Hey Y'all,
I just wanted to introduce myself. My name Chuck and I've been a long-time lurker here. My wife & I bought our house just under a year ago and I'm in the middle of (finally) getting organized- I get to use our entire garage to set up my woodworking shop. Our home is older, so the advertised "2 car" garage would only live up to its name if one of our cars was a Mini Cooper- which it's not. The space is about 18'w x 20'l and must currently houses my tools, yard equipment and bicycles. I'll be sure to update as things get done.
Anyway.... yesterday, I traded for a Delta HD shaper (43-351) in very good condition. I noticed that it's only got one wing extension. Looking through the manual, it seems that the other wing was available as an optional accessory. My question is, what benefits would (could) adding the 2nd wing provide? That 2nd wing would be located "behind" the cutter and fence and seems like it would only take up precious shop space, since the effective "working" area is located in front. Am I missing something here?
For those interested in knowing, I traded a Canon EOS Rebel XTi (Digital SLR camera) straight-up for the shaper. It was largely unused because it served as my backup rig. My current router is almost as old as me, but still runs strong for hand-held work. I figured that this trade would be more cost-effective than buying a bigger router + buying/building a table.