Originally Posted by
Daniel McPherson
Hey guys, FYI, I am not totally new to woodworking. I built a bird house in Scouts when I was 11.
Really though, here is what I am envisioning:
22'X28' shop. Bulk wood stored in a different building. Maybe a small rack that holds about a projects worth of wood in the shop.
4'x8' table in the room for assembly. I can put a piece of pink foam board on it to run my Festool track saw on for breaking down large boards. Along one wall will be my Festool Kapex and sustainers with sanders etc.
4'x8' is larger than you need. Also, rather than a table, build it in such a way that it is a: mobile, and b: can be used for storage, or can easily have storage added later.
Do I really need a DP for woodworking? I have hand drills and I COULD clean the Ellis DP up if it was only an occasional need with wood.
Yes. Hand drills lack both the power and the precision of a drill press. Again, almost anything can be done solely with handtools, or with portable power tools, but many thinks are simpler to get precision and accuracy with power tools, can go faster with power tools, etc.
What size sliding TS should I be looking at with this setup?
Theoretically, you wouldn't need one at all. Because you have the track saw, large panel handling capability would be redundant, so you may want to look at one of the <50" slide models. There is, or at least was, a Laguna TSS (@ 50" slide) available up there in Idaho (Idaho Falls IIRC) recently, it may still be available, asking price was $3,500. It was posted on KSL. It's kinda a hybrid between an American cabinet saw with a Euro slider grafted on. Probably not as nice as the Hammer/Felder and MiniMax tools, but still Euro and likely nicer than the Asian tools.
Other than a dust system is there something else I need to buy in the way of major machines.
Need? No. Depending on the type of projects you're going to do, a shaper and/or mortising machine may be very handy. If you decide to build a lot of pieces in the Arts & Craft/Prairie styles, a stout mortising machine will make life much easier. If you decide to do a lot of heavy edge profiles and such, then the shaper is in its element. Both can be done other ways though, so I'd simply make sure to have the space available if/when the time comes.
Also, one little point to keep in mind. I am extremely limited on time. I have 7 kids, a farm with a ton of animals etc so when I get time to pursue my hobbies I want it to be exactly what I want. I don't like feeling like I compromised or am being held back by not having a piece of equipment I needed to make the project go smoothly so I want to do it right. Fortunatly my wife lets me spend the money I get from bailing hay in the middle of the night on whatever tools I want.
Limited on time, 7 kids.
Sounds like you could really use a lathe. There are few better ways to get a quick fix of woodworking, they can be used to create a world of useful objects, they are one of the best ways to expose kids to woodworking, and they don't take up a lot of space.
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