Workshop Tools - the essentials???

[earlysecond]

Im gonna get a screw style one with a built in dryer! Or a diesel powered one on a trailer to run the jackhammer! Kidding. Just can't get too much air!! All Iwata guns and they are pretty thrifty with air. I lied have some HF kits but dont use them much. Im NEVER sorry i almost went into debt buyin a large compressor. I blew up a 60 gallon oiled vertical when running a sandblaster. Over used, ran constantly. Had a super small felt filter. When it got dirty and could not get air, it pumped oil. . . 90 percent of the oil out of the crank case and trew a rod. Superheated liquid copper flew halfway across the garage and just missed me. Catastrophic failure! Wished i had video. $500 -lesson 14 yers ago!

 

[earlysecond]

Oh yeah, compressed air makes short work of sawdust and wood shavings when youmare done in the shop. Not sure if it will blow stuff out of you hair. . . Ive not had that stuuf for 20 years (dont miss it either)!

 

[BassHappy]

I wouldn't get that 6" hook and loop sander because you will have a hard time sourcing paper locally. Stick with a 5", I have a rigid from Home Depot, and I have to say I am not happy with it, It's not very smooth and wants wander.

Whoa, good catch Hopkins!

Thanks I didn't catch that the new model I chose was 6" instead of 5"! Better go with this one. It's electric, has vari-speed and 5" discs and still in the price range:

So many deets, geeeeeez.

 

[earlysecond]

I once cut the velcro off an $8 HF orbital so I could stick my 5" psa discs I use for body work which are 5 pennies per sheet.

 

[BassHappy]

It sounds like we have a similar compressor, makes about the same SCFM at 135 psi. Mine is advertised at 6.5 hp but the motor amperage calculates to a 5hp motor.

Hey youse guys.....

Somehow this does seem like overkill. I am trying to run a 2" orbital sander and maybe later a paint gun. Really don't want to have to get the landlord involved if I can help it - by having to install 220v. Any other decent air compressor choices for what I need out there at 110V and if so - what is the ballpark price range?

 

[BassHappy]

I once cut the velcro off an $8 HF orbital so I could stick my 5" psa discs I use for body work which are 5 pennies per sheet.

I had to get 2" velcro sanding discs from Europe and they were actually reasonably priced - but it took three weeks to get them here. The shop guys thought I was nuts for not trimming down some 5" discs, but I wasn't in a hurry, and the quality of the discs was very good when they finally arrived.

 

[earlysecond]

Only one problem. . . Looks like it lived outside!

 

[earlysecond]

All my 2" discs are circle cut long board roll paper. .034 pennies a discBUT often fly off.

 

[BassHappy]

I had a Grizzly G0538 spindle sander several years back when building out of my condo garage. it's nothing but frustration, as the spindle isn't normal to the resting surface, flexes with even light edge pressure, and the motor is way under powered to work an Alder body edge.

Hey Rodent

We used the spindle sander a LOT at the shop and I thought sure it was the Grizzly GO538, but perhaps it is the G0739 below? I am trying to stay within the confines of the same manufacturer if possible on the machinery. Maybe this is a better choice? Anyone have experience with it? The next time I am at the shop I will check and see which model it is.

 

[earlysecond]

Peak hp. Ratings on a compressor are a farce. Not to worry. Never saw an underpowered on LOTs of under sized ones with the guts being pounded out of them.

 

[Hopkins]

Hey youse guys.....

Somehow this does seem like overkill. I am trying to run a 2" orbital sander and maybe later a paint gun. Really don't want to have to get the landlord involved if I can help it - by having to install 220v. Any other decent air compressor choices for what I need out there at 110V and if so - what is the ballpark price range?

Dont let 220v scare you off, something like a stationary compressor can be wired straight to the breaker panel with no need to modify anything other than adding a 240 breaker. No need to even run wires if you put the compressor close enough to the panel

 

[Hopkins]

Only one problem. . . Looks like it lived outside!

Mine does live outside under an awning to keep the rain off of it.

 

[earlysecond]

Nothing usually wrong with that. Plus you are in a much more moderate climate. If mie was outside, without an enclosure, it could be half buried in snow 5 months of the year. Haha. Happy, as Hopkins pointed out, if its covered in in a decent climate, should be better than in a dusty shop with overspray. Trust me, that is NOT likely to be overkill.

 

[Hopkins]

Nothing usually wrong with that. Plus you are in a much more moderate climate. If mie was outside, without an enclosure, it could be half buried in snow 5 months of the year. Haha. Happy, as Hopkins pointed out, if its covered in in a decent climate, should be better than in a dusty shop with overspray. Trust me, that is NOT likely to be overkill.

LOL its snowed here a total of two times in my time on this earth. Only once did it snow enough to actually make a decent snow ball or build a snow man. It lives outside because its big and noisy and my shop is too small for it to live inside. My dust collection system lives outside too, but Its in an enclosure.

 

[Rodent]

if you're focused on Grizzly tools, this looks to be a useful spindle combo

I'm not a fan of plastic tools. sure they have a target market. IMO if it's something I plan to use for more than just a project or two, it's better to purchase a tool that I won't need to replace after a short time of use. I foolishly took the path of cheap tools when first getting started, and could have outfitted my shop far beyond where it is today by instead having purchased smarter. hindsight has proven that cheap tools cost me significantly more than if I had bought good quality on sale (or lightly used tools from Craigslist)

my regrets and repurchases over the years:
- 6" jointer vs 8" jointer (I can now properly prep billets for resawing, and body blank stock widths for planing)
- 12" planer vs 15" planer (I can now clean up an entire body blank after glueup)
- straight knives vs HH on jointer and planer (I can now consistently work fighly figured woods including BM without tearout)
- cheap Chinese low wattage laser cutter vs quality higher wattage laser (accuracy, speed, and material size capacity)
- plastic desktop spindle sander vs quality floor standing unit (accuracy and reduced vibration, and my back thanks me as well)

on several of these repurchases I didn't fully realize the benefit until the epiphany of using the proper/better tool. in several cases it was revelational on how poor my 'found a way to get by' workflow really was. in some cases time was the largest improvement, but all of these repurchases also increased accuracy, reduced waste, and to some extent increased safety.

 

[BassHappy]

if you're focused on Grizzly tools, this looks to be a useful spindle combo

I'm not a fan of plastic tools. sure they have a target market. IMO if it's something I plan to use for more than just a project or two, it's better to purchase a tool that I won't need to replace after a short time of use. I foolishly took the path of cheap tools when first getting started, and could have outfitted my shop far beyond where it is today by instead having purchased smarter. hindsight has proven that cheap tools cost me significantly more than if I had bought good quality on sale (or lightly used tools from Craigslist)

my regrets and repurchases over the years:
- 6" jointer vs 8" jointer (I can now properly prep billets for resawing, and body blank stock widths for planing)
- 12" planer vs 15" planer (I can now clean up an entire body blank after glueup)
- straight knives vs HH on jointer and planer (I can now consistently work fighly figured woods including BM without tearout)
- cheap Chinese low wattage laser cutter vs quality higher wattage laser (accuracy, speed, and material size capacity)
- plastic desktop spindle sander vs quality floor standing unit (accuracy and reduced vibration, and my back thanks me as well)

on several of these repurchases I didn't fully realize the benefit until the epiphany of using the proper/better tool. in several cases it was revelational on how poor my 'found a way to get by' workflow really was. in some cases time was the largest improvement, but all of these repurchases also increased accuracy, reduced waste, and to some extent increased safety.

Hey Ro

All great points!

I really appreciate all of your considered comments and this is exactly the kind of input I am looking for. Nothing worse than gearing up and realizing you didn't plan far enough ahead! It's funny - I was drooling over that bigger combo sander myself - but trying to figure out which machine or two I could use in order to shoe horn it into the budget. It's $595 so maybe it would make sense to lose the other two at $134 and $129 and bite the bullet on the difference. I would lose the belt sander then though, but I can add an edge sander later when I need it like this one:

At this point, I am not sophisticated enough to know the differences in performance between the edge sander and the disc sander, but I would think both might be required ultimately.

As far as the jointer goes, I don't see myself ever needing to prep any billets more than 6" thick under any circumstances. Should I ever need to do any serious millwork like that with larger lumber, I will head over to my local wood shop and have them give me a quick hand. That is the beauty of having that relationship.

But wow, you focused me on the planer for a minute and you are right. My current body designs are 13.5" wide, so the 12" planer would be pretty useless for what I was thinking.

I have no idea about "straight knives" vs "HH"? Is this an option or upgrade that Grizzly can provide at the factory, or a mod I would need to do myself? We did have a little tear out on the flamed maple when we planed my bodies. It was certainly minimal but still annoying.

I reworked the list, losing the 12" planer in favor of the 15" planer, and got rid of both the other sanders in favor of the larger combo sander. I am at $3850 now, plus shipping of somewhere between $400 - $500. If Grizzly can do a package price, and cut back the shipping fees, this still might be doable:

Thanks again, still scratching my head and welcome comments from any of you mavens out there. The barn is still not finished and I am not sure if I will ultimately get the lease on it - so I don't even want to negotiate with Grizzly until I know I have a place waiting for everything. It's $4417 with the edge sander, so it's on the wish list and if Grizzly would give me a decent discount I would hopefully be able to get that too.

I finished the mod on my medium scale tele bass yesterday. It had an ETS piezo bridge, with tail piece and Richter preamp which I wanted to swap out for one of my upcoming prototypes. I added a new string through bridge to it, drilled and countersunk the ferrules and added a new industrial control plate. Strung it up with new DR High Beams, did a fresh set-up and it is barking. Pat Wilkins did the finish work for me in what we call a "smoky copper burst":

 

[T_Bone_TL]

on several of these repurchases I didn't fully realize the benefit until the epiphany of using the proper/better tool. in several cases it was revelational on how poor my 'found a way to get by' workflow really was. in some cases time was the largest improvement, but all of these repurchases also increased accuracy, reduced waste, and to some extent increased safety.

The short and pithy version - Buy the best, only cry once. The other pithy-saying (not quite as short) goes - The quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.

 

[Richie Se7en]

The short and pithy version - Buy the best, only cry once. The other pithy-saying (not quite as short) goes - The quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.

Truer words were never spoken! To veer off topic a bit - I'm a franchisor to a chain of sandwich shops. From the day I opened my first store, we've used only the best gourmet-quality food products and set our prices accordingly. For the few who didn't understand, I put up a small sign that read... "Good meat ain't cheap, but cheap meat ain't good"

 

[Hopkins]

I would still skip the little table saw and hold out for at least a contractor, if not a cabinet or hybrid saw. Something stationary you can build an in and out feed table off of. As far as your dust collection goes, get the 2HP one that Harbor Freight sells. Its a damn good machine and pulls alot of volume, with a 20% off coupon you will get it for about the same price without having to have it shipped.

Then, get ready for the extreme sticker shock of having to buy 4" dust collection hose

 

[Richie Se7en]

As far as your dust collection goes, get the 2HP one that Harbor Freight sells. Its a damn good machine and pulls alot of volume, with a 20% off coupon you will get it for about the same price without having to have it shipped.

Then, get ready for the extreme sticker shock of having to buy 4" dust collection hose

Hopkins is 100% right about this. Factoring the setup and size of your shop, especially in regard to how many tools you want to run a separate, dedicated hose to, expect some added expense.

I have the Harbor Freight 2HP collector (which is a worthwhile deal) - and the few initial modifications, along with the lengths of the 4" hose, blast gates, assorted PVC, etc. - cost me more than half the price of the collector itself. But, good dust collection is as essential as your tools and worth every penny.

R7nP