Thread: OK - here it is $5,000 budget

Arry

Two questions for you:

Firstly, what are your priorities, and

Secondly, will you be adding to the budget at some stage, or it this the total you are prepared to spend for sometime to come?

You could blow the lot on a tablesaw alone ..

Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Arry

Two questions for you:

Firstly, what are your priorities, and

Secondly, will you be adding to the budget at some stage, or it this the total you are prepared to spend for sometime to come?

You could blow the lot on a tablesaw alone ..

Regards from Perth

Derek

Good questions Derek

Well I want to make my own furniture and have been doing various courses to learn etc.

Yes, down then track I may add to the budget but not for a long while, lucky I am getting $5,000 passed the missus hehehe

Tablesaw $1000
8" Planer $1200 (don't skimp and buy a 6")
13" Thicknessser $600
2hp dusty with .5 micron cannister filter $700

That is already $3500 of your budget gone.

Forget (for now) the mitre saw, drill press (although that is the one I'd get next if the budget is there), bandsaw, and beltsander (ugh!).

Set of 6 chisels: 1/8, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 3/4, 1". This could be had for about $150-200.

Block plane: have a look at the Veritas LA as it can be converted into a #3 size smoother as well.

A couple of second hand planes: #4 and #5 1/2

or, look into a couple of Mugingfang woodies (best bang for the buck) ..

Sander ? If you can wield a handplane you will not use one ... unless you will be working with ply and MDF.

Regards from Perth

Derek

If it was me knoeing what I know now I'de Change the order
if you are getting them all at once
Band saw (14" throat minimum)
Belt disk sander ( combo unit with a 6" disk)
Sander ( good ros not a festool at this stage but proberly a makita)
Chisels ( here is the hard part , as your starting out perhaps a set of stanley ) but the best you could hope for is to pick up some titans secondhand though the chance of this is small)
Planes There was a good thread on the 5 planes you need , some suggested LV etc but the cost is huge , second hand stanleys are proberly the best but where do you go to get them )
Mitre Saw (For a decent compound sliding mitre saw you will need to outlay $1000 or there abouts , festool $1600, there are gmc types that are ok depending on what you need)
Planer ( 6" proberly at least $500)
Thicknesser ( 12 " ? mine was $600 10 years ago )
More Clamps ( no matter how many you buy you'll never have enough , cheep and nasty are just that , good quick grips $40-$50 each and bessy are more)
Drill Press (Get a small one that can be bench mounted but shop around , if you can afford a floor mounted one then thats the way to go)
Table Saw ( what derek said , cheepest is a seconh hand triton , but you still need a decent saw, though if you can afford to wait there are sometimes some good deals )
Dust Extraction ( though I'de get a shop vac)

And Add a good hand saw and a good jap pull saw for small work ( my prefence)
A decent hammer, plyers , set of screwdrivers , a sharpening guide, and most important a good beer fridge

well if it was me id not take up wood working and take up carving

but this is the road you wana go down so go

i to am setting up shop and dropsaw band saws and dust extra

but sometthing i found out along time a go if you have $5000 to play with
try get some of your wish list 2nd hand

as you make the $$ with woodwork buy new ones and sell the 2nd hand ones on
at the end of the day if you dont do to well with wood work it will not hurt as much to sell old tolls as it do to selll new ones

Originally Posted by Arry

As some of you may have read on these forums I am just getting into woodworking. Have been learning for approx 3 months now.

After lengthy discussions with the missus I have a budget of $5,000 to get me started.

What I have:

Cordless Drill
Workbench
Sharpening stone
A few clamps
Set Squares * 2
Marking guage

What I want:

Table Saw $385
Mitre Saw
Planer
Thicknesser $399
Drill Press $352
Sander
Bandsaw $540
Dust Extraction $540
Belt Sander
Chisels
Planes
More Clamps

My question to you all is for a budget of $5,000 what would you do and where would you begin.

Many thanks

Some starting points

Tool snobs go overboard which is great if you can afford to spend money like water. Otherwise a wide variety of cheaper tools is far more productive than having a few quality snob tools

The saw bench I point out is not a fancy saw but its got good power and is great value for money, you could always upgrade the fence with a DIY biesemeyer clone. I had a look at one odf these a few years agoo at the ww show and thought these were very under rated by the ww fraternity. I'd get a couple of spare blades

The cheap 12" thicknessers are all ok, there was a thread somewhere in the archives about thicknessers and all of the cheapies , gmc included, were all highly regarded - more so than some of the prestigous makes

Mitre saws, I've got a scms, but the main mitre saw I use is an elcheapo gmc. Provided you setup your saw correctly the cheapies work ok.

Planer/ Jointer.
Not really necessary as your saw bench and thicknesser (with a sled)
will do more than a jointer that is narrower than your thicknesser.
There is little point having a jointer narrower than your thicknesser

Sander, A belt/disc combo is handy and a cheapy is adequate

A Random Orbit sander is an essential tool. I've had Bosch, Ozito and GMC. The Ozito was the best one to use. I'd be inclined to buy a couple of ros's and set each up with different grits.

Portable Belt Sander, Buy a good brand such as Makita/Hitachi etc.

Chisels
A set of Stanleys is a good starting point.

Handsaws
A Hardpoint Jacksaw and fine tooth hardpoint tenon saw are invaluable.

If I had to start over from scratch with 5 grand knowing what I do now I would do it this way.

The heart and soul of any work shop is the table saw so the best part should go there. I would make the big choice to outlay $1900 on a TSC10 and build as many quality table saw jigs to go with it and compromise on some of the other machines for now.

Saw - $1900
Jointer - $500 Cheap Chinese 6” or second hand 8”
Thicknesser - $500 Cheap Chinese 12” or cheaper GMC if you can find one.
Bandsaw - $500 Cheap Chinese 14”
Dust collector - $15 shovel and dust mask
Bench mounted drill press $250
---------------------------------------------
Machines $3665
---------------------------------------------

Leaves $1335 to divide into a
Sander - Metabo duo random orbital
Hand planes - second hand Stanley Block and No 4 or 5 (later on get replacement Lie Nelson blades)
Marple Blue chip chisel set plus one high quality 18mm chisel
Marking Gaug
Marking knife
Awl
Jap saw
Adjustable square
600mm and 1000mm steel rule
And the balance on at least 8 @ 18” clutched F clamps and as many pipe clamps you can afford

NB- the Chinese machines are great if you spend a few days with some good magazine articles and tune them up. They will give you years of great service. I Still use my cheap 14” Chinese band saw I bought 15 years ago. Also if you can take the entire $5000 to the one outlet that way you should get a discount on some items and some freebies chucked in

Me, I'd go for these (I'm only using Carbatec as an example)
Saw bench MJ2325CT with MJ2325CTSP.
Thicknesser CTJ381 or the CTJ680.
Planer/Jointer CTJ350.
Dust Extractor FM300

This is always a hard question to answer.

I think it is a bad idea to buy cheap tools now and replace them later. What it means is you will eventually buy the same tool twice. I think you should buy tools as you need them and buy the ones that last.

The most important is to start making Furniture so you can justify your spending.

I'd take the bandsaw off the "immediate" list and put in the "later" list.

If you plan on ripping down rough-sawn billets (ie. timbers on the scale of railway sleepers) then you'll want the best BS you can afford... a generic 14" job just won't make the grade. But that's expen$ive.

However, if you'll be sourcing the bulk of your timbers through suppliers such as Matthew's Timber then a tablesaw should do the job nicely.

A tablesaw won't do curved cuts whereas a BS will, but to start off I reckon you're better off buying a good jigsaw for a fraction of the cost... and putting the savings towards a better TS. After all, how many curved cuts do you think you'll be making?

(Now, if you were thinking of buying a lathe as well, then a BS becomes mandatory! )

Originally Posted by Wongo

I think it is a bad idea to buy cheap tools now and replace them later. What it means is you will eventually buy the same tool twice. I think you should buy tools as you need them and buy the ones that last.

Absolutely right on Wongo

Originally Posted by Wongo

I think it is a bad idea to buy cheap tools now and replace them later.

What type of tools are you refering to?

Nothing specific

Thanks for all the replies so far guys, is much appreciated...

I have a lot of thinking to do now........

I know what you all mean though, there are basically two schools of though, start off by buying cheap stuff or buy decent stuff so it lasts....hhhhhmmmm

What to do?