If anyone receives my Newsletter especially the December 2018 one you would know that I spent a lot of time thinking about shop upgrades and changes. If you don’t currently receive my Newsletter you can sign up below:
During the last several weeks I have been wondering what changes I needed to make to the workshop over the next year or so, and I broke it into 2 sections.
The First Section
The first section deals with new tools that I need to get and the tools I need deal with two sections dust collection and lumber milling.
Dust Collection:
I have decided to get Rocklers Dust Right mainly because of the following reasons:
Its affordable under $300.00
Its compact because it mounts on the wall, the reviews on this dust collection system are really good and all the accessories for it are affordable and puts it in the budget of a woodworker hobbyist like myself.
I don't need to spend a fortune and run 4" ducting pipe all over the shop as the expansible hose can be run to one tool at a time.
When I move out of this shop and into another it will not be a big ordeal in transferring it.
Dressing Lumber
The other tools that I want to get this year deals with lumber dressing and milling, I currently have no tools that can dress lumber, what I mean by that is that I cant take a rough piece of wood and thickness and joint it, I have always depended on either buying my lumber from big home centers like Home Depot and buying their limited supply of wood as it was already dimension-ed and ready for use, lately they have a diminishing supply of hardwoods and only primarily supply Oak, Poplar and Pine.
The other way I could buy lumber that was dimension-ed was to go to local lumber yards where they sell a very large selection of hard & softwoods but they were rough and needed to be dimension-ed at an added cost sometimes as much as $75 per hour in the lumber yard milling department, which can run very expensive.
So with all that stated the 2 products that I have done a decent amount of research on has been the following tools:
Section Two
Section 2 deals with my workshop layout and how my workflow could be improved and I usually achieve this by moving the shop around and determine what is the most functional layout for my style and methods of woodworking.
It also can be improved by either moving, removing or making new shop fixtures such as designated work areas, the workbenches that I currently use. To be honest I really want to make a traditional workbench but I don't see myself as a solely hand tool woodworker, in the words of the Wood Whisperer (Marc Spagnulo) I am most definitely a hybrid woodworker because I love using both hand & power tools to get the job done.
So to that end I think I will be making a small traditional workbench out of hard maple and I just purchased the front vise for it in a Woodcraft sale.
That is enough details on what I hope happens in the very near future.