Thread: Small Shop Necessities?

Originally Posted by BryanB

Im thinking of turning my garage into a small workshop. Its about 10x16. Im a student looking for a place to do some practice projects outside of school. Im trying to get an idea of what big machinery i would need to do a wide variety of projects. Here is what i was thinking. They would all be benchtop. I have a Radial Arm Saw for crosscutting rough widths.

1. Delta 10" Tablesaw - for ripping and plywood and joinery
2. Delta 10" Chopsaw - for mitering and small cuts
3. Delta 10" Drill Press - for mortising, drilling, and shaping w/ spindle sander
4. Delta 12" Planer - for planing
5. Porter Cable 6gal. Air Compressor w/ guns - for brads

I would use a hand jig saw instead of a band saw. So this is what i was thinking would be enough. Let me know what you think.

you'll also need a thickensser, batt drills, bisquit joiner, a myriad of clamps, dust extractor.

we are in Oz, probably cant help you with suppliers and brand choices.

cheers

I was wondering about the dust collection. Can you hook up a shop vac. Do they make like adapters or am i going to have to rig one up.

Shop vac will be no good for collecting dust: volume per time (cu feet per minute) is too low. Use a dust collector.

Originally Posted by zenwood

Shop vac will be no good for collecting dust: volume per time (cu feet per minute) is too low. Use a dust collector.

Minor correction: shop-vac will be no good for collecting dust from high-volume tools with largish (4" or so) dust ports. Such as the planer.

Tools that generate relatively low volumes of dust/shavings are better served with a shop-vac... like the drill-press, hand-held sanders and possibly both saws.

I'd skip the chop saw, if you have a table saw or radial arm saw, use could use either to take it's place. I'd also pass on the compressor and guns, spend that money on a bandsaw. A reasonable BS will do things a jigsaw couldn't dream of doing. You can always drive a nail with a Mk I hammer.

Don't be scared to pick up a few handtools either. Should be pretty thick on the ground where you are and old ones are cheap and often better than the new ones. Lie Nielsen, Lee Valley, etc. excepted.

Originally Posted by BryanB

I was wondering about the dust collection. Can you hook up a shop vac. Do they make like adapters or am i going to have to rig one up.

Mate this forum has had some great threads on making a Mini Cyclone for your dust collection,
though I haven't yet made one I believe Sturdee's was proberly the best

There is a search button on the tool bar towards the top of the page , I would strongly recomend you have a look at the mini cyclones described there

Rgds

Bryan, welcome.

Shop vac isn't designed for big machinery. As for which one to buy first. There is no right answer for it. I will say you need a lot of stuff to do what you want to do.