What tool saves you the most time?

[Mike Cutler]

Lately it's been my track saw due to all the house projects I've been doing.
When I'm in the "shop mode", the biggest time saver for me, that might be considered an extravagance, is my dual drum sander, and my shaper.

I'd really like a fork lift also. Might not save time for me ,so much as my back,

[Mike Kees]

If Darcy can have his forklift ,then my time savers are air tools. I framed with a hammer when I started out apprenticing,an air nailer was a revelation ,same with roofing nailers,finish nailers and sheathing staplers.

[Kevin Beitz]

Dewalt hand grinder with a 6" cut off wheel... I use around 100 wheels a year...

[Jim Becker]

I honestly cannot pick out any one single tool or accommodation that saves the most time on every project. There is too much variation in what I do. I will say that both my CNC and my Domino have played a big factor in more efficiency overall, but there are always other things that come into play for a given project. One thing that has made me, at least feel, more efficient is my switch to metric. That's controversial for many folks, but it's working for me really, really well.

[Tim McCarthy]

As a father of four I have limited time in my shop. I was curious what the community's finds to be the biggest time saver on projects.

Scrapers, mostly card but cabinet scraper and scraper plane on occasion.

[Tom Bender]

Random Orbit Sander

And after that, a second ROS with coarse paper.

[Pete Staehling]

For me that would definitely be my drum sander. It wins by a mile.

[Rod Sheridan]

Shop time savers

1) good drawings,

2) jointer nd planer

3) shaper

Regards, Rod.

[John Sincerbeaux]

My Martin T45 planer. To be able to set in exactly a thickness I need to perfectly fit with what I made on the slider saves a ton of time. And no snipe!

[Albert Lee]

either my SCM wide belt sander or my Masterwood OMB1V mortiser.

[John K Jordan]

...Milling machine upgrades are kinda where my mind is at.

Then three-axis DROs for sure, if you don't have them.

Heat and air conditioning if you don't have them.
A bathroom in the shop if you don't have that.
More space if you don't have much.

JKJ

[marlin adams]

my bandsaw

[Corey Pelton]

Domino XL. Followed by my FS41 Elite j/p, with honorable mention going to my track saw.

[David Buchhauser]

Electric Drill

[Leo Graywacz]

The most used machines in the shop are the tablesaw, jointer and planer. I can't imagine trying to run a business without those and having to do my sawing with a hand saw, my jointing with a jointing plane and my thickness planing with a hand plane.

Going from an HVLP to a AAA pump sped up the finishing 3 fold and gave a better product.

The Ceros sander compared to my old DeWalt sander is so much more aggressive and you don't have to worry about swirl marks with a Fein dust extractor.

The edge sander for sizing doors, drawer fronts and other items has no real replacement, a hand sander or belt sander I guess.