Festool4

I’m an amateur woodworker with aspirations of making woodworking my future career by opening my own woodshop.

Presently, I’m working out of my garage, well part of it. Half of my garage is taken up with her car and another quarter with my motorcycle. Honestly, it isn’t that big of a deal. When it is time to make sawdust, I pull her car and my motorcycle out and then roll out my tools; pretty much everything is on wheels. It takes me about 30 minutes to set up shop.

The only thing that really kills my woodworking is the summer heat. I don’t have air-conditioning and during the summer months, my garage usually stays around 115 degrees (day and night). An air-conditioner is an obvious solution, but the HOA is making that a very difficult and expensive addition. I think my future will involve renting a small work space – just not immediately.

Although, I believe in using power tools, I’m trying to put equal attention towards hand tools. I have a pretty good collection of chisels, spoke shaves, scrappers and hand planes. Some need to be fully restored – hopefully I will get to them over the summer.

In regards to power tools, I’m a big fan of Festool although I have been pretty happy with Dewalt and Bosch routers as well. I have a Laguna TSS table saw and a LT16 band saw. If I had deep pockets, they wouldn’t be my first choice, but so far, they have held up pretty well.

For future purchases, I’m looking for a Jointer / Planer combo, a cyclone dust collection system and Leigh D4 jig (I have a Leigh 1600 now).

I’m very motivated to learn as much as possible about woodworking. I read at least two articles or chapters a day. I keep a daily log to track my progress and make a point to visit Fine Woodworking and The Wood Whisperer on a daily basis.

Cheers,

Frank

-- Festool4