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Thread: Downsizing

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
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    Michigan
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    Downsizing

    One day I will have to give up the shop and will have to work with only hand tools. I think the last tool I will give up is an ROS because it does so much drudgery and requires so little space.

  2. #2
    Tom,

    The ROS isn't high on my list. While I'm still breathing and able to use a walker to get to the shop the 18" band saw will still be plugged in and working.

    ken

  3. #3
    As long I can call cordless drills hand tools, the last power tool I would probably give up is the 14" Delta cast iron frame bandsaw I got new in 1996, although the Unisaw would be a close second.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
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    Michigan
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    So the promise is no shop, woodworking in the spare room or on the porch. And I meant last power tool.

    Andrew you make me rethink power drill.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Bender View Post
    So the promise is no shop, woodworking in the spare room or on the porch. And I meant last power tool.

    Andrew you make me rethink power drill.
    A cordless drill is more of a home maintenance tool than a woodworking tool, so I think you are allowed to keep that (and a box of bits and attachments) and then have one corded tool, which could very well be a ROS

    Actually a ROS isn't a bad idea. My arthritis isn't imvproing with age (imagine that), and I find myself using powered abrasives more and more.

  6. #6
    Bandsaw. I could live with rough surfaces in the apocalypse.

  7. #7
    Hmm I’m just the opposite. The ros is hell on my hands and wrists. Not very good in the lungs either. When the time comes for me to downsize “praying it never does” a #4 be my choice..

  8. #8
    I have a online friend whom has machines throughout his whole house. Well so I’m told I have never seen it. Yes I have in photos. Living room, dining room, office. I say keep,the unisaw, bandsaw whatever in the back room

    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Bender View Post
    So the promise is no shop, woodworking in the spare room or on the porch. And I meant last power tool.

    Andrew you make me rethink power drill.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    SE Michigan
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    3,222
    I guess it all comes down to what you like to make. I’m 90% hand tools now. I think of all the power tools I own (which aren’t many), the two I’d have a hard time going without are my routers and thickness planer. The routers are primarily for inlay work, and the thickness planer for initial dimensioning. I enjoy most dimensioning work with hand tools, but thicknessing by hand to a consistent level is not something I relish, especially with larger boards.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Connecticut Shoreline
    Posts
    336
    I've already made this journey. I had a pretty full shop of basic machines, and then "lost custody" of my shop. I moved all of my tools into storage when I moved out.

    I have a very small, but nice sunny room in my apartment and decided to make it a shop. I moved a small, old, Sjobergs bench into it and enough tools to start building a Dutch tool chest, completely with hand tools. Whenever I need something I don't have, I get it from storage.

    The only power tool I have here is a cordless drill.

    It's amazing to see how much work one can do with the 40 tools that Chris Schwarz recommends.

    I have to constantly remind myself not to bring things here that I really don't need. Or more accurately, to bring back to storage special purpose tools that I rarely need. Space is so tight. I also have to remain far more organized than I am accustomed to. (a place for everything, and everything all over the place!)

    But it good for discipline and I am getting a lot of good work done! The shelter at home order has helped in that regard. Woodworking is keeping me occupied and sane-ish.

    DC

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Stone Mountain, GA
    Posts
    751
    Interesting choice, I really hate sanding and if I were going to a full power tool shop the one hand tool I'd still use would be a smoothing plane.

    For giving up power tools the last one in the shop would be a bandsaw, then a planer, then a router, then a jointer, then a tablesaw.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Longview WA
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    The main power tools used in my shop consist of a cordless drills, bandsaw, drill press, lathe and my power sharpening system.

    My use of sandpaper for woodworking is negligible except when sharpening blades.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

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