Unofficial/Informal Member Survey

[Ted Derryberry]

I'm pretty new here and am trying to get a feel for the forum. I'm curious how many professional woodworkers post here and what type of equipment the members have, both professional and hobbyist. My motivation for joining was to learn more about my new Felder saw/shaper as I've never used a sliding table saw before. Feel free to add any other information you'd like. I'll start.

Professional woodworker for 8 years after 20+ years as a commercial construction superintendent.
1,000 +/- sq ft shop in my basement.

Primary equipment:
Felder KF700SP saw/shaper (recent upgrade from a late '80s Uni-Saw and Woodpecker's router table)
Hammer A3-31 jointer/planer (upgrade about a year ago from a Delta bench top planer and Grizzly jointer)
2000 year model ShopBot PRT9648 CNC (bought third hand in 2010 and upgraded controller and motors in 2015)
Saw Systems vertical panel saw (10' wide by 50" capacity with Milwaukee power head)

My smaller tools are a mix of Delta, Grizzly, Makita, DeWalt, Porter Cable, Bosch, Jet, Kreg, Woodpeckers, and even Ridgid (shop vacs and spindle sander). I also have the commercial PantoRouter which I use regularly.

Primary products:
Interior passage doors (restrooms, kitchen, broom closet) for a restaurant chain.
Gun racks direct to user (individuals, dealers, collectors, gov't agencies).

Every once in a while I do the odd project like a table or built in bookcases, but am generally too busy. I don't do any field work or installation, I've had my fill of that already. The built-ins are for a friend who's a remodeling contractor and he picks up the pieces and does the assembly and installation on site.

[Jim Becker]

Serious hobbyist for 20 years; transitioning to some level of professional work "as we speak" as I retired from full time work in the telecom industry recently and prefer to monetize my shop rather than getting a part time job at a super market or something. :)

600 sq ft shop, roughtly 22x30, plus storage upstairs 16x44.

Primary equipment is SCM/Minimax S315WS slider, FS-350 J/P and MM16 band saw; Stubby lathe, a healthy portion of the Festool lineup, Oneida cyclone, IR compressor, Jet DP, Grizzly 6x48/12 sander, Delta OSS, Delta miter saw and coming soon, a Camaster Stinger-II SR-44 CAM machine.

Furniture (Shaker and Nakashima style), cabinetry, tack storage for the equestrian community and more to come.

[Tim M Tuttle]

Hobbyist, very early in my woodworking adventure. Only been at it about a year. I've sold everything I've made other than the shop projects. Cornhole boards, window boxes, cutting boards. I've recently started filming my projects and publishing them to YouTube and my website.

470 SF garage shop. I also use my unfinished basement as lumber storage.

Primary Equipment: SawStop contactor saw, Bosch Glide miter saw, WEN drill press, WEN bandsaw, WEN sanders, Dewalt 735 planer, Steelex jointer, Oneida Mini Gorilla DC.

Most of my handheld tools are from an old Craftsman 11 piece set I got a while back. I've slowly been switching those out with Dewalt. Also use Ridgid and Bosch routers.

I am actually getting quite a few inquiries from people to make various things for them. I only do them if I can make about $40/hr or more. I have some shelves for a coworker coming up and my office needs new lockers in their gym and asked that I come up with a design and proposal for that so those may be in store in the future.

When I finally get around to making things for myself I will be doing very modern indoor and outdoor furniture. I plan on adding a welder to my arsenal shortly and the welder I've had my eye on just went on a 1 day sale for about 25% off today so I might be pulling the trigger on that.

I have virtually zero experience with hand tools other than screwdrivers and hammers so I am very much looking forward to broadening my horizons in that arena. A kind gentlemen on this board hooked me up with some planes that I hope to put to use soon. I dont have a way to secure anything just yet so it's been hard to find a good use case for them. A roubo might be in the works in the near future.

Some day I'll be foolish enough to fork over the dough and get a CNC, 3D printer and laser cutter.

[Lee Schierer]

I'm a hobby woodworker, I started making wood furniture about 45 years ago with a B&D sabre saw and a router plus a few hand tools. My tools were all purchased to enable me to move to the next level of woodworking and were all paid for on the first job they were used on as opposed to buying the item that I made.

My shop is a converted 2 car attached garage and I have a Craftsman TS, Delta 14" band saw, 12-1/2" Delta Planer, a 6" Delta jointer, a Home Craft bench mounted drill press, a Home Craft shaper, a Craftsman radial arm saw, and numerous hand tools. The Jointer, shaper and drill press were purchased form a high school wood shop that was being shut down.

I make boxes, toys, furniture of all types, buildings, lawn swings, bird houses and feeders and anything else that we need that can be made from wood. I've done a few commission jobs, some made money some paid for the materials. Some were gifts or donations to charitable organizations.

I retired from the navy in !996 and from my engineering job in 2015.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I worked P/T for a neighbor contractor in the late '70s. Then after moving to a Chicago suburb, I bought a table saw and finished the basement of our house. A few years later after moving to Idaho, I built a Norm Abrams furniture project for my wife. Later she deferred retirement to pay for the empty shell of my standalone woodworking shop (30'x24'). While a contractor built my empty shell, I wired it, insulated it, finished it while hiring out the heating installation. Now retired I am an avid hobbyist with a Ridgid TS-3650 table saw, a Jet Drill press, a Grizzly 8" jointer, a Ridgid 13" lunchbox planer, a PM-3520 lathe, 2 air cleaners, an Oneida DC and other tools.

[Greg Hines, MD]

I have been a garage-shop woodworker for years. Current plan is to build a stand alone shop next to the house sometime soon, hopefully this year. Mostly I use hand-held power tools, but do have a combination machine called a Super-Shop for table sawing and drilling, as well as occasionally lathe turnings. I have built much of my shop by hand, from lumber racks to a router table to clamp racks to work benches.

Doc

[Martin Wasner]

Professional cabinet maker.

Started in late 1998, went on my own in middle of 2004.

8000 square/ft building.

I've got a lot of equipment.

I do mostly residential cabinetry. No finishing. Very little install work.

[Darcy Warner]

Professional mess maker. 9k sqft of moulders, machines and messes.

[Wayne Lomman]

Ex professional having left the timber industry in late 2016. I have divided my time across most aspects of woodworking including machining, cabinetmaking, chair making, furniture making, polishing and spray painting. The work has crossed from household furniture to high profile public buildings, fine furniture, residential cabinetry, public housing kitchens(!), commercial fit outs etc. in Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Alice Springs and many, many regional centres. I have had the privilege of working for shops that were not afraid to use any type of materials and finishes to achieve excellence which means I have worked with stone, ceramic, steel, non ferrous metals, plastics, composites and more as well as a huge variety of timber species. More recently I have left the timber industry to work for the dark side ie CNC machining and engineering with abrasive blasting and industrial painting thrown in.

My home shop is about 60 square metres/600 sq ft. It has a no brand combination machine of doubtful age but it generally does what I ask of it. Apart from that I have a lathe, 2 mitre saws, a drill press, plenty of hand and power tools and over 40 years of experience to fill the gaps in the equipment list. Lately I restrict myself to working on our house as we need much better access for 2 partially disabled family members. Cheers

[Bradley Gray]

Professional since 1978. Furniture, stairs, string instruments, music stands.

1800 sq ft heated space + 1000 unheated, about 15 old iron machines and lots of hand tools.

[Osvaldo Cristo]

Hobbist here. Started on mid 1980s and at the beginning 1990s was my most active period making several roofs and cabinetry, mainly for my then new house and to relatives.

Restarting fire again.

A good selection of mid quality hand and portable electric tools, mainly Makita and Bosch but some De Walt and PC. Contractor saw Makita 2704 replaced my almost 30 years old Acerbi contractor saw.

104 square foot workshop. Sometimes I use our garage to mount bigger stuff.

[Bill Carey]

Serious hobbyist. Worked as a finish carpenter for 15 years, then as a construction estimator for 35 years while shooting sports for several newspapers. Currently working for a Danish software company. Should be retired, but there was this little thing called 2008...

I have a heated 800 sf garage with a heated and AC'ed office above it with my 9' pool table. We have owned 3 houses in the last 40 years and a car has never been inside any of the garages. I use a Grizzly table saw, a Laguna band saw, DeWalt planer, drill press, Rigid oscillating sander, Makita miter box, Milwaukee and Ryobi battery tools, Porter Cable routers and biscuit joiner, lots of hand tools, nail guns, compressors, a humidor and a 120 watt Harmon Kardon stereo system.

I enjoy making things. I get as much joy from making a table saw sled as I do from making an oak island cabinet for the kitchen or Limbert style tables or craftsman lamps. And I rarely buy wood - a friend provides me with stacks of 3x8x7' oak, sometimes a piece of cherry or walnut. Half of it winds up as fire wood, but some of the trashier stuff, when re-sawn, yields some amazing grain patterns - this becomes boxes or cabinet doors, or just cool shit to hang on the wall.

[Frankie Hunt]

Hobbist. My dad was a cabinet maker / home builder so I grew up helping in the shop.

Have a standalone 2 car garage as my shop, about 700 square ft. 30 years ago, I had all Craftsman tools that were purchased used. Upgraded to better stuff 20 years ago and went with Delta. I have 2 Unisaws, DC380 planer, DJ20 jointer, Delta drill press. Traded my 14 inch Delta bandsaw for a used Rikon 14 inch model last year, also purchased a new Laguna 18 inch bandsaw last year. Had my craftsman radial arm saw up until last year also, I traded it for a Delta turret arm model which cohabitates with a Bosch 12” Glide miter saw. A Dewalt scroll saw, a Delta drum sander and a Jet lathe rounds out the big equipment. Usual assortment of hand tools.

My shop time is more limited during warm weather as I ride my motorcycles a lot during that time. I take on the occasional commission piece, usually furniture type pieces. I have made small boxes to kitchen cabinets. Retirement will be approaching in a few years and I will be much more active in the shop when that time comes.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, hobby guy for 45 years.

Sliding saw/shaper, jointer/planer, band saw, drill press, band saw mill and a pile of hand tools.

My shop is the basement of a townhouse, it's warm in winter, cool in the summer, the only negative is the stairs............Regards, Rod.

[Jay Larson]

Hobbyist, for now. 25 years ago I was finish carpenter, and I always ended up with the special projects. The I went back to school for programming. And turned the woodworking into a hobby.

Now I work out of a 250 sq. ft. shop in my outbuilding with lumber storage in the other 700 square feet. (That also houses my 98 Jeep Wrangler and a 47 Willies CJ2A.)

I have a Grizzly table saw, HF band saw, Delta jointer and drill press, Dewalt planer, couple of routers, and a bunch of hand tools. I usually hit every piece of wood with a plane after machining.

Not building anything to sell, but I hope to bring in some cash after retirement in three years. I have built anything from a staircase and cabinets in our new house to little shadow boxes with my grandson for his parent. And still working on some shop cabinets/furniture. I do like the Arts and Crafts style, but have designed some items in a more mid-century modern style.

[Michael Koons]

Hobbyist who loves learning from the experts in this community. I never expect to make a living doing this but I do plan on doing this 30+ hours a week when I leave the working world. I've been planning for that and acquiring tools while I have the money to buy them.

2000+ sf shop in my walk out basement with a Minimax sliding table saw that I hope to upgrade to a Format or Martin within the next year or so. MM24 bandsaw and Felder AD941 J/P are the core of my shop. Bringing more 3ph gear in as well.

All of this is supplemented by a growing set of handtools including 5 Veritas planes, inlay tools, specialty handplanes and marking and measuring tools. 5 routers that get less and less use as I do more and more hand work.

I will build anything for free for family members and hope to furnish the bulk of my homes with items I've built myself.

Side note, I built my own laminated maple countertops for our mountain house a few years ago. My contractor asked me if I would do it professionally for other jobs of his. I politely said "no thank you."

[Mike Ontko]

A dedicated hobbyist and all-around maker wannabe here, with about 4-years of combined formal classroom/tech school introduction dating back to junior high (7th and 9th) and high school (vocational program in my junior and senior years). Following a 6-year stint in the Navy, I've renovated two houses--one completely from frame to finish, and then five years ago began building up my garage shop, switching over to furniture making in hopes of being able to keep from having to live in a cardboard box during my 'retirement' years.

I'm still paying health care and tuition costs for my two daughters (still in their mid 20's), so my equipment budget is limited to just the items that I need for current and potential future projects. My gear acquisition philosophy is to buy the best that I can afford, which typically includes selections off the top tier of mid-level products.

My current shop lineup includes: an assortment of new and used Grizzly items: G1022ZF (2hp contractor's table saw), G0513X2BF 17" bandsaw, G0653 8" jointer (72" bed with a Shelix cutter head), and G7943 benchtop drill press. And there's also a Jet DC1100A dust collector, DW735 12" planer, a DW704 12" CMS, Porter Cable, Bosch, and Rigid routers, and a number of other electric hand tools (drills, biscuit joiner, et al). My Neander self makes due with a Wood River V3 #4-1/2, a #62 LA Jack plane, and a #92 medium shoulder plane, a Stanley Bailey LA block plane, Kunz spoke shaves, a set of Narex premium bench chisels, and an assortment of card scrapers.

I've built more jigs than actual furniture pieces so far, but my desire is to eventually develop some basic level of accomplishment in household furniture making--beds, bureaus, desks, chairs, and that sort of thing. Though I appreciate most of the styles that I've seen, my personal tastes seem to lean towards Mid-Century and Scandanavian styles. My photo album (https://sawmillcreek.org/album.php?u=101404) has a short display of the items I've completed most recently.