Reply by Jerry

Um, I vote no. Just my preference. I’ve never owned one myself but I know I prefer less set up time. I started seriously woodworking in a small 18’*18’garage on an extremely limited budget.in 2008. I did buy a few new tools in the beginning. But I quickly learned CL was a great source. One of my first awakening moments came in the middle of a small commission when my tiny craftsman TS burned out, within a day I picked up a Delta contractor saw for 75.00 and completed my job on time. From then on it has been one CL find after another. Now I even go to machine/tool auctions. I have also found a dislike for extensive set up tasks. 4 years later we run 3 shapers and a router table, 2 table saws, 3 sliding miter saws, 2 RAS saws. All this is for redundancy and to help minimize set up times. What we have is overkill for a hobby, but more to the point is a tight budget can go a long ways with patience and CL. If you can afford to drop 750.00 on this shopsmith, you are likely in better financial shape then what I was in when we first began. That sort of money can buy you a good quality ts on CL and likely a good used bench top planed. I have never owned a jointed myself and we manage very efficiently without the jointed.

-- Jerry Nettrour, San Antonio, www.topqualitycabinets.net