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JET Contractor-style table saw |
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I chose the two cast-iron wings, which are great,
but difficult to install. I wish they had the left-tilt option back when
I bought mine. This tool is the workhorse of my shop. Besides ripping and
crosscutting, I cut many different kinds of joints on it. I have a
ripping blade and a crosscutting blade, and a 6 in. dado set. |
|
Porter-Cable router |
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Mine is an older version of this model. I like it
because it has both the fixed base and the plunge base. I use the plunge
base for cutting mortises and the fixed base for other routing tasks such
as routing profiles, grooves, rabbets, and some edge jointing.I can also
mount it in my router table. |
| Ridgid random-orbital
sander |
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This is a lovely tool -- it replaces an old Porter-Cable
sander that kicked the bucket. It runs much more smoothly than my
previous sander -- it has "soft-start" and it vibrates a lot less. |
|
Bosch jig-saw |
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This is a very handy tool for rough-cutting large pieces of
lumber and plywood, which won't fit safely on the table saw. It can also
perform some of the curve-cutting tasks of a band-saw. |
| Delta
2-speed planer |
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This is another fantastic tool. I've never owned a
planer before, but it really expands your capabilities. I don't have a
jointer, though, so I still have to flatten boards by hand before
planing. But that's not as much work because I can always clean up the
board with the planer. The only bad thing about this tool is that it's
very loud. |
| Clamps, clamps, clamps
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You can never have too many clamps. My favorites are
pipe clamps: they are cheap and you can create any size clamp you need by
buying different lengths of black pipe. F-style clamps are great too, but
I find more use for the smaller sizes, like 12 in. and 18 in. Finally,
I've just recently discovered how usely the one-hand quick-clamps
are. I'm not a big fan of C-clamps. Here are my sources:
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| American Turbine HVLP
Sprayer
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I'm relatively new to spray finishing, but it seems
like a huge improvement over the way I used to apply finish. In addition
there are some finishes that really can't be applied without a
sprayer. The downside for me is that it gets very hot here in Austin, and
that wreaks havoc on the complex chemistry of spray lacquers. |