velbloud

Libor Vyklicky, Yorktown Heights, NY, US
member


Recent comments


Re: Calling all benchtop warriors

One corretion: I have fixed the website so that it's only in English now.

posted: 10:18 am on May 14th  

Re: Calling all benchtop warriors

Hi guys, first I have to say that most of you are lucky that you are on the ground. What that means if that you have a garage, basement or a shed with solid ground so that evethough you have portable tools, you can afford to build sturdy bases and cabinets for them.

I have my small shop (20x20 max) up in the ATTIC of our condo. It's not insulated, the floor joists are 2x8s, I have to share the space with heat exchanger and some plumbing and the only access is a pull down ladder. But I love it. However, I really need to watch the weight of what I put up there. So I have no option of stationary power tools. So what I make do with is the following:

TS: Bosch 4000
Jointer: 4" craftsman bought from Ebay (cast iron)
Drill press: Ryobi 12" benchtop
Planer: Dewalt 734
Bandsaw: 3-wheeler from unknown manuf. (probably AMT), similar to the Enco model)-missing front cover
Compound miter saw: Delta

Those are the major ones, bunch or otehr tools like circular saw, routers, portable belt sander with a stand to make sanding curved parts easier etc.
One of the really stationary tools I added recently is a Clearvue cyclone (with a ShopFox blower on top). Again, it was chosen for it's light weight.

My biggest gripe with portable tools is that most of the time it means lower quality.
Drill press: bought for about $40, had a wobbly quil, with a machinist friend we redrilled the casting and put a bronze bushing to eliminate it.
Jointer: needed the tables reground, thanks to my machinist friend again
TS: table and fence nopt completely flat, regrinding the table helped. (Yes, thanks to my machinist friend again).
Bandsaw: made a new table, trued up the wheels but still marginal quality.

Anyways, I did make lot of stuff up there including about 17 ft of builtins for a friend woth 9ft ceilings.
If you're interested, you can see some of it at:

http://velbloud.stormpages.com

Sorry, the captions are in Czech but I'll make an English site in the future.
Scroll down to "Ruzne projekty:", you can see some of the home improvement stuff that's originated up in the attic.
Even lower when you look at "Puda 1, 2, 3" that's my shop about 3 years ago.

posted: 9:58 am on May 14th