My Next Purchase?

[Never Enough Money]

Hmm. I just lucked into $500. I look at my wish list and find three items that I need and that fall below $500.

A nicer circular saw and guide. Amazon sells the Festool with guide for $325. Can that be right? If so, that's good because I cut a lot of 4x8 sheets of Baltic birch and appleply.

A router lift. The nicer ones are over $300. It would be a nice addition to Norm's router table that I'm building. I do a fiar amount of routing.

The Bosch Colt Router for little stuff and laminate trimming. It's only about $140 which would leave enough for a dovetail jig. I'm a huge fan of Akeda but the new Porter-Cable 4200 series is ample for me.....I don't do too many dovetails but maybe I would with a modest jig.

Opinions?

[Morris Dovey]

| Hmm. I just lucked into $500. I look at my wish list and find three | items that I need and that fall below $500.

| Opinions?

At the risk of being horribly obvious, why don't you get some really first-class project wood?

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[loutent]

I love woodworking.

Lucky type money - put it in an IRA or college fund or something like that...

Woodworking money should not be serious :-(

Lou

[Never Enough Money]

[Never Enough Money]

Good advice but I will probably ignore it.....

loutent wrote:

[Toller]

I just got a near new PC at an auction for $50. $325 for a circular saw!?!?!

A router lift would be darn nice to have, I just couldn't bring myself to spend $300 on one.

If you do a lot of laminate trimming, then that would certainly be good to have. If you don't have a dovetail jig, that also would be nice to have. So, I vote for #3.

[loutent]

Don't blame you. I would too.

Lou

[Never Enough Money]

Thanks, Toller.

Regarding the Festool circular saw: it's fantastic. The $325 includes a track (I think). If it does it's competive with a PC and a Tru-Grip

track combo. Certainly competive if you make it a worm drive and a tru-grip, especially the Pro ft'r model.

BTW, the Festool is a plunge circular saw. Festool sent me a DVD showing demos of all their tools. You might look at their web page:

said, I could just get the Tru grip and use the old circular saw I have. Not quite as slick, but still very nice.

And that said, your #3 pick may be the biggest bang for the buck.

Cheers.

Toller wrote:

[Edwin Pawlowski]

You know your needs better than I, but I sure love having a good router lift. Makes life so much easier when making fine adjustments. I have a Benchdog that I bought from

I use my drill to run it up and down for bit changes, the provided speed wrinch for minor adjustments.

[Robatoy]

325 US$ for the e65 with track and systainer is a great deal for some awesome accuracy and power. The plunge action is precise.

ANY lift is too much money. They're toys. Then again, my Milwaukees have accurate 'lifting' built in. Okay..... maybe a lift is nice if you have an older router....but 300 dollars?

The Colt is kinda cute, but I bought a cpl of Ridgid trimmers which I like.

So.... the saw and a Ridgid trimmer and a nice Merlot.

[rickluce]

Ok. Your about the fifteenth gloat this week. What gives? I've decided when I have a gloat I won't tell anyone. And I'll gloat about that too.

You won't be disappointed with a router lift and a big PC router. You can never have enough routers around the shop.

[Swingman]

Pick a project that you really want to do, then blow the $500 on something(s) that makes that project easier/feasible/doable ... that way all your feelings are assuaged in one swell foop when the projects done.

[B a r r y]

Are you finish cutting or rough cutting before the table saw? I rough cut with my Bosch jigsaw and Makita cordless 4" circular saw.

If you're finish cutting with a circular saw, the Festool looks to be about as good as it gets, complete with dust collection!

I do tons of routing, but can't comment on a lift, as I have a fixed base router mounted in the table. I've used many lifts in other shops with plunge routers underneath, and they all seemed to work well, including shop-made versions.

I might instead spring for the Milwaukee 3HP plunger with the above the table adjusting feature.

_Never_ underestimate the usefulness of a small router!

I use my older Bosch for almost anything that can be done with a 1/4" colleted bit. This includes: freehand clean out of hand cut half blind dovetails, chamfering, smaller roundovers, shallow grooves, veining, lock mortising, even occasionally trimming laminate.

It wouldn't be a stretch to say that my mini-router gets more work than my larger hand held routers. 99% of stuff that needs the bigger router goes to the table. A small router is a pleasure to use, and very easy to use freehand.

The new Bosch looks like a jewel, I was checking one out Tuesday @ Coastal.

I don't use a dovetail jig, as I can cut them by hand with the "Klausz" method quickly and accurately.

Whatever you get, enjoy the fun money, Barry

[brianlanning]

I vote for a leigh d1600 and a porter cable 690, the one with the D-handle. If you already have a good router, then the d4r. :-)

brian