Opinion - Next tool purchase?

[Gofor]

Since I went to hand tools (read that mainly hand planes) my priorities definitely changed. I do not have a power jointer and my bandsaw is probably the least used power tool i own. (my drill press gets much more use). You say you "missed out" on a planer deal, so if you don't have one, that would be the one I would buy next. Even if you do go to hand tools, a thickness planer can really save you a lot of labor.

Most of my source lumber is rough cut, and I have made a large table as well as numerous cabinets, etc.

That said, it really depends on what you are planning to build. Probably the most valuable "tool" to me is my work bench, with the dog and hold fast holes, tail and face vises (leg vise soon to be added). If you don't have a good one, consider buying one, or better yet, spend the money on the materials and good hardware and make one for your needs. You can spend as much on good thick lumber for the top, and good vise hardware as you can for a thickness planer, but the bench will get many times more usage, and if designed well for you, many more hours of enjoyment.

I haven't gotten into the spinny things, but a lathe would also be a consideration.

Go

 

[cyclopentadiene]

Additional learning Building a shop

1) The first major tools that I purchased were smaller in size i.e. my first band saw was a 10 inch. It was too small so I upgraded to a 14 inch. Again I found that one too small and upgraded to a 20 inch. My first table saw was a small portable 10" that satisfied me for about 2 weeks. I then upgraded to a full size contractor saw that satisfied me for about 3 years. I then upgraded to a professional Sawstop. And the list goes on. I was able to sell the tools that I had outgrown at 50% of the original cost but spent much more money than if I had waited.

Lesson learned, you never know where your skills and interests will go as your woodworking matures. Always postpone purchases until you have save enough to only make the purchase once so it lasts a lifetime as a woodworker. Purchase equipment that is larger than you think you will need.

2) The first hand plane I ever purchased was a Groz from Woodcraft because it was inexpensive and the name should be Gross. I could never get it to work properly. The second hand plane I purchased was a Lie Nielsen and trust me there is a difference out of the box and after tuning.

Lesson learned, some tools are expensive i.e. Lie Nielsen, Veritas, Festool, Sawstop, Hammer, Laguna... But well worth the cost. If you truly want to do woodworking for a lifetime, buy the best so the tool lasts a lifetime. The better tools also improve your learning curve and skill level much more rapidly.

3) I had always done "crafty" type woodworking and my skills never improved. I started taking classes at Alamance Community College in woodworking and the education was wonderful. I then signed up for a class to build a Maloof rocker which was several,orders of magnitude above my skill level. My classmates Woodwrangler and Shamrock were already excellent woodworkers and they were very tolerant of my lack of skill and the three of us all finished our rockers. This provided the confidence that I can build anything that I set my mind to.

Lesson learned, set your goals high and spend money to take classes from professionals or attend as many of the educational events listed here as possible. Those that are farther along provide the teaching and confidence to significantly improve your skill level. Even if it is an area that you have a lot of experience, you will always learn something useful from other woodworkers.

A note on the concept of a planer, these are not a single tool purchase. You need a jointer and a planer simultaneously. I made the mistake of a planer before a jointer for about 6 months. The pieces I built were difficult as the lumber was flattened with parallel sides but was not flat and square. There is a difference. I still have the original Dewalt planer which is too small for my needs but I am still waiting to make the ultimate $5k plunge to a Hammer Jointer/planer combo as I now follow rule 1 after several years of mistakes.

 

[ehpoole]

You did not say what your budget looks like, but I vote for a combination jointer/planer machine. Having a wide jointer is really sweet, especially if it is the same width of your planer. These are not portable, light weight machines, but on par with industrial machinery in their materials, construction and heft. Grizzly, Jet, Rikon are the far east offerings. Hammer and Mini-Max the Euro options. Good luck and watch those fingers.

Combination jointer-planers machines are not so bad if you are buying a large and expensive stationary combination machine, but the inexpensive benchtop jointer-planer combinations essentially combine all the WORST features of both functions into one cheap and compact unit. Essentially you get what you pay for, but most people end up returning or selling off the benchtop combination units in rather short order. Benchtop planers can be quite good (I use a Dewalt DW735) but too many corners are cut in the benchtop combination units for them to even function as a quality planer and as jointers they often border on useless and have exceptionally short infeed and outfeed tables. The benchtop units also frequently suffer from inadequate damping mass and often lack sufficient structural stiffness for planing and jointing (there are just too many compromises).

While the large stationary combination machines can be quite good machines you really have to ask yourself whether the rare instances you might actually need to joint a 15-20" board (versus either a 6" or 8" jointer) warrants both the added cost up front plus the ongoing hassle of constantly swapping the machine between the two modes. You also have to ask if on those rare occasions you need more than 8" in jointer width whether the 15" or 20" afforded by a combination machine is sufficient to still joint the full desired width in a single operation or whether your table is likely to be more than 15-20" wide anyhow, thus necessitating other workarounds regardless, as well as whether you can reliably manhandle planks that are potentially several inches thick and many inches in width as they can be quite heavy (unless, of course, building with Balsa). It is not uncommon to go jointer, planer, bandsaw, back to jointer or planer, back to bandsaw, back to jointer or planer, back and forth a few more times, back to jointer, back to planer for final thicknessing, etc. Having standalone machines, unless space is extremely tight, is often very desirable as you do not have to keep swapping modes and resetting all your depth settings with every change in operation when the machines are standalone.

For most of us an 8" jointer will suffice for probably close to 98-99% of everything we do and on the rare cases where we truly need to plane or joint an especially wide board, and can not rip it down the middle to split that difference for whatever reason, there are other options such as planer sleds and router jointing jigs, amongst other solutions. It often makes the most sense to focus on making certain whether the vast majority of your workflow will be facilitated by purchasing choices rather than possibly overbuying and trying to plan only around your most exceptional, and usually quite rare, capacity needs. I can honestly say that while I much prefer using a dedicated jointer for routine jointing and a dedicated planer for routine planing, I have had no problems using my planer to effectively joint those rare boards that truly needed to be kept more than 8" in width. I would not want to do all my jointing using planer, but for those rare and exceptional cases it is a perfectly acceptable solution.

My setup is a Jet JJ-8CS 8" jointer, a Dewalt DW735 benchtop planer (virtually no snipe), a Rikon 18" bandsaw for resawing boards plus a small 9" benchtop bandsaw (but I use this one mostly for cutting small items like circuit boards and sheet metal). Jointers and planers are effectively complimentary purchases and really go together in my opinion. Adding a bandsaw for resawing lumber to desired dimensions, when combined with an existing jointer and planer, then really expands your ability to process your own lumber and save by purchasing lumber in the rough and resawing to whatever dimensions your project requires.

 

[oldetoolworkshop]

A jointer & a planer is nice to have but not a necessity for doing fine woodworking. Budget constraints, available space for 2 new machines with almost stationery footprints, and 220 volts, etc. I did buy a DeWalt 735 lunchbox planer (12"w bed) several years ago but it's a portable roll-around on a stand and that works just fine for me when I want some "custom" dimensions. I buy most of my lumber pre-surfaced at S3S or S4S (about +$1/bf) and that added cost isn't a 2nd mortgage.

Check out The Molding Source in Mooresville and talk with Rick DiNardo to check out his inventory and whether they can surface it for you at a reasonable fee.

Hand planes are not rocket science but there can be a steep learning curve so don't get discouraged; be patient and try a little bit of hand plane set-up and use in small batches. Your Kobalt plane won't work right out of the box but it's all you have for the time being and it needs some help from you too. Guy #1 is a bit anal with what he's doing to his Kobalt #4, but some good information about a few subtle points.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw7lu67ULsk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAYcwubAO2E



How do you know that if it's collecting dust on the shelf? It shouldn't be doing that anyway!

I bought an inexpensive Kobalt #4 hand plane this summer but I just can't figure the thing out.

It's wasting away somewhere in my garage

As Ken an Jeff have added some great information, I have another Youtube Video that you may like. Paul Sellers works almost exclusively with hand tools, namely the #4 hand plane. He is a great instructor and has tons of useful videos here https://paulsellers.com/ and his video on the #4 is here "Which Plane Should I buy First?" .

-Aaron

 

[petebucy4638]

I sold a Jet portable planer last year. I had purchased a big Grizzly planer and the Jet was just attracting dust. When the Jet was all I had, I was impressed at how much lumber you could plane in a small planer in an afternoon. I think that the portable planers have improved over the years too. I would go for the planer before a jointer, not that a jointer is not a useful too.

Pete