Due to the support of my wife, Pam, I have been able to set up shop with some good tools. While they are not what some would call the “best” they are serving me well in the shop. Would I like to add more? Sure, but that will happen over time.

For many years I used a Craftsman table saw that I bought in 1976. As I approached retirement I decided that I wanted to do more woodworking but the table saw I had was difficult to use. After learning about the SawStop I showed Pam the online videos and she told me to buy one. I must say that I’m thrilled with the saw.  While I feel safer using it, the SawStop makes me even more aware of safety. It's an amazing saw.

I got along making things for many years without a jointer. Today I’m not sure how I did it and why. A jointer is a necessary tool in a woodworking shop. After a lot of research I settled on the Grizzly G0490 8 inch parallel  jointer.  Since this is my first jointer I can’t comment on how it compares to others but I’m happy with it. I'm very glad that I didn't settle for a 6 inch model and that I bought one with wheels.

After buying the jointer I realized that a planer was needed to complete my surfacing of boards and getting my stock to the needed thickness. In the past I just used boards in the thicknesses that were available off the shelf. The DeWalt 735 seemed to be very popular with woodworkers and Woodcraft had some kind of special deal at the time so I bought one through them. I have yet to be disappointed. This planer has been a workhorse in my shop.

The year before I retired I received several gift cards for Sears on Christmas Eve. Sears happened to have their 14” bandsaw on a sale that ended that day. The price was the lowest I'd ever seen on this band saw. Pam and I drove over to the closest Sears store to get the saw. Of course the store we went to didn’t have one in stock. We jumped in the van and drove to the next closest Sears store before they closed. I’ve found this bandsaw to be an excellent tool.

The only downside I have come across from buying a major Craftsman tool is repair. Soon after my extended warranty expired the saw stopped running. At the time  I had no idea what happened. Finally I broke down and called in a repairman for a $100 service call, which at the time I didn't have budgeted. He quickly discovered that the "run capacitor" attached to the motor had failed. His only option was to replace the whole motor. So much for Sears repair and $100 wasted. A new motor would have cost almost as much as a new bandsaw plus the repair bill would have been approximately another $100. After a very long, exhausting online search I finally found an equivalent capacitor for less than $4.00 at an electrical supply place. I ordered one. After it came I made some slight modifications to the box it needed to go in. That plastic box is on top of the bandsaw motor. With the modificationa made I installed the capacitor. Since then the saw has worked perfectly. I've even done some resawing with a Wood Slicer blade from Highland Woodworking. It's a fantastic blade. NOTE: My custom PT Cruiser is in the background in this photo.

Sometime in the future I'd love to add a second bandsaw. I'd like one with a bigger resaw capacity. With two band saws I could keep the Craftsman set up with a smaller blade for curves and the bigger one set up for resawing.

I purchased a 12” Delta bench top drill press. It’s a handy tool, but I’d much rather have a drill press with more quill travel. It came with a laser marking system that's an absolute joke and the depth stop isn't much better. At least it does a decent job of drilling holes.

For a while it was very difficult to adjust the table height. The issue was finally corrected. To fix the drill press I had to buy a hydrolic jack to move the table up to fix the gear mechanism that the table rides on.

For a while Rockler had a drill press table that I discovered would fit my drill press. It even had the cutout for the handle that raises and lowers the table. I find that the Rockler table and fence are very valuable for my drilling.

NOTE: Most of the pictures below were taken in my garage before we moved to our present home and my new shop. Some day, after my current shop is more orderly and cleaned up, I'll update all the pictures. It's getting close to being ready for photos.

One day Rockler was having a fantastic deal on this Jet Dust Collection unit.  I was able to buy it for less than half price after a Jet rebate. While I’d love to have a much bigger cyclone style DC this one is doing a good job for me. It’s certainly much better than my ShopVac.

Most of the time it is hooked up to my table saw. Since my planer and jointer are right next to the saw switching the dust collector between these machines is what I'm currently doing

Soon after I moved into my new shop Rockler had several sales and coupons that allowed me to save a considerable amount of money on all the components that I needed to set up a full size router table. I bought the table top, stand, router motor, paddle switch and lift. Soon after I assembled the base I made a shelf from a scrap of oak plywood. This router table is a big step up from the Craftsman table top one I have (not pictured).

In addition to the great Rockler sales I was able to get an Incra fence for the router table. Incra was discontinuing their Ultra Lite Jig Woodworking System and had them available at a considerable savings. Thanks to the wonderful customer service at Incra I was able to get them to substitute a fence that would work with the Wonder Fence that I had already bought for my table saw fence.

This website was created and is maintained by Don Bullock.

He can be reached at basithd@yahoo.com

All material on this website is copyright by Donald W. Bullock

All rights are reserved

I'm sure that some of you have observed that I'm not partial to any specific brand of tools. While my dream was to have a beautiful shop with matching tools it just wasn't practical. While I would love to have a shop of matching gold, gray, green or blue machines I've concentrated more on getting the best tool I could afford at the time to do a particular job. Most machines have been acquired through special sales or deals but all have been bought new. In some ways my shop seems to be a hodgepodge of brands and colors. I've often jokingly said that my woodworking shop is a rainbow of colors. While this may not make for a beautiful, uniform shop it works for me.

Yes, I do have some other smaller power tools plus some handtools. In fact part of my reorganization includes making my handtools more accessable. Someday after I reorganize my shop more pictures will be posted. These, however, are the main tools in my shop.

As a teaser I've included a photo below of the windows and hand tool storage in my renovated shop. There is still a lot to do before I can post more pictures and do a shop tour video. Hopefully that will be coming soon.

One day I was reading posts on the Sawmill Creek Woodworking Forum and someone announced a great deal on a compound sliding miter saw on Amazon. It's a Hitachi C10FSH. I don't remember all the details but as soon as I showed Pam the information she said to go for it. Then I needed a stand for it. Right after the saw arrived Home Depot advertised their Riobe miter saw stand at less than half price. Pam and I rushed over to get one as soon as I saw the ad. Both have served me very well.

Before we moved into our new house I tore out all the carpeting in the main living areas of the house to install laminate flooring. The miter saw was a valuable tool for the job. I set it up in the house which made it handy to use.

This miter saw has been very useful for many projects. I've used it on a wide variety of projects but it is mostly used to break down long boards into the rough lengths that I need. It's very handy being located right below my main lumber rack. I've found it to be very accurate when I've cut angles.

As with most miter saws the dust collection is miserable. I tried hooking a vacuum up to the dust port and it did absolutely nothing. Perhaps sometime in the future I'll need to remidy this by building a miter saw station with dust collection. For now this area of my shop is an absolute mess.

I attached steel extensions to the Rockler base. On top of that I placed two 2x6 boards and scraps of laminate flooring which made the extension exactly the same height as the table top. To attach the fence I used a scrap of mahogany that I’ve had since 1964. It was a shelf on the headboard of my bed when I was in high school. Part of my shop reorganization plans include dust collection underneath the router and making a set of drawers for bits and equipment in the Rockler stand.

This router table is a very good addition to my shop. I need to use it more in my woodworking. For some reason the large flat top seems to collect things like most flat surfaces in the shop. Hopefully building the cabinet into the base will help.

The SawStop model I bought was called the Profesional Cabinet Saw in 2007. At the time it was the only saw they sold. Today the same model is now called the Industrial Cabinet Saw. SawStop made the change when they added the current Professional Cabinet Saw to their lineup. For an extra $200 I got the 5 HP motor in my saw.

Back when I bought my SawStop the fence  and extension table were optional. Because I'd had such an issue with the accuracy of the fence in my Craftsman table saw I decided to get what I considered the best fence available at the time. After extensive research I chose to buy an Incra fence but the fence section on their standard model wasn't long enough for the large SawStop table. I contacted Incra and they made a special, longer, fence just for me. Their customer service is excellent. I still haven't added an extension table but may add something on that side in the future.

After buying the drill press I realized that it would not be very useful as a hollow chisel mortiser as I had hoped. Steel City had just introduced their mortiser so I arranged to buy one at a local woodworking show at a special price.

This mortiser has worked very well and the chisels that came with it are good quality. I did have to replace the piston that keeps the head from falling. The Steel City customer service handled the issue quickly but since then the the company has changed hands several times. According to their website, "Parts are now available for purchase from Canada." Hopefully if this happens again I can still get the part replaced but I'm not sure the parts are still available.  

After I had both machines I decided that I needed something to place them on. The Craftsman tool chest on wheels has worked out great for this purpose. The drawers hold all my drill bits, mortiser chisels, corded electric drill and a lot of other drill related items. I created the wood top out of some scrap oak plywood. I hope to add a larger drill press with longer quill travel eventually.

More Tools to be

Posted Soon

My newest machine is a Nova Comet II midi lathe. This lathe came as a special package with a chuck and some mini turning tools. Right now I don't even have something other than my assembly table to put it on. Many years ago I had a Shopsmith that I used as a lathe so I'm excited about being able to do some more turning again.

Due to cost I bought the standard jointer with blades. Eventually, once the blades need to be sharpened or replaced I'll convert it to a helical head but for now it's doing great with the blades.

While this jointer has served me well for all the projects I've used it for it has terrible dust collection. Chips seem to come out of every possible location and the dust collection chute inside the cabinet doesn't have a top on it. After using it I mave to move it around to vacuum all the chips that end up falling to the floor from inside the cabinet.

Perhaps some day I'll convert it to a helical head but for now it's doing great with the blades. I'm still on my original set and have a new set when needed.

Unfortunately the dust collection on the jointer is terrible and this unit does not collect most of the chips. I'm going to be looking at modifying the jointer somehow to improve this issue. My future plans include a manifold with blast gates so that I can keep all three tools attached to the dust collector or at least the SawStop and planer.

This has proved to be an outstanding addition to my workshop. As evidenced by by YouTube channel I have managed to do several spindle turning projects on it. Two have been Christmas present projects where I batched out ice cream scoop handles one year and pizza cutter handles the next. Making presents like that was one reason I bought the lathe. A lathe makes making presents quick and easy compared to most flat work.

This is an excellent lathe but as with most machines, Nova has now introduced a newer model to their lineup. The following video is a remake of perhaps the most popular video on my YouTube channel.

The feature I've found on the 735 that stands out is the dual speeds. While the fast speed is great for rough planing I've found snipe to be more of a problem using that speed. When I use the slow speed I rarely get any snipe which is wonderful.

The DeWalt stand was free with the purchase of the plainer. It's not shown in this photo.