I'd like to thank everybody who has welcomed me to the site already….I've been lurking for months but just signed up. I have learned a whole lot just by reading other people's questions and answers, but have questions of my own that I am curious about.
As a little background, I am just getting started into woodworking. I'm excited, but I haven't built much of anything since my eighth grade shop class put together napkin holders and turned a ball-in-cup toy. I have started putting together a shop in the basement of my house that we're always working on (1870's farmhouse) and have been especially motivated by my desire to build a kitchen table that fits in the spot we want it for our new kitchen. I have a brand new (Christmas gift) 10" table saw down there, and a Harbor Freight dust collector with Thein separator that I put on a cart (like many others, I was inspired/stole the idea from people on this site as well as the Thein forum). I also have a 30 year old Craftsman 10" RAS, and an at least 30 year old 6" Craftsman jointer with tiny little beds. Finally, when searching Craigslist for a used planer, I found a historic window rehabilitation company going out of business and instead ended up with 30 Jorgenson Pony 3/4" pipe clamps with pipe, most 2' - 4' long, and 20 36" Hargrave I-Bar clamps from when they were still owned by Cincinnati Tool Co. These are all US-made, old-school clamps.
I'm trying to plan my next purchases/direction, and this is where I would welcome advice. The limited space of my shop is dictating that everything be put on mobile bases, which is my current project. Next would be a workbench, clamp cart/storage (right now they're in a pile on the floor), and then hopefully the kitchen table. I guess I have two things I'm really asking about:
1) As far as purchases go, what would be most helpful right away? I'm thinking about a router, router table (in my table saw), drill press, planer, new jointer, maybe a jointer/planer, miter saw….but can't do all that at once.
2) Do I need all those clamps? They are pretty awesome, and I intend to thread enough of the smaller pipes to give myself a bigger assortment of possible lengths. I love the bar clamps, but 20 of the 36" clamps seems like a lot. How many do I need? What is a fair price to sell the rest for? I was thinking of keeping 8 (1 per foot for a hypothetical 8' glue-up, which would be enormous and would probably never happen).
Thanks for the help,
Alex
As a little background, I am just getting started into woodworking. I'm excited, but I haven't built much of anything since my eighth grade shop class put together napkin holders and turned a ball-in-cup toy. I have started putting together a shop in the basement of my house that we're always working on (1870's farmhouse) and have been especially motivated by my desire to build a kitchen table that fits in the spot we want it for our new kitchen. I have a brand new (Christmas gift) 10" table saw down there, and a Harbor Freight dust collector with Thein separator that I put on a cart (like many others, I was inspired/stole the idea from people on this site as well as the Thein forum). I also have a 30 year old Craftsman 10" RAS, and an at least 30 year old 6" Craftsman jointer with tiny little beds. Finally, when searching Craigslist for a used planer, I found a historic window rehabilitation company going out of business and instead ended up with 30 Jorgenson Pony 3/4" pipe clamps with pipe, most 2' - 4' long, and 20 36" Hargrave I-Bar clamps from when they were still owned by Cincinnati Tool Co. These are all US-made, old-school clamps.
I'm trying to plan my next purchases/direction, and this is where I would welcome advice. The limited space of my shop is dictating that everything be put on mobile bases, which is my current project. Next would be a workbench, clamp cart/storage (right now they're in a pile on the floor), and then hopefully the kitchen table. I guess I have two things I'm really asking about:
1) As far as purchases go, what would be most helpful right away? I'm thinking about a router, router table (in my table saw), drill press, planer, new jointer, maybe a jointer/planer, miter saw….but can't do all that at once.
2) Do I need all those clamps? They are pretty awesome, and I intend to thread enough of the smaller pipes to give myself a bigger assortment of possible lengths. I love the bar clamps, but 20 of the 36" clamps seems like a lot. How many do I need? What is a fair price to sell the rest for? I was thinking of keeping 8 (1 per foot for a hypothetical 8' glue-up, which would be enormous and would probably never happen).
Thanks for the help,
Alex