BillCo's Workshop

Hi BillCo,

You have a nice shop and I can see what you said about it being a dungeon at times. But it a welcome relief when it is cold or raining outside I am sure. You have a nice set-up and some nice looking tools. I noticed your miter saw bench. Do you use all three of them? I have two but I only use my Craftsman when I need a quick 90 and don’t want to roll my slider outside.

I would like working in your shop.

Thanks for the post.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

It’s even worse than you think: I have FOUR mitre saws. The first one (put away now) was a super-cheapie by present standards but the cat’s pyjamas 12 years ago when I built the deck at my old house. The fence went outta whack and the thing made me more and more frantic, so I replaced it with a 10” Craftsman with a 80-tooth blade (the right-hand one on the bench). Excellent saw. Then the wife started to use it to cut muddy slab kindling and I gave her heck for it, so she went and bought her own (the middle one).

Then we got into some larger projects and needed something that could do a 10” cut. We found a cheap 10” sliding saw (King Canada) at Costco – ($280) – and bought it but I let the smoke out of it in less than two months. So we returned it and got another identical unit. But it was absolute crap, the deflection at full extension created errors exceeding 4 degrees, so we finally returned it to Costco and got a full refund. We went to Home Depot and Sears looking for a better saw within our budget and wound up with a Craftsman 12” slider (left end of the bench) with a 60-tooth blade. Only had it about two weeks so far but it seems acceptable.

So, to answer your question, “yes”. We actually use all three saws, but each has its own purpose.

Funny thing about the very first saw; my Dad comes to work here frequently, and loves to whinge and moan that I have better tools than him (it’s true; he is a cheapskate). I finally got annoyed enough one day so I GAVE him the original saw, with a warning about the error in the fence. About a year later he brought it back to me, saying he had gotten so used to using a mitre saw that he went out and bought a new 10” slider with a straight fence. So now I’m stuck with the thing and we use it for our outdoor projects as a sacrificial saw. It’s like a bad penny. :)

-- Sawmill Lodge - http://sawmill-lodge.com

Great looking shop. 10 times better than my first.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Thanks for the update and I love the story behind it as well.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.