topshelf,
As far as just using a chisel, that would be pretty slow and could be hard on the body. The chisel isn't very efficient for that kind of bulk wood removal. I haven't used an adze as Mark is talking about, but it only took me chopping a few housings to get comfortable with my axe. Don't forget to saw the top and bottom line to full depth before chopping.
If you are going to use power tools, a circular saw set to the corect depth, cutting across the grain at 1/4" intervals, followed by a hammer/mallet/axe to knock the chips loose, and then finished with your chisel is fast. There is no setup time for this method (other than setting the depth of your saw).
In my experience, Mark is right on. It takes a short time to develop some skill with the hand tools, but you often find they are still efficient for a lot of what we do. That learning curve discourages a lot of people and they never develolp that skill. If you do (or already have) you will never regret it.
I always feel like I have a wolf by the ears when I am running a router.
I feel like I might be telling you stuff you already know, I would love to hear a little about you and your project.
As far as how long to cut a housing -- it depends, but a few years back, we had a series of races in our shop: router and template vs. axe and chisel. The axe and chisel won consistently by a small margin, and that didn't include the time it took to make the template. That is when we put the routers up for the most part. You only get faster with the hand tools.
Cheers,
GH
