Big Deal New Shop

[Jeff Raymond]

Awright.

A number of years ago, I decided to make furniture without much of a clue as to how to do it. Went through a lot of arn before settling down with some serious Big Boy Delta, etc., equipment. After a few years, sold the whole deal to a competitor, with a non-compete for 5 years.

Wife and I went on the road with the RV for 7 years and are now back...and yes, doing the shop thing from the ground up, quite literally.

Of course, we've got a 24x30 2-story space, not the best, but that's what we have.

First thing is, what are we going to have for tools?

My first exercise was to go with ex-factory and as we have discussed here, it lead to nowhere. One of the problems was shipping, inspection of equipment, all the reasons we discussed on an earlier thread. End of that road.

Then I spoke with Hermance Machinery in Pennsylvania. They were just great, but their used inventory is very thin and want to sell what they have, not what a guy wants, which is OK. I would highly recommend their service and integrity.

Not that I lost interest, but decided to let things slide for a bit. My Milwauke hand scroll saw (cheap junk) crapped out on me after only 25 years of use, which was somewhat of a disappointment. I went to HD to replace same, and of course, they didn't have what I wanted, but directed me to Western Tool, a store owned by an outfit in Oregon.

Gosh they were awfully nice and had some mid-level stuff in stock, but just enough bigger stuff to catch my interest. So I asked them if they could ge the Big Boy stuff. Yup, they could. Because the order was more than $2K, no shipping charge from Delta to them; and due to the size of the order, these hapless sales people are going to deliver all this stuff to my shop and place it for no charge (huge savings). I checked their prices with all the usual suspects and their prices individually and together are less than any other quoted prices. We made the deal.

So in a few weeks, got the 18" BS, 3hp Dust Collector, American 3 hp Unisaw, 12" jointer, 20" jointer, 16 1/2" drill press, 16" lathe, all for about 1/2 the cost of a fully outfitted Harley Davidson, delivered, read to wire up.

Next step is to get a rotophase gen for the 3 phase side of things; wire up, insulate and drywall.

My deal is that the wider jointer will allow FLAT boards to go into the jointer to minimize sanding. It's going to be weird having a 2-story shop; but will use the ground floor as the 'mill,' with the upstairs for everything else.

Checked with Jim Becker and he green-lighted this posting, so hopefully I haven't stepped on too many toes, but wanted to share this enterprise with all, having gone through the buy-the-cheap-little-tools-too-many-times-and-threw-them-away-cost deal more than once in the past.

So there ya go folks. Oh, already got wood.

[Kyle Kraft]

Sounds like a dream shop to most folks, congratulations!! I have one question, why a 12" jointer and a 20" jointer?

[Art Mann]

I have two comments. First of all, my shop is 2 story like yours. It is such a PITA to move large finished goods from the upstairs to downstairs that I simply don't do it. The upstairs is now dedicated to material storage and noisy equipment like an air compressor. The second thing I will comment on is your selection of 3 phase equipment. If you are buying new, why in the world are you buying 3 phase? There is absolutely no benefit to it unless you are getting used equipment ultra cheap or your power company is willing to feed 3 phase to your shop fo cheap. 3 phase is not inherently better in a small shop environment. In fact, it is very undesirable (and costly) to me to have to create inefficient 3 phase power from a single phase feed.

[Matt Meiser]

I would assume he means a 12" jointer and 20" planer?

[Tyler Howell]

Pictures>>>>>>We want Pictures.

[Jeff Raymond]

Thanks for your comments. I agree that the 2-story deal is not the best, but it is what I have and will have to figure out how do make it work. It will be a PITA to a certain extent, but life ain't perfect.

Going for the 12" jointer as most FAS wood is usually not wider than that. If something come up wider, will look at other options...NOT including ripping it.

What I have been discovering is that Delta is the most aggressive in pricing at this particular moment, less than Jet, Powermatic, etc.

I did try to buy American being a vet and all, but in new machinery, there aren't a whole lot of options in that regard. The tradeoff here is that Delta has an actual name to stand behind and expect that if any problems develop I know where to find them.

No pics yet, as the arn is on the way in a few weeks, but will do so.

Couple of other comments: Excepting the TS, all of this equipment is about 60% of what I paid 20 years ago for the same stuff. Too bad gasoline doesn't fit into that category.

I am going 3-phase as the equipment is much less expensive and also at 5hp, you are pushing the edge of an electrical motor at single phase. It also gives me the option of adding equpment with roto-gen that isn't available in single phase.

Upstairs will be the fussy area of sizing, mortising, sanding and a section for finishing. There exists a 4' wide stairway at the back of the shop for moving stuff up and down. A friend is thinking about some kind of a manual elevator to make things easier. I am going to stack wood upstairs as I have found that it likes the humidity upstairs (which will be insulated) rather than anywhere near cement (bad).

So, we work with what we have...will continue to monitor this thread and letchya know how things go.

Thanks for the interest and support.

[Jason Beam]

I'm glad to hear you had a good experience with Western Tool. I have two stores in my area and absolutely love them. They get my business first, before the local Woodcraft and before another local machinery co. The prices and service are VASTLY better at Western Tool by a long shot.

[Jim Becker]

The idea of some form of lift/elevator is an excellent thing to consider, especially for moving finished projects down...so much can happen on a stairway, even when it's 4' wide.

[Al Killian]

For moveing stuff up/down the stairs you can rig up a winch system that rides on angle iron attached to the walls. I am working on doing this same thing in my new shop.

[Jeff Raymond]

Al:

Sounds interesting. If you have a chance, it'd be cool for all of us to see a pic?

Why is it that none of us can have a big enough shop...or a printer that is fast enough?

[Jeff Raymond]

Well, this is the beginning of the delivery of the arn today at the ol' shop. We'll see how many pics a guy can post here.

[Jeff Raymond]

Today is the planer, jointer, band saw and some other stuff. "Some assembly required..."

Y'know...

[Jeff Raymond]

Geez, some of this stuff is really heavy...Remembering that this is the very cool-headed and great, friendly staff from the local Western Tool Supply store.

Great guys. They put everything right on the money and no one got hurt...the definition of a good landing.

Next week is the 3-phase converter and hopefully the lathe. Forgot the drill press and the oscillating sander dealie, but will catch up with that....

Y'all wanted pictures, so there you go.

[Jim O'Dell]

Lookin' good! Is everything 3-phase, or just some items? Jim.

[Dixon Peer]

I have two comments. First of all, my shop is 2 story like yours. It is such a PITA to move large finished goods from the upstairs to downstairs that I simply don't do it. The upstairs is now dedicated to material storage and noisy equipment like an air compressor. The second thing I will comment on is your selection of 3 phase equipment. If you are buying new, why in the world are you buying 3 phase? There is absolutely no benefit to it unless you are getting used equipment ultra cheap or your power company is willing to feed 3 phase to your shop fo cheap. 3 phase is not inherently better in a small shop environment. In fact, it is very undesirable (and costly) to me to have to create inefficient 3 phase power from a single phase feed.

I have three phase equipment in my shop including a 10 hp Sueri Alfredo spindle shaper, a 4 hp Sueri Alfredo 300mm jointer (about 12"), a 3 hp Griggio 18" bandsaw, etc. It requires two roto phases, one that runs the 4 to 10 hp equipment and one for the 3 hp bandsaw, and it's really worked out very well for me over the years. I don't know how one could run 10 hp motors on split phase current, and when one is doing large profiles on the shaper...well.