# New house, New shop, New tools



## CodyJames (Oct 24, 2011)

Where to begin?

A month or so ago we suffered a flood, I lose all of my tools in my basement, including a full woodshop, with most of all the trimmings, including a huge stock of mahogany, tiger maple, walnut, all sorts. The only thing I didn't own was a lathe.

It has worked out that we were able to move to a new house, that has a full finished "basement", the house is up on a hill so no chance of flooding this time around, and my wife has graciously and with much understanding and encouragement, allowed me to go absolutely bonkers buying new "stuff" for the shop.

So the first thing I purchased was, of course, a Powermatic 90th anniversary edition 3520b Onyx series lathe along with a nice "matching" 1.75 hp dust collector. This is all being delivered tomorrow in the afternoon, I made the purchase through Rockler. I don't want to speak anything BAD about Rockler, but, lets just say that there was a misunderstanding and they charged me twice for my lathe and dust collector, leaving a huge NEGATIVE in my bank account. Thankfully they were very nice and the bank was very nice and everything was corrected within 24 hours without a hit to our credit rating or anything.

So, aside from the heart attack of absolutely knowing NOTHING about what I am doing with a lathe, and all the nonsense with Rockler. The guy from the delivery place calls me up and says "Sir, do you have a loading dock at your house?(when I ordered I forgot to click the "Residential" box, I will accept the blame on this one I may have missed the box, I just didn't see it there, it may have been there). So, HOPEFULLY, I can throw the guy an extra 50 bucks along with the 100 dollar liftgate fee and get my lathe dropped directly in my shop. Then I just have to put it all together.

Then I got to wait til next Tuesday for the electrician to come and put in a 220 for the lathe and a 110 for the dust collector. I am hoping I get to turning wood this century sometime. I've only done it once in my life ever and that was 30 years ago in school but it was the one thing that helped carry on my life long woodworking hobby. I just never owned a lathe.

I was looking at possibly going with a SawStop table saw, but have decided against this, I tend to think that the safety feature would breed my OWN complacency and over-confidence, which would lead to extreme disregard for safety. So, I am leaning towards the Jet Pro-shop table saw. 
It's hard to sit here and imagine all of the tools that I need to replace, it literally took years to build what I had and I have been like a dog with his tail between his legs from the loss, but, as my wife said, my new shop will be the ultimate compared to what I lost. So anyway, to end all this, I will be posting pictures and comments as I go along to share my ride doing the thing I love doing the most. Peace.


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## doordude (Mar 26, 2010)

cody, be careful; turning is very addictive
it will add another dimention to your woodworking. good luck on puting a new shop together.
what happened to your past 30 years of tools? were they lost in a fire or theft?
anyway its fun to set up a new place to work.


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## knotscott (Feb 27, 2009)

The Proshop is a well proven hybrid, but has not been updated with a riving knife. For around the same price, I'd at least take a look at the Grizzly G0661, Grizzly G0715, Craftsman 22116, or GI 50-220R. Better yet, if you've got 220v available, I'd definitely lean toward a 3hp cabinet saw…the Grizzly G1023RL is $1289 delivered.


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## agallant (Jul 1, 2010)

Is it bad that sometimes I wish this big tree next to my shop will fall on it so I can build a larger shop? You should get a nice PM table saw to match that lathe you have


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## helluvawreck (Jul 21, 2010)

I'm glad that you folks came out ok and I can only imagine how much you will be enjoying the new shop. Congratulations.


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## CodyJames (Oct 24, 2011)

Yeh, I would love to go with all matching Powermatic tools, I just can't justify the expense of it though, maybe if they made me their honorary review customer, lol!

agallant, I'm with you man, lets hope that sucker falls soon as long as there is nobody inside it!

I know this sounds extremely dangerous but, the first thing i take off my table saws are all the safety features. I don't do any jobs big enough that require anti-kickback pawls and riving knives, so I put them on when needed. Take them off when they're in the way and become more of a safety issue themselves.

I am one of the least savvy people when it comes to electricity and wiring, so I am not real positive if I am going to be able to have more than one 220v line in my shop, or if they will be able to install another box or what. If I can have a bunch of 220's then I will be filling my shop with 220 tools. =)


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

Nothing like a double-charge on a PM Lathe to get your attention, lol. Congrats on this opportunity!


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## knotscott (Feb 27, 2009)

It's not likely that you'll ever be running the lathe at the same time as the TS. You should be able to use the same outlet for both if you use the same plugs on each.


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## CodyJames (Oct 24, 2011)

Yes knotscott, you're absolutely right. Which is why I am going to let the professional take care of it. Cause I will be running the dust collector at the same time as everything else. So, I'm not certain how I want to go about it, I figure the electrician will help make my mind up for me.

BTW, was just informed that my lathe is to be delivered within the next hour and a half to 2 hours. Any volunteers wanna come to NY and help me put this sucker together?!? lol!

My god that Grizzly is a beautiful saw though. 3hp is so far overkill for anything I would ever need it for. Heck even the ProShop is a bit more than I need.

Before I got flooded, I made the mistake of buying a Ridgid, I am so glad that thing got flooded you can't imagine. LOL! Just before it flooded, I had it all taken apart and was working on widening the trunion holes so that the frickin' saw blade would be able to be zeroed so it would reduce kick back and I could get actual STRAIGHT cuts. This was after the ultra-rare 6 ribbed belt broke and I had to wait a month and a half to get a replacement. Key to the story? DO NOT BUY THE RIDGID HYBRID TABLE SAW! Save your money and go with quality.


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## CodyJames (Oct 24, 2011)

BTW, was just informed that my lathe is to be delivered within the next hour and a half to 2 hours. Any volunteers wanna come to NY and help me put this sucker together?!? lol!


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## CodyJames (Oct 24, 2011)

My god that Grizzly is a beautiful saw though. 3hp is so far overkill for anything I would ever need it for. Heck even the ProShop is a bit more than I need.

Before I got flooded, I made the mistake of buying a Ridgid, I am so glad that thing got flooded you can't imagine. LOL! Just before it flooded, I had it all taken apart and was working on widening the trunion holes so that the frickin' saw blade would be able to be zeroed so it would reduce kick back and I could get actual STRAIGHT cuts. This was after the ultra-rare 6 ribbed belt broke and I had to wait a month and a half to get a replacement. Key to the story? DO NOT BUY THE RIDGID HYBRID TABLE SAW! Save your money and go with quality.


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## CodyJames (Oct 24, 2011)

Sorry, I double posted sorta, was trying to consolidate but I see I can't delete my other posts.


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## longgone (May 5, 2009)

Congratulations on the new house/shop and tools. I know you must be happy as a Cajun with a bowl of Gumbo. I do not have a lathe but maybe one day I will have enough interest in turning to purchase one.

I had my previous house/shop flooded also a little over 6 years ago so I know how you feel. I built my dream shop after moving….so I know that sometimes a disaster can be a good think in the long run.


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## CodyJames (Oct 24, 2011)

Well, there it is all together, I was able to put the entire thing together by myself. I am only 5'3 and 150lbs and very determined. I used a "motorcyle" style deadlift with my back to the legs and center rail. I removed headstock and tail and just manned up to it. I would NOT recommend it, but I have no help so. I only slightly pinched my pinky once and if it had been a bit more pressure would have surely broke it bad, when I had to lift the headstock back up on to the center rail. LOL! Man that was HARDCORE! It took me half an hour to regain my strength so I could muscle the headstock that extra 3 inches to get it on the rail. Being short is a curse!

To be frank, the dust collector took more time to put together than the Lathe. The lathe only took me so long because I had to recover in between extreme weight lifts, hehehe…..

Oh by the way, if you intend on buying a lathe from Powermatic, BEWARE, you will need to obtain a LARGE hex bolt wrench, for some reason Powermatic does not or at least did not supply me with one.

Other than that, everything is awesome, just got to wait til the electrician comes on next Tuesday to give me an estimate and schedule for one the job can be done. God I hope that doesn't take that long! We just got flooded last month so everyones needing electricians and they are in short supply.


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## thiel (May 21, 2009)

CodyJames,

Me too! I got flooded out in Irene and lost everything. We should share notes!

-Thiel


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