuck key in place and never lost as well as keeping a 6" engineer's square handy at both the table saw and the jointer.

• Someone's old yoga mat makes for a great sanding pad.

• Cheap kitchen under-cabinet lighting devices relieve eye strain on the fence stop system for my radial arm saw.

• Two old stereo cabinets on casters serve as sanding supply storage and drill press accessory/drill bit storage stations.

• A long outdated iMac computer running very old software now serves only to render cut lists for sheet stock using a great sheet optimizer program (shareware) that won't run on any newer computer anywhere.

• Coleman camping stove works great with converted 2.5 gallon gas can as steam generator for steam bending.

• The old 5" floppy disc storage cabinets are perfect for random orbit sander paper organizers.

• Document binder clips are all over my shop... some are mounted on the wall to hold a pair of rubber palmed gloves close to a machine where I might need better "grip-tion" while others mounted on a scrap of plywood hold an assortment of pre-cut sandpaper.

• Ten years ago I bought a vertical 10 drawer file cabinet that had been used for microfilm storage at a bank. The cabinet is a great storage place for all tool and machine manuals, various types of tape, gloves of various kinds, miscellaneous other "stuff." But the real extra was that in the cabinet were about one thousand old 4"X5" microfilm sheets which serve as shims and glue masks and countless other uses.

Gavin:
Thanks. As I recall dados were 1/2" deep in the 1" thick maple plywood "back." Then glued and fixed from backside with confirmats.
John

Don:
A great solution and beautifully simple. Really a nice effort.

John