This may be an old topic but I am too lazy to search for it.
Do you have an item that has been a game changer for you in pursuit of wood working excellence. It can be something you purchased or built or found in the trash. It can cost anywhere from free to $1000's. Please refrain from value judgement comments like "too expensive; not worth it; etc". To some one its worth it. I am just looking for inspiration and ideas. Please exp and on how or what you accomplished that caused you to say "Wow, this is a real game changer".
I will start it off with some game changers for me.
self centering drill bit - I was trying to mount a piano hinge and each screw seemed to try to pull it out of alignment. I bought the bit and re-dr illed all the holes. the installation was perfectly aligned and all the scr ews centered and flush.
Sawstop industrial saw - I cannot even begin to express the magic of a g reat tablesaw.
Festool RO sander with dust extractor - sanding without dust. I didn't even know this was possible. Prompted by Leon "Bob, you gotta buy one of t hese"
Veritas saddle square - easy transfer of marks around the sides of a pie ce.
The spring loaded kind, AKA a Vix bit? I have about 4 sets. They are great.
I concur. SAFER than most any TS, Large table top compared to American style TS's. Beefy under the hood.
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It shoots past the nickel test and passes the quarter test.
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He He He BUT this set up did take some getting use to. When I first started using s Festool Sander and the Festool dust extractor I was confused as to whether the sander was actually doing anything. Previously, with my old PC Speed Bloc finish sander a trail of dust indicated that the work was being accomplished. With about 99.5 dust being properly sucked away I no longer had an indicator. I now only feel the surface with my hand. It great com come inside for lunch with out having to blow sanding dust off of my clothes. And the Festool blue Granat sand paper is great sand paper on steroids. It seems to never wear out compared to 3M, Mirka, Klingspor, PC paper.
Yup, I have one of those too! Great accurate tool.
OK, did you really have to ask? And I think this would be right up your alley.
Shaper Origin and workstation. SMALL Foot PRINT! Comes in a Festool track saw sized systainer, for the Shaper. I have not yet been able to use mine much as I am in the middle of a paying job. BUT I have been successful with each small experiment which included work done on my computer and the included files.
I was not certain how much I would use my Domino when I got it in 2008. LOL what a game changer!!! 10,000 mortises later and I am still using the original bits, primarily the 5mm bit. I think the Shaper Origin is going to be even more dramatic than the Domino.
Built a long extension on my table saw and mounted a Triton plunge router. Used a Rockler fence and an Incra jig to make a quick-adjust removable router fence. It takes up no more floor space than the saw itself, and makes accurate table router setup quick and easy.
Somewhat parallel, but since am older than most redwoods, the Powermatic Model 66...every bit the saw of SS in mass, balance, etc., but w/o the then 35 year in the future safety features.
Mine was more mind set of waiting until could afford the better product before purchase if of significant outlay rather than try to "cheap out".
Was, of course, fortunate in having access to friend's commercial shop for things like planer and all...of course in keeping with above, there weren't any lunchbox planers for nearly 30 year from then, either...it was "real iron" or the hand plane or take it to somebody who had a planer then.
Bob D wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:
I have a grinder tool rest that clamps the tool in place then you can slide it along the rest. This produces a very consistent hollow ground edge. A few passes on a stone and you get an edge that's sharp and easy to take care of.
The Work Sharp is very nice, but some good stones and the grinder tool rest (and grinder, of course) is what I'd invest in if I was starting over.
Yeah, my exposure in high school wood shop and to my father's planes had been very discouraging. It wasn't until I saw how they were _supposed_ to work and put the time into tuning and sharpening one that I realized how badly I had been misled.
odworking excellence. It can be something you purchased or built or found in the trash. It can cost anywhere from free to $1000's. Please refrain fr om value judgement comments like "too expensive; not worth it; etc". To so meone its worth it. I am just looking for inspiration and ideas. Please e xpand on how or what you accomplished that caused you to say "Wow, this is a real game changer".
h screw seemed to try to pull it out of alignment. I bought the bit and re- drilled all the holes. the installation was perfectly aligned and all the s crews centered and flush.
great tablesaw.
t even know this was possible. Prompted by Leon "Bob, you gotta buy one of these"
I've got 3, one really old, the other 2 are more recent:
1 - I'm just a hobbyist, but the Craftsman 10" table saw that I found in th e newspaper classifieds - 30ish years ago - for $100, was my first game changing event. I still have that saw, upgraded with a Delta T-Square fence . The only real issue I've ever had was when the arbor bearing went bad.
2 - A couple of years ago I finally got around to replacing the right extension panel of the table saw with a DIY router table. No more strugglin g with crappy portable router tables or routing by hand in a really small sho p. I scored twice on that one by finding a practically new PC 690 router at a pawn shop. $50. I was planning to buy just the base for my PC 690 to mount to the router table and ended up finding a complete unit. Eliminating virtuall y all router table setup when wanting to rout something is definitely a game changer. I modified an old portable router table fence to add dust collecti on.
3 - This is more of a "household game changer" but it gets used for wood working quite often. 3 years ago I bought a PC Air Compressor combo set - 1
6g,
18g and staple gun - but that's not the game changer. The game changer was the 50' retractable air hose that my son bought me for Christmas. Since I wanted to mount the hose reel up high in the garage, I needed to run PEX fr om the compressor to the reel. As long as I was doing that, I also ran PEX fro m the garage down into my basement shop. No more carrying the compressor to where I need it, no more listening to the noise in the shop. Grabbing a nail gun to pop a couple of brads into something or use the air nozzle is a quick and easy process now.
I learned all the basics from Norm. Gluing, joinery, and so on. I bought Norm's books and made several things in them. The bookcases are still around here.
I don't know if it was before or after Norm, but I had one of those tables where you mounted a circular saw underneath, probably from Sears. It sounds really dangerous now, thinking about it.
Yes, Roy Underhill for me also with hand planes. (Norm never used them.) And then later Paul Sellers.
'and so on' includes "just a few brads to hold the joint together while the glue dries". ;-)
The Hirsh Saw Table. I still have the base from mine, but I covered the ribbed top with a smooth piece of plywood. I haven't used it in a while, but it makes a decent portable work table. Still out in the shed.
I have to agree. Like many, I have acquired my handplanes, some new but mo st used. The real eye opener was an early 1900's stanley jointer plane. A fter sharpening and tuning, it performs miracles. I frequently use it inst ead of firing up my powermatic jointer. That sounds crazy when I write it. So I guess its a game changer.
Also any video with Christopher Schwarz on hand planes. He often goes back to Joseph Moxon himself in explaining how hand planes are supposed to be used.
It did have one cool safety feature: The shut off bar that ran across the entire front. Assuming it was put together correctly (mine was) you could hit that bar at any point and it would shut the saw down.
Now, pair the Saw Table with a $30 Craftsman circular saw and you could give SawStop a run for it's money. It would be hard to tell the difference.
I stumbled across Rex Krueger "Woodwork for humans" Youtube channel. Lot of "how to do this without spending a lot of money." How to restore old tools, make "old tools", the details of sharpening tools. "Fun" videos.
I read _Craeft_ (Cræft) by Alexander Langlands last year. He attributes the death / dying of true craft to the availability of power tools (not just electron power, but anything more than human hand). Power removes the connection between human and the material. He doesn't deny that things can be made faster or well with power tools, but he does argue that there is a loss of understanding of material that comes from the mediating effect of just being able to apply more force faster.
I love a good handtool, but I have limited space, limited money, limited time. And no source of tools to inherit. I'm going to have to content myself with never finding the craft Langlands admires in myself.
My projects have tended towards crude or small, eg:
"John Grossbohlin" on Wed, 15 Jul 2020 18:25:10 -0400 typed in rec.woodworking the following:
Being dedicated to doing things with hand tools (mostly because I lack space or money for much in the way of power tools) I early on came to an understanding why it is called wood _work_ and why power tools were invented.. Ripping one board with a hand saw is "cool" as an exercise. Ripping a bunch - that's why power tools were invented.
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