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RWW 198 Kid’s Table & Chairs

4 comments
9 years ago
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This year I decided to build along again with the Woodworkers Fighting Cancer charity build. Marc Spagnuolo put together a great design for a kid’s table and chairs set that can be build using a single sheet of plywood. I hear all the time how plywood and hand tools don’t mix so I figured this would be a good project to help set that myth to rest.

In the end, I can affirm that plywood is more difficult to work by hand in that it is slower (see my post on difficult = slow) and requires a very sharp blade and meticulous attention to the fragile face veneers. But these extra points are offset by the fact that you don’t have to do any thickness or flattening work and you can ignore wood movement completely.

This project is dedicated to my neighbor who was recently diagnosed with Cancer. I’m thinking about you Bob. If you are interested the full plans and details for this project can be found at Woodworkersfightingcancer.com.

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Kit

I have only done one of the Woodworkers Fighting Cancer builds so far (toy chest) but can attest to the quality of the plans. You have executed them beautifully and I love the finish you chose. The natural cherry looks great with the primary school green!

We are all thinking about Bob as well and wish him and his wife a pleasant holiday season.

John Fitzgerald

Shannon, that came out fantastic. I certainly am of a different mind now about working plywood with hand tools. I suppose starting with ‘good’ plywood is important 🙂

Sorry to hear of your neighbor’s diagnosis. Sadly, we are all affected by cancer one way or another.

David Harms

Shannon, I was listening to past episodes of woodtalk and heard you talking about the decoupage, this really turned out nice!

So, I’ve always heard people say plywood dulls blades fast. What was your experience after working on this project?

    Shannon

    Yeah I get that question a lot. I didn’t notice any excessive dulling. It possible that some of the older glue formulations were very harsh on edges, but I think that the increased attention to formaldehyde and NAUF plywood to meet CARB2 regulations that some of these really hard resins and such that dull blades just don’t exist anymore. Working by hand on plywood is less about dulling tools and more about greater attention to grain direction since you are always working cross grain or against the grain in every cut.