Craig Shewmake
03-29-2017, 5:55 PM
I joined this fabulous site in late Sept last year. I dabbled with creating a little home woodworking shop decades ago and never really got past the point where I had a little contractor TS and various hand tools because my job and wheelchair sports career took priority. Damn jobs just always seem to get in the way. I retired from the sports scene about 8 years ago and now have been fortunate enough to retire from the real job within the last 2 years. So I started to revisit the dream and decided to finally build my humble hobby shop.
As you all know, times have changed over the last 20 years and there are so many choices and decisions to research and decide on with regards to tools. I'll admit it, I felt a bit overwhelmed. Adding to all the choices available I also had the unique circumstance, with regards to safety, of choosing the best possible tools that would work for me with respect to using a wheelchair to get around. I was especially concerned about the table saw and it's inherent kickback dangers being that it's my neck and head in the direct path and height and I particularly like my head attached.
So I came here and started asking the usual newbie questions after doing some searching and was amazed at the kindness of the members here to offer up their valuable time to give me invaluable information and/or suggestions. Again, I am a hobbyist and wanted to build a humble little shop in 2/3 of my 3 car garage. I was intrigued by the sliding table saws and thought they would be MUCH safer for me in my circumstance but there was no way I was going to spend the money the Felder and Hammer saws demand for my minimal use. I saw a thread discussing the Grizzly G0623X and thought that was within my budget and decided to give it a try knowing it was an entry level slider. I also asked here about one of their bandsaws that was receiving good reviews and it turned into a little bit of a controversy. Nothing major mind you.
As a result of that thread Shiraz Balolia contacted me and put me in contact with his customer service department who went way above and beyond researching how I could modify several machines bases to lower table heights for a safer and more enjoyable experience for me. They even contacted a fellow disabled guy who had built his shop and made arraignments for us to contact each other. It's rare these days to see customer service at that level and I wasn't even a customer yet! So I ended up getting a few toys from the Grizzly line and Shiraz could not have been any more helpful in the process. I had a few minor adjustments to do on several of the machines but nothing crazy or out of the ordinary. I am very happy with my choices.
Another person in that band saw thread who offered up his opinions was Van Huskey. He contacted me and offered up his assistance if I had any questions with regards to choices available, cost, and setup. I have taken him up on that offer several times and he has gone out of his way to answer my silly questions even to the extent of researching the current pricing for said tools. I expected one or two sentence answers and I got pages of great information.
So I now have a sliding table saw, band saw, jointer, planer, drill press, combo sander, 125/3 ROS, dust collection system for the big machines, and DC for the hand tools. I'm in the deep end and enjoying the swim!!!
Everything is all set up with the exception of the ducting for the the large DC system. What a PITA trying to figure the layout for that is but I will prevail!
So in conclusion, and I apologize for the lengthy post, I just want to say thank you to all the persons here on this fabulous site for taking the time to help out little ole me and especially to Shiraz and Van for their support and taking their valuable time to make this old goober a happy guy.
Now if I could only afford some wood! :)
Thanks guys,
Craig
As you all know, times have changed over the last 20 years and there are so many choices and decisions to research and decide on with regards to tools. I'll admit it, I felt a bit overwhelmed. Adding to all the choices available I also had the unique circumstance, with regards to safety, of choosing the best possible tools that would work for me with respect to using a wheelchair to get around. I was especially concerned about the table saw and it's inherent kickback dangers being that it's my neck and head in the direct path and height and I particularly like my head attached.
So I came here and started asking the usual newbie questions after doing some searching and was amazed at the kindness of the members here to offer up their valuable time to give me invaluable information and/or suggestions. Again, I am a hobbyist and wanted to build a humble little shop in 2/3 of my 3 car garage. I was intrigued by the sliding table saws and thought they would be MUCH safer for me in my circumstance but there was no way I was going to spend the money the Felder and Hammer saws demand for my minimal use. I saw a thread discussing the Grizzly G0623X and thought that was within my budget and decided to give it a try knowing it was an entry level slider. I also asked here about one of their bandsaws that was receiving good reviews and it turned into a little bit of a controversy. Nothing major mind you.
As a result of that thread Shiraz Balolia contacted me and put me in contact with his customer service department who went way above and beyond researching how I could modify several machines bases to lower table heights for a safer and more enjoyable experience for me. They even contacted a fellow disabled guy who had built his shop and made arraignments for us to contact each other. It's rare these days to see customer service at that level and I wasn't even a customer yet! So I ended up getting a few toys from the Grizzly line and Shiraz could not have been any more helpful in the process. I had a few minor adjustments to do on several of the machines but nothing crazy or out of the ordinary. I am very happy with my choices.
Another person in that band saw thread who offered up his opinions was Van Huskey. He contacted me and offered up his assistance if I had any questions with regards to choices available, cost, and setup. I have taken him up on that offer several times and he has gone out of his way to answer my silly questions even to the extent of researching the current pricing for said tools. I expected one or two sentence answers and I got pages of great information.
So I now have a sliding table saw, band saw, jointer, planer, drill press, combo sander, 125/3 ROS, dust collection system for the big machines, and DC for the hand tools. I'm in the deep end and enjoying the swim!!!
Everything is all set up with the exception of the ducting for the the large DC system. What a PITA trying to figure the layout for that is but I will prevail!
So in conclusion, and I apologize for the lengthy post, I just want to say thank you to all the persons here on this fabulous site for taking the time to help out little ole me and especially to Shiraz and Van for their support and taking their valuable time to make this old goober a happy guy.
Now if I could only afford some wood! :)
Thanks guys,
Craig