Squaring wood without a tablesaw or jointer

[Jared Walters]

I'm not even at my new house yet, but I have been communicating with someone on craigslist about an 80's Powermatic 66. If it's in good shape I guess I will just ask my dad nicely to store it in his garage until I move.

In my area used cabinet saws in good shape are rare.

[rudy de haas]

hi:

I developed an interest in woodworking when I found out what it would cost to have professionals do the work my house needs... so let me offer the benefit of my research on buying, on a budget, to fit a small workspace.

First: here are lots of high quality, dirt cheap, 6" jointers for sale on craigslist and/or kijiji. The reason for that, it turns out, is that the second piece of wood you want to joint will be 7" wide. To a lesser extent the same is true of most other power tools (particularly benchtop planers) so be very sure you can live with smaller tools before buying them.

Second: in most cases tools are either good or cheap, but not both. Pick what works for you, and if that means exceeding your budget or saving for a while before buying, so be it.

In my case, I had the garage wired for 220V and bought bigger gear - the Canadian versions of the 8" G0490 with 10" G0690 and 13" G1037 planer. No regrets yet and I'm currenlty saving pennies toward a good (heavy) router table/router combo to replace the light table/.router combo I bought used a year ro two ago.

I bought new, but there is nothing wrong with used - just don't under buy because you'll regret it every day you're in the shop.

[John TenEyck]

If you buy a used piece of equipment, use it for a couple of years and then decide you want something better, bigger, etc. it's easy enough to sell it again and often for about what you paid for it, more if you bought wisely to start with. Don't think of equipment as a once and forever decision. Buy what you can afford, learn whether you even like working with wood, and go from there.

John