Looking for a few recommendations on new tools purchases


Catco

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Hey all, I'm in the market for a few new tools. Most of the tools I have are very basic, or hand me downs that are really starting to show their age. As of now I get by with very low end power tools aside from my plethora of cordless tools. A quick and basic explanation of what I'm looking for is this. I need a new tablesaw, my current Crapman TS, that I inherited from my grandfather, goes out of square, and the blade cants 2-5 degrees after every cut, requiring me to recheck everything if I need anything with a tolerance of less than 1/8". After every cut. My lunchbox planer just recently crapped out, and my little 6" benchtop jointer also decided to make shavings in the great beyond with my planer. I think they were conspiring together...

A few stipulations:

1: I live in a condo, no basement access from outside, do not have an attached garage, and have a flight of stairs to go down with a 180 degree turn. So ability to get things in the basement in quite restricted....

2: Ideally looking to get a halfway decent TS and planer. (For short-medium term use I'd make a jointer jig for the TS and use a planer to finish dressing the stock.)

3: Space is somewhat limited, I have a 26'x16' partially finished area of the basement I use as my workshop, but it also pulls triple duty as storage for miscellaneous household things, and laundry.

4: Budget is not the greatest, could go anywhere from $1000-$2000 if I'm really convinced it will make a great improvement.

What I've been thinking of so far is as follows:

Ridgid Table Saw - $529 minus 10% Military discount and Dewalt 735 - $599 minus 10% Military discount

Or

Substitute the DeWalt with either Rikon 25-010, 10" Planer/Jointer - $999 or Jet, JJP-10BTOS, 10" Planer/Jointer - $550

I know i'd be sacrificing some quality by going the combination route, but I feel the space saving may be worth it.

Also looking to upgrade my dust collection, currently have the harbor freight dust collector. For my crappy little shop it works alright, but I'd like a new DC and an air filtration unit.

 

As always many thanks in advance!

 

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Personally I would go with rigid ts a dewalt planer both great option when budget an space are problems. I have the table saw an couldn’t ask for a better one at the price point. As far as a jointer I get by getting it rough flat by hand then run it thru my planer

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I’d stay away from the 10” combo units — I haven’t read anything good about those at all. People seem to like the Ridgid but it’s not without issue. Dust collection at that level doesn’t have many choices, unfortunately. You can use a sled on your planer to get by without a jointer. 

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I'll toss in another vote for the Rigid + Dewalt setup. However, you will have to pull some tricks to surface rough stock with no jointer. I suggest making a feed table THROUGH the planer, and a bare minimum of 48" long. Doing so will support most furniture-sized parts enough to avoid / minimize snipe, and allow effective use of a sled to joint board faces.

Make it the same height as the saw, then the saw table can be part of your infeed or outfeed support. The planer table can support saw cuts in turn.

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5 hours ago, Tmize said:

Personally I would go with rigid ts a dewalt planer both great option when budget an space are problems. I have the table saw an couldn’t ask for a better one at the price point. As far as a jointer I get by getting it rough flat by hand then run it thru my planer

Don't have any hand planes so not an option unfortunately... They're on my, "Tools/Techniques Acquisition List," or TOTAL for short. I was in the military. I love acronyms...

3 hours ago, jplemons said:

I’d stay away from the 10” combo units — I haven’t read anything good about those at all. People seem to like the Ridgid but it’s not without issue. Dust collection at that level doesn’t have many choices, unfortunately. You can use a sled on your planer to get by without a jointer. 

I was leary about the combo units, I figured they would be a gamble. And for dust collection I may be able to acquire a 1.5 HP DC unit from work for the low cost of loading it into my car.

1 hour ago, wtnhighlander said:

I'll toss in another vote for the Rigid + Dewalt setup. However, you will have to pull some tricks to surface rough stock with no jointer. I suggest making a feed table THROUGH the planer, and a bare minimum of 48" long. Doing so will support most furniture-sized parts enough to avoid / minimize snipe, and allow effective use of a sled to joint board faces.

Make it the same height as the saw, then the saw table can be part of your infeed or outfeed support. The planer table can support saw cuts in turn.

Intriguing idea, any sketches? My brain can't wrap around that at the moment. Just got back from Easter with my family and I need to take a food coma.

I was leaning towards the DeWalt and Ridgid and keeping an eye on craigslist and various online auction sites to see if something pops up that is a good deal.

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Sorry, no sketch. Maybe a word picture?

Simple form - put the planer on a stand. Pit a piece of plywood, melamine, or other sheet good through the planer, resting on the bed. Support it so that it is dead level with the bed, or slightly elevated at the ends. 

If you have room, @wdwerker has often suggested using a table of equal height alongside the planer to slide pieces around for another pass.

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Ok, i think I get it now. Put the flat sheet good completely through and in turn using that as a perfectly flat long bed supported by a table or two on either end. Got it! I had my coffee this morning so my brain is actually functioning. :D

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At work we recently bought this table saw:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/DELTA-13-Amp-10-in-Carbide-Tipped-Table-Saw/50081568

We are not doing any "fine" woodworking but sometimes we have to cut some stuff down. Once we got this to the shop and put together and I made some cuts I was VERY surprised at it's quality for the price. It has a real nice fence on it that once I got square it has stayed that way even though my employees have used it a few times. Cast iron top. Solid steel tube body.

 If you have a Lowes in your area they usually have this as a floor model so you can go put your hands on it and see how well you like it.

Oh! and to save money. Often times you can apply for a credit card and get a certain % off. You don't need to keep the credit card after.

AND it is not uncommon to get a discount on gift cards, like if you buy $100 worth of gift cards sometime they throw in a "free" $10 gift card in on top of that. You could save some money buy playing THAT game.

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Some time back Farm and Fleet had a special ($499 with the tables and extra blades) on the DeWalt plannner.  I took a brief look and it seems to still be valid.

There is some other commentary in the post.  In particular a lot of users recommend the replacement blades from Infinity.

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Craigslist sometimes has some great finds. I would have gone with the lowes delta TS over the ridgid as it honestly seems like a better saw but went orange because at the time the delta has some bad reviews and even bigger issues with customer service. With that said the ridgid is a great saw for the price, truly. I saw the ridgid planer also has some good reviews and may be worth looking at. 

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