planer

[bridger]

also parallel are nested cylinders. and the two faces of cupped or twisted lumber. a thicknesser won't necessarily take care of either of those conditions.

[Prometheus]

Jointer is good for (and this may be an incomplete list)

-flattening bowed/cupped/twisted stock

-cleaning up ripped edges prior to glue up

-edge jointing two pieces at one go to insure a perfect fit on glued up panels

-rabbeting the edges of panels (you can do this with a router or dado stack as well, of course)

For my buck, the flattening ability is worth it alone- I don't know if you've ever had stock warp after sawing or milling it, but I have, and it's like gettting punched in the belly if you don't have a way to get it back to where it needs to be. You can still use that wood for

*something*, but I've had to abandon projects because the stock I had warped while working on them.

I've got a feeling it'd be used heavily, if you end up getting one- though your projects will obviously differ from mine.

FWIW, 50 cents a pass is a steal, unless they're intentionally taking a whole lot of extra passes just to charge extra. Lots of places charge by the hour, and it ends up costing an arm and a leg.

Now that's a different story- of course you should let your wife buy you any tool that she wants! Here I thought you had to pay for it yerself!

[Prometheus]

I think I'd keep the lathe- second choice would be the router table. I figure the rest of it can be done with hand tools almost as easily.