Tool Recomendations Requested.

[USMC Nam Vet]

I have a small shop consisting of a Grizzly TS, an old Sears band saw, several routers and power sanders, a plate joiner a wide variety of hand tools.

I am looking to start adding to the collection and am looking for recommendations.

I think my next purchases should be a cutoff saw of some type, a floor model drill press and a bench disk/belt sander.

Any recommendations on this list?

Let us deal with the cutoff saw first. I think I have to chose either a radial arm saw, a compound miter and or a sliding compound miter. I'd like to keep the cost to around $500. I intend to set up a fixed cutoff station along one wall of my shop.

Which makes more sense in a small shop setup?

Now for the Drill Press. I am thinking of a free standing floor model drill press that will see limited use at best. I am looking toward versitility and best bang for the buck. Recommendations are requested.

The table model disk/belt sander is considered for quick edge and shaping needs. Looking for recommendations here as well.

All opinions are welcomed and appreciated.

Thanks

Jim

[Stephen M]

I'll take a stab at RAS vs CMS vs SCMS

A RAS and cut a really wide panel. I sled can do this very well on a table saw. Make a sled. (wide panels tend to not be really long).

SCMS a deep machine. Unless you have a bump-out in your shop into which the ass-end of this thing can sit, it will eat up *a lot* of real estate.

So, if you have an interior corner that will support it, or space (front to back) is not that much of an issue, go with an SCMS, else CMS.

Cheers,

Steve

[charlie b]

But before the wide panel gets to be not really long it may start out as several 11-12" wide x 10' long boards. Those don't fit on a table saw sled very well. Of course they can be cut to rough length from the long board with a circular saw.

But - a 12" SCMS will cross cut up to about 12 1/4" wide boards. A 10" SCMS will cross cut a 10+" board.

A 12" SCMS will cross cut up to about 9+" and a 10" SCMS will do about 8+"

The extra couple of inches the SCMS gives you comes in handy.

Actually, my Makita LS1212 SCMS is about 9" deeper than their 12" CMS. It's about 19" from the face of the fence to the back tilt knob.

Here's my set up

Wall hanging cabinets behind the SCMS station utilize the extra space behind the saw and I've got wood storage behind the base cabinet so the extra space isn't wasted. (like the adage "you can never have enough clamps.", "you can never have enough space to store wood" is also true

Unless you're playing - make that "working" with short stock, putting it in a corner will really reduce its capabilities. charlie b

[Bob Schmall]

I have a Jet 16" drill press that has served well. It's Taiwanese, nowhere near the top of the heap, but with 8 speeds and a decent quill it has been reliable and doesn't appear to suffer from runout. If $500 is your budget for the cut-off saw, this should fit right in.

Bob

[Clint]

I'm not sure I buy your figures, besides the fact that you called everything "SCMS". According to the DeWalt website

,these are the figures:

10" CMS 6" 12" CMS 8" 8.5" SCMS 11.8" 12" SCMS 12"

So basically, the SCMS gets you quite a bit more cutting capacity, and is actually not dependant on the blade size (of course, the thickness of material the saw can cut will depend on the blade size...

Clint

[s2s]

I got the discontinued model 3915 Bosch SCMS From Amazon. It's still there for $353 -

saw. The handle's a pain - the newer models have a better one but they're around a couple hundred more. I built a stand for it with locking casters and collapsible wings. Since it's all over the shop, I haven't thought much about how much room it needs. I never figured I'd use it as much as I do. It gets a LOT of use, it makes nice clean, accurate, repeatable cuts. Even with the shop vac on the outport it throws dust but so do most of 'em. I'll build a hood for it one a these days but I'm really happy with it. When we remodeled the bathroom it made a world of difference.

I've been getting by with a Harbor Freight benchtop drill press but the last two projects showed that it's short stroke is a pain - couldn't drill through a couple pieces and a floor model just moved further up my list.

Got a Borg ToolShop disk/bench sander for Christmas. Haven't used it yet except to set it up and see if it worked. Looks like it'll do what it's supposed to do.