New forum user here looking for shop setup advice. Not new to woodworking, I am tooling up to rebuild shop / garage lost in August 2020 wildfire in Santa Cruz County. Built shop 30 years ago using hand-cut timber frame (green Doug Fir), clear heart redwood siding, true divided lite windows, concrete roof, copper trim, and other quality elements which I plan to replicate on Shop v2.0. Lucked in to a bunch of quality Doug Fir, Redwood and Valley Oak logs killed by the fire, and lo and behold decided I "needed" a Lucas 7-23 swing arm mill, with slabbing, planing and sanding attachments. Acquired that 10 months ago. And a skid steer to handle logs and milled timbers. To date we have probably milled 20k BF of Doug Fir into everything from 6x6 to 8x12, and 10k BF of Redwood, mostly 1x8 and 1x6 heart, with mixed heart/sap boards, 6x6 and 2x going into the fencing pile. We've also 3" slabbed several logs of redwood and valley oak. Gorgeous raw material banded and air drying. Built two solar kilns (5' x 8' x 22' each) and baked all the Doug Fir timber last summer, and baking first load of 1x redwood siding stock now. The question for y'all is what tools best for Shop 2.0, in the domain of planer, jointer, shaper, dust control, etc.? I have a 35yo Delta table saw, various beefy hand tools used for timber frame v1.0 in early 90s, a random drill press and band saw from garage sales / CL, but nothing in the big and beefy planer/jointer/shaper/dust collection department. I'm leaning Grizzly, though I've been waiting 5 months for a Laguna planer that I'm skeptical will ever arrive. My question is not what you think about Grizzly (already researched that extensively), but what is the best allocation of ~$10k-$15k across the power tools mentioned above. I want to S4S all the Doug Fir timbers, then chamfer, then rabbet one edge for light strip, and plane and shape all redwood siding into 1x8 or 1x6 V Rustic pattern, or similar. Thinking also that site-built doors and windows might also be interesting (Doug Fir for interiors, Redwood for exteriors), given prices and lead times I'm seeing out there for production/custom doors and windows, and the fact that Marvin no longer offers true divided lite double hung windows that I used 30 years ago. I looked at the combo jointer/planer that Grizzly and others carry, but I am not sold on the combo machine. Shop 2.0 will be compact, but plenty of outdoor slab area to roll mobile-based equipment out onto. I envision BIG infeed and outfeed tables from milled half-logs, as my biggest sticks are 8x12 x 20ft. Thinking a gantry crane (steel and/or timber) could be a fun next project before major finishing ops. And we have a skid steer with pallet forks for material handling. And yes, I am aware that I can only plane two sides of an 8x12 timber in a 20” wide by 8” tall planer. The other two sides will likely be planed with the sawmill attachment or power hand planers.
With that long-winded backdrop, what are your thoughts on a 15" or 20" planer, similar size jointer and shaper, dust control, and maybe a new table saw for the above ops? Interested in your thoughts independent of brand, but also interested in Grizzly-specific comments/experiences. Internet-only “experts”, please keep your hands in your popcorn and off the keyboard. Here is a set of equipment I'm pondering:Planer: https://www.grizzly.com/products/G0454Z
Shaper: https://www.grizzly.com/products/G5912Z
Jointer: https://www.grizzly.com/products/G0858
Dust Collection: https://www.grizzly.com/products/W1869
Hard to tell what backlog timing looks like. I'd like to have all this in place and operational by early March if not sooner.
Happy Holidays all and thanks for any guidance.