Thread: Advice on gearing up

mmmmmmm not a old fella... yet... and definantly not an old hand at this stuff although Ive been muckin about for some time now only now getting serious

anyhow... so you only want the one tool??? why not go whole hog and get all that you will ever need... oh I see that finance thing... okay so you want to justify getting just the woodrat? No need just go get it easy to convince the missus when you show her the quotes she being female will see the long term value of buying the best you can afford to do the job rather than shelling out an arm leg and two testicles for someone else to do it

I wonder though if your not thinking straight... bear with me all will be revealed mate... okay so youve got this massive house to restore right? need to make new sash windows of various sizes redo the cabinets etc etc etc... you will at various times need... a table saw, bandsaw, jointer, thicknesser, various sanders cause the shipload of timber your gonna need is cheeper undressed rather than dressed all round as you would be buying it from the shops and dealers recycle timbers are cheeper just gotta remember to get rid of the damned ruddy nails!~

Now you say you want your work to last the next century? so heres a hint Im using as I go nuts around here... do what HAS to be done well first time round to last many years... then train the young fella or girl whichever to do woodbutcherin that way when your dead which you probably will be in 100 years time (shyte I sure hope I am! at 148 years old I bludy well bedda be!) they can fix anything that needs fixin in the ruddy place and not call you up from the long sleep

So gettin just a woodrat aint gonna cut it for what you say your gonna need to do... sorry as good as it is its limited in its uses and adaptability

You can get various tools mentioned above for reasonable prices from various companys (just avoid the orange one) if you stick to contractor type table saw smaller jointer thicknesser etc and then be able to do all the work yourself!! everything wood YOU personally can do... no more checking out quotes from "professionals" no more going to the dealers for your timber needs no more high prices...

What Im suggesting is that to do what you say your going to do you need a fair range of tools not necessarily the way I went (totally over the top) but enough so you need for nothing other than the fixing and finishing stuff

I wish you well with it mate

Cheers!

Sorry, didn't explain myself. I'm already reasonably well kitted up. I've got a Scheppach 315 site saw, docking saw, circular saw, power hand planer, router and Triton table, drills, drill press, sanders and other stuff, all "good" brands. But you're right about using undressed timber - there's a few tons of it sitting around here in unwanted buildings for starters. So on the "to-buy" list is a thicknesser &/or jointer (tough call, this. One or the other, or both?) But my REALLY serious investment is likely to be in the Festool system - a big plunge saw, router, dust extractor and multifunction table, initially. The cost of this small list makes me wake up in the middle of the night, sweating. But after making dozens of lists weighing up pros and cons, Festool came up tops. Here's why:

- dust extraction. Me and wood dust don't get along very well. Festool seems to have the best possible dust extraction system. Costly, but not compared to lung cancer.
- flexibility. Festool's guide rail system is unbeatable. With the saw and guide rail I can go from trimming rough stock (ripping or crosscutting) to cutting up sheets of MDF with the precision of a dedicated panel saw (and not suck MDF dust doing it). With the router and rail I can cut dados and rabbets (can't do that on the Scheppach), or rout out the erratic spacings on our old tongue and groove floors prior to caulking them. Etc.
- the system. Also unbeatable. Everything fits with everything else. If a few jobs in the pipeline come off, I aim to also invest in the new CMS modular system when it arrives, which will give me a small precision saw table, then a router bench, then a sanding bench. (The Scheppach saw isn't precision - the blurb mentions furniture, but that's way off. It's a site saw, and a good one, but that's it.)
- quality. As I said, this is intended to be a one-off lifetime investment. I guess every woodworker says this to their sceptical wives at some point ...

Alternatively, I can get a good table saw, thicknesser/jointer and some joint-making system for a similar price. But I don't have that Festool flexibility, and I haven't bought into a system (albeit one that will keep me broke). But I'm open to any pearls of wisdom that the wise in these matters might have to offer.

Matt

bashosfrog,

But my REALLY serious investment is likely to be in the Festool system - a big plunge saw, router

Do a search for Rockers morticing jig and for the tenons ?

I own a woodrat, & it really isn't for machining big bits of wood... how big are the $1,000 windows & where (end or side) are you going to do these tenons?? The woodrat is basicaly a router table upside down (+ some extra useful x y co-ord stuff) but you mount it at waist/chest height & if the wood needs a tenon cut in the end the you need to be able to stand it up UNDER the woodrat.

just my 5c worth

I've forgotten the terminology, but the tenons go on the smaller horizontal pieces. That was a concern I had about the Woodrat, but the widest stock I'll be tenoning would be about 600 mm. The big corner joints aren't so much of a bother as the smaller muntin joints. Our current windows have six panes in each 600 x 800 sash, but I'll cut this down to four panes.