Hello all. This actually is more of a question regarding power tools, but from the mindset of using more and more human powered hand tools and using only power tools for the heavy, tedious "apprentice" type work. I guess I'm more Neanderthal adjacent? I've kind of been sitting on this post for a couple of months as I've worked. So this is sort of a running stream of consciousness I typed up as I was doing a project this summer. Think of this as a "Due to noise and dust factor I want to mainly use human powered hand tools, but realize the practicality of owning a few power tools for grunt work" type thread.


TLDR; I am completely rethinking my power tools and gravitating more and more to bringing the tool to the work and not the work to the tool.
I currently have a Ridgid 6 inch jointer, a Dewalt DW745 jobsite saw, Dewalt router...I don't remember what model, I want to say it takes 1/4 inch bits. I also have a cheap 6 1/2 inch Ridgid corded circular saw. I'm thinking about selling some/all of them and gravitating toward a better circular saw or track saw with dust collection, and/or bandsaw as my only main power tools. Well, and a drill. I'm wondering what the thoughts are here on this, and who here has done something similar?

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Two recent projects;

A couple years ago I built a shaker style walnut "desk" for my wife. Really it is a narrow table. For leg stock I bought a slab of 10/4 walnut with two live edges, but there was no way I was ripping that on my table saw. I ended up buying a two piece 10ft cheap straight edge at HD that I clamped and used my circular saw. The table saw got used a fair amount for that build, but the use of the circular saw really changed how I view power tools. As I age I'm also changing my mindset on dust and the noise factor. And I had a kickback that was eye opening. I've been gravitating more and more to old school hand tools and getting pretty decent with planes, saws and chisels.



This summer I launched into building a king sized "Thuma" style bed;
I started with the legs. Locally sourced walnut that was just under 4 inches and I think about 120 inches long. Pretty rough cut. I sized up the table saw and can do max cutting depth of 3.25 inches. And the piece was too long. Out came the ryoba and I had four chunks for legs in about 10 minutes. Then I sized up the castle joints. Again, same issue. I had decided on 4 inch rails and the jobsite saw didn't cut deep enough. Undaunted I still tried some test cuts and built a tenon jig for my table saw and just tried on a 2x4 glued and squared on the jointer. Even though I only did a 2 inch test cut bridle joint, I wasn't happy with the fit.

- The legs got tapered with an old junky plane with a heavy cambered blade, and then cleaned up with my No 6 and smoothed with my No 4.

- I ended up hand cutting all eight bridle joints on the walnut legs with my ryoba. Same with the rails. Trying to edge joint the 84 and 88 inch rails on my 6 inch jointer was tedious and error prone. I ended up switching to my Stanley No 5 and my straight edge shows I'm flat within about 1mm the entire length. Good enough for me...if it looks good enough it is good enough, right?

- I cut 4 inch splines into the bed rail ends, all done by hand. This is to reinforce the castle joint when assembling/disassembling...

- For the ledger/cleats, and the outside top portion of the rail I used my 6 1/2 Ridgid circular saw and jerry-rigged up a 9-10' long straight-edge I got at the orange borg store a few years ago. I just make about 4-5 passes and have successfully ripped multiple long rail pieces now from 8/4 to 10/4 rough sawn plank. So, so far for this project, that is pretty much the only power tool I've used.

The jointer is sitting idle for this project because it was just easier to use my hand planes, the table saw there is no way to safely use it for about 80% of the cuts on this build. Really I need a better cabinet saw, but there is no money nor room for that. I'm just a hobbyist.

At this point I'm about ready to sell both of them, then build some jigs or get a turnkey option like a Milescraft or Kreg jig/track system and use just my circular saw for awhile? For the type of stuff I do though I could see long term just getting a track saw, and then perhaps a band saw for more delicate work, curves, resawing, etc. Probably keep the router around too for dados. I'm still mulling this over and not trying to get too impulsive and sell the wrong thing and have some "ragrets" later...

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So, after this project some conclusions;

- What I want to do in the future? Probably more furniture. I'm eyeballing the kitchen table, and chairs for it too. But various cabinetry, shelving, odd around the house home improvement projects. Heck, I'm even looking suspiciously at the old Chicom knockoff Chesterfeld sofa and wondering if I could make one in more of a Scandi or Japanese style and work with a local upholsterer for cushions. For smaller projects, I also want to try my hand at smaller, intricate stuff that's useful too. Boxes, organization type stuff...I already know my wife will drive me nuts with knick-knacks if I let her. You know, stupid pointless decoration type crap. :sigh: If I did get a bandsaw I know this is what would happen.

- Four of my five kids are showing an interest in woodworking. Two of the three girls already have an unhealthy obsession with weaving, knitting and crochet work. The youngest of the three also I'm finding has an aesthetic eye and took some scrap wood piece, started chopping at it with a hammer and my cordless drill to shape it a bit and "painted" it with markers to make a little girl figurine out of it. My 12 year old son also loves building and experimenting all manner of things.

I've also looked at the bow saws, frame saws...I could see getting into those too. But then I actually want to get projects done in a timely manner too. So I guess you could say I'm loving the human powered hand tools for joinery, fittings, cross cuts, tenons and mortising. I've now built up a reasonable hand tool set up. Stanley 4, 5, and 6 Sweetheart (which is my favorite, don't tell Patrick Leach). Then a Millers Falls 9 and 14 a plan to fettle out this winter. I picked up a set of the old school Marples Blue Chips, pre-Irwin. Veritas double marking gauge. Cheap combo square that I've learned to keep square. I love my Japanese saws too much though that I'll be looking at western saws any time soon.

Most of the time I'm just working off of some Jay Van Arsdale style saw horses I put together, and use a slatted "table" from a failed "Nelson" style bench project from 15 years ago, that I lay across the saw horses and use clamps for various work holding. I've toyed with building a bench, but at this point I don't think I will. At best maybe a Paulk style bench or some torsion beams/boxes and build more/better saw horses.

What say you fine people? I'd rather work on skill set. Software trumps hardware. But I don't want to be so stubborn and try to go hand tool only, nor do I want to be "that guy" who is always buying some new fad tool to augment lack of skills.
It seems like there must be some sort of happy balance with a good 2-5 power tools that expedites the heavy labor part, but still keeps tools a little more simplified?