I'm moving out of my apartment and into a real house with a garage. I can buy the power tools I have been lusting after. The trouble is fitting everything I need into my $2500 budget. I was originally going to buy a decent table saw (used PM66, unisaw, or a new grizzly cabinet saw), a bench-top planer, and a dust collector. This would max out my budget. Unfortunately it leaves me without a router (and table) for a while, but I know you can square stock fairly easily with that setup.
I then started doing some more research into the idea of a bandsaw centric shop. Based on my what I like to make (solid furniture, decorative boxes, lathe projects, and round carving), I decided that may be a better choice to skip the table saw and build my new shop around a large-ish bandsaw. With the same budget I could get a decent quality 14" bandsaw (or bigger if I buy Grizzly), upgraded fence, router with plunge attachment, router table, and a good bench-top planer. This would also leave me with enough money left over to buy some extra blades and router bits. I know there is no dust collector, but I figured I could plug in my large shopvac for the time being.
This setup has me feeling like I could do most everything I need. I have never ripped on a bandsaw, but I heard that with a good blade and fence it's plenty accurate. I can't cut dados using the saw, but that's what the router is for. For the times where I need to cut sheet goods I can always break out the straightedge and circular saw, which isn't the most convenient, but it's still an option. One thing I'm concerned about is squaring stock... which brings us the entire purpose of this post... I was thinking I could flatten boards with the thickness planer, then use the router table to joint an edge (referencing off the flat face). I could then take it to the bandsaw and rip the other edge parallel, and then return it to the router table to clean it up. Does that sound like it would yield good results? Or should I spend a little less on everything and also buy a cheap table saw or jointer? Maybe even a tracksaw?
I just want to mention it isn't my preference to buy a bunch of cheap stuff. I always have preferred quality over quantity. I would rather buy the best quality (I can afford) of everything I need to get started, and then add more good tools to the shop over time as I save the money.