Woodshop for less than $1,000??

[Odinn]

On 12/12/2005 2:47 PM nospambob mumbled something about the following:

I didn't specify which kinds of tools I've replaced :)

[Lee Gordon]

[woodstuff]

"The American Woodshop" TV show, hosted by Scott Phillips recently ran

I would buy a good table saw, perhaps a Grizzly contractor saw, with a good fence. The table saw will always be the star of your show. Most everything can be done with the TS and you should be learning what it will do first. If I were in your shoes, which I once was, I would spend it all on the table saw. I started with nothing in the early 80's in doing cabinet work and now I own a cabinet shop. (I started as a carpenter in '74) I still want more than I can afford (mostly shaper cutters, etc.), but I would rather wait for a high-quality tool than to own junk. You will make more money in the future to buy more good stuff. Be patient.

woodstuff "Have a good day

[Dan]

Hello all;

I can only imagine what it would be like to afford only the top of the line power tools! Man oh man, how great that must feel. Most of what I read here is that if you can't run with the big dogs, then stay on the porch. 'You can't do very good woodwork with a $150.00 Delta or whatever, you need the top of the line cabinet saw.' Instead of getting on with the hobby of woodworking, 'you should only read what others have done, since the cost of the power tool is what makes great woodworkers, not skill.'

There are a lot of folks like me who have a limited budget and possibly only a credit card to purchase things with, to take the sting out of the initial cost, so to speak. Yes, it would be great to be one of the Jones's that everyone needs to keep up with. But in reality, there are far more less affluent woodworkers than upper crusters. To make a point, a person doesn't need a Cadillac to go somewhere, a Chevy will do the job, a Cadillac will just do it in more style. So in choosing whether to save my pennies and not purchase a power tool until I have the very one that will make me a great woodworker, or maybe purchase a lessor tool and practice my woodworking skills when I am starting out, I choose the latter.

If I have to replace a $150.00 table saw after 4 or 5 years of use and upgrade to a better saw, what have I really lost, $150.00? I think not. I think that I have really lost nothing if I have learned how to to use the tool and stepped up to the next level of woodworking.

To wrap it up, just purchase what you can afford. A person can do excellent woodwork with nothing but hand tools. Power tools are just an option. Power tools just make it easier and quicker to do the job. The important point, at least to me is just get out in the woodshop and make things...with whatever tools you have or can afford.

Make more sawdust,

Dan Harriman Orange, Texas

Mike Berger wrote in news:dnkqsj$bfs$ [e-mail]:

[Enoch Root]

I agree with this sentiment, and with the list except for the last two items. Well, maybe the router. And possibly a little drill press.

I haven't found a job (in my meager, hobbiest experience) the miter saw was necessary for.

That being said, the band saw is the all-purpose tool I'd buy first. I'm still doing it all with hand tools right now except for a skil table top bandsaw I picked up at a garage sale for $5.

The bandsaw is awful. I put a scroll blade on it and the drift was so severe it can't just be called drift. And the degree of it changes with the thickness of the stock being cut. Worst of all, frequently the blade would grab the tire and yank it off the lower (powered) wheel.

It's still useful... until I either get a bandsaw or decide to stick with hand tools (the idea of resawing wood is daunting, but so is laying out cash needed for other things.) I can use it for making relief cuts and finishing with a bowsaw.

I'm seeing situations that could be done on the table saw or the bandsaw, and I'm seeing things that can be done on the bandsaw but not the table saw (er... well, a circular saw and jigs are needed, and there will be post-cut dressing of the new edge.) I don't see (and would like someone to show me :) a (hobby) situation that a table saw can do that a bandsaw/circularsaw/handtools combination couldn't do at least as well given a little extra time.

And time is irrelevant if doing it is the end itself. :)

I want to make things for pleasure. What I want to make is rather open ended... actually it involves robot chassis (chasses? chassises?) and gears but all this requires benches, cabinets, etc. and to make those I need tools. So the tools will enable me to make things, but why lay out so much $$$ for tools when I can satisfy my desire to make things by making the tools? Soon I'll post what I've done thus far (marking gauge, bowsaw, marking knife, plane, blade adjusting hammer.) with no powertools beyond a lousy bandsaw and a lousy benchtop drill press borrowed from a friend.

er