Buying a bench-saw.

[Nigel Watts]

Furniture making is more my thing than large scale joinery and carpentry, but some of my work is quite large (like the set of eight foot tall library bookcases I am currently working on in solid oak and hand veneered ply).

My most important tool is my cabinetmakers bench. I made this myself over twenty years ago, and although it is not quite as rigid as it should be (top is 3 inch beech, not 4 inch as in the best benches) it has proved its worth. The key thing is the end vice and associated row of bench stops which allows one to hold work flat, with nothing protruding, to allow hand planing.

Apart from my hand held router and drill, my only power tool is a floor standing Inca table saw of 1970s vintage. A bit on the light side, it is nevertheless invaluable for ripping timber to width and thickness and cutting mitres. I also use it to rough out wider mouldings by taking a series of shallow, parallel cuts of varying depth following the profile, which is later tidied by hand using rounds and hollows and scrapers.

If I had more space I would add a band saw for converting hardwood of a large width into thinner planks. I am not too keen on planers, but appreciate their utility. I am terrified of spindle moulders and never go near them.

Until it closed a few years ago I did an evening class at my local college. This gave me access to some serious machinery. They used to have one evening for the serious enthusiasts, where for a higher fee there were fewer students and an extra techician to help in the machine shop.

 

[Jane Smith]

We have a huge work bench in one of our outhouses which we never use. It's probably 4 or 5m long, with a giant vice on the side (steady, Penners). I've often wished I could get a carpenter out here on some pretence and imprison him in the workshop, and make him make us windows. We have 52 in the house, all but one of which need replacing, and that's before we start on the stables.

Biff, you're not too far away from me, are you?

 

[Andrew Bodenham]

it seems a decent bench saw is the only way forward.

I'd disagree, Jess. Although I wouldn't be without my Scheppach 2500 table saw I did a lot of renovation work here before I had it, including making doors, frames, gates, and furniture pieces. The critical items in my shop at the time were a mid-size bandsaw and a 10" planer / thicknesser, which I'm still using today. In my opinion you get more for your money with a bandsaw, whilst the planer is an essential.

A router table is really useful, and much safer for many operations, especially if you're dealing with a big cutter and a small workpiece. Don't waste money buying one though - they're dead easy to make, especially if you buy a metal insert plate to mount the router. Plus, with a home-made one, you can get a decent length on the table, useful for moulding long pieces of work like door frames, skirtings etc.

 

[Penners]

Jess - just a throw a spanner in the works, you might like to consider an alternative type of saw, called a radial arm saw. Here's an example:

It's arguably a more versatile machine than a table saw, although, like any machine, it also has one or two limitations.

In order to explain the jobs you can do with it, here's a digest:-

Add a feed-on and feed-off table and fence on each side, and it's a very handy pullover crosscut for cutting down long lengths of timber.

Rotate the head so that the blade is parallel to the back fence, and you can rip long lengths, panels, etc., although on the bench side of the blade your rip width is limited to the maximum distance between the blade and the fence (so within reason the longer the radial arm, the better). However, by using bench-height trestles you can rip wider dimensions on the outside of the blade.

On the rip setting you can also cut tongues down the edge of boards.

Rotate the cutting head to a horizontal plane and you can cut grooves down the edge of boards.

Swing the radial arm to a 45-degree (or any other) angle and you can cut vertical mitres.

Rotate the cutting head to 45 degrees (or any other angle) off vertical, and you can cut horizontal mitres.

Fit a hogging head and you can cut tenons.

...and so on.

However, bear in mind that - to make maximum use of its versatility - you do need to allocate a good long work area to such a saw. I recommend a good 2.5 metres (or more) of table on each side of it, if possible.

One general comment - whatever type of saw you buy, don't go for a cheap one. It will inevitably have quite a small blade diameter, and this will severely limit the thickness of timber you can cut. If Charlie's going to be making things like gates, he'll need to be cutting pretty chunky stuff.

Decisions, decisions, eh?!

 

[jess marley]

Thanks all, I wanted to say something in reply to Nigel re. his 'most important tool....not being rigid enough, ' but couldn't think what it was.

I'm also hoping that Charlie will log on as himself this evening, and stop masquerading as me.

 

[Nigel Watts]

The story of my life. But we better not go there...

 

[biffvernon]

We have 52

Now you're being greedy. Didn't the window tax inspector make it up your hill?

 

[skier-hughes]

But you could retire when you've finished them all Biff...............

 

[CharlieC]

Many thanks for all the useful advice; once I've spent my life savings all I'll need is a month of Sundays actually do the work
Charlie.

 

[Jane Smith]

Now you're being greedy. Didn't the window tax inspector make it up your hill?

Biff, I think you should be nicer to me. Otherwise you might just end up trapped in a workshop somewhere, making windows like there's no tomorrow. Remember, that 52 doesn't include the outbuildings so it could be for even longer than you thought....