reeltime1

I was lucky. Really lucky. I hadn't used a table saw before, and on my very first project, I learned a few no-nos. Fortunately I did respect the power of the cutting blade and my fingers were nowhere near it when the accidents happened.

1) NEVER EVER CROSSCUT AGAINST THE FENCE. Okay-- this is a "duh" to most. But I hadn't considered the potential for binding between the blade and fence. When the board 'exploded', lesson 1 was learned.

2) Stand clear of the cutting line. Ripping a thin strip off of piece of mdf, I got my first and only gut-punch from the kickback. I did have my kickback prawns in place, but the piece was too thin to be grabbed, and the welt was a pretty shade of purple.

3) Keep your pushstick within arms' reach. Early on in my woodworking, I'd always be hunting for the thing with the blade spinning. I wasn't brave enough (or stupid enough) to go it without a push stick, but I quickly learned to set the pushstick on the opposite side of the fence before starting any cut. It's always there when I need it now.

Early lessons learned that were never repeated. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

This being my first year at the hobby, I actually purchased quite a few pieces of shop equipment.

My first project was dining room wainscoting last year. I bought a router, table, and a table saw (Bosch contractor), and a compressor/nail gun.

This lead to my big project for this year-- a workbench. In that process-- I purchased a bandsaw, planer, hand planes, chisels, sanders-- which started a Festool addiction (hard on the wallet), circular saw (yup, Festool there, too), and my last purchase-- the much needed jointer.

"Just doing my bit for the economy, honey!"

Oh-- on the speakers-- perfectly fine for them. Richard Vandersteen has been building his speakers out of MDF for years-- and you'd be hard pressed (pun intended) to find a finer set of loudspeakers for the money.

I used MDF for the raised panels on my dining room wainscoting (poplar for the framing). Looks terrific-- but the DUST! O the dust. It kept clogging my router and I'd have to blow the router out after heavy use because so much got inside the motor.

I'm just getting started in woodworking-- so hang with me. I have a decent set of hand tools-- some of better quality than others. Everything I've bought to date has been out of necessity. We bought a 1940's house. And it has needed major repair.

So my first big purchase was a miter saw-- I bought a slider with an exceptional blade guard (DeWalt) after witnessing my 70 year old father-in-law slice his fingers up (nearly off) by raking the back of his hand across an old one that was spinning down.

My first major project was building raised-panel wainscoting for our dining room. To accomplish this, I purchased a routing table (Bench Dog portable with a massive Milwaukee router) and a portable table saw (Bosch).

Now I'm hooked and I am trying to build a serious work bench. I've bought a couple of very high end saws, and a smoothing plane from Lie-Nielsen, a Veritas low-angle jointer plane, and I just bought a drill press, a Ridgid, which got high marks. I've discovered pipe clamps are much more cost effective than fancy trigger-grip style clamps, and seem to work better, too.

My biggest hangup at the moment is how to joint the wood. I'm building the bench that will-- in the future-- clamp down my work pieces. How do I hold the material steady for planing with the jointer plane, without a bench? I'd like a power jointer eventually, but can't spare the $600-1000 dollars right now. Do I pursue a Jawhorse type device? Buy a cheap $250 Delta planer to get through this initial phase? I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.

A band saw hasn't been in the plan until reading what you all are saying here.

Regards,
Michael

Well-- I just started tooling up for my next 2 projects-- screen door and a workbench. So anything to help me build them would have been great-- but my stocking was a little empty-- so I just bought my first L/N smoothing plane-- can't wait to use it.

Well-- I just started tooling up for my next 2 projects-- screen door and a workbench. So anything to help me build them would have been great-- but my stocking was a little empty-- so I just bought my first L/N smoothing plane-- can't wait to use it.