What machine do you enjoy using most?

[Warren Lake]

no favourite and they are all important, stroke sander one skill, shaper another, jointer another. All have their groove. Never got to try a machine like Andrew has but never fails the weight goes up and so does the feel. Different feel and sound in each machine. The old SCM combo just hums. Have to check not A440.

Same time nothing like running high speed steel split collar with honed steel knives. hand fed and feel the cutter working different if you speed up or slow down your feed, very little back pressure and almost quiet sound the knives make when cutting. That was what they started us on, before Elmer the safety elephant arrived. Looking back now its good he did arrive.

[Bob Jones 5443]

Dust collector system?

I have four 4” drop-down hoses around the shop, running through shopmade blast gates into a 4” PVC ceiling line to an Oneida Super Dust Deputy cyclone in the far corner, which directs chips and chunks down into a sealed drum while the 22-year-old Delta 1-1/2 HP motor/fan housing up on the wall takes dust out the top of the cyclone and discharges the dust into a 0.5 micron Wynn filter, and harmlessly into the air in the room without ever accumulating dust in the bag below the Wynn. The Jet air filter on the ceiling takes up the slack from any dust-aggressive tool.

Today I made some big dust on the router table. One hose behind the bit and fence, one hose pulling on the router housing below. Not a speck in the room. Later I shaved down some hardboard on the jointer (ill-advised) and it made big gnarly shards that got sucked right up and away like nothing. I can pick up screws or small items with the system without harming the machine. I like hearing chunky items and waste rattle through the system over my head.

Adapting the Delta unit into this system was a major DIY labor of love about five years ago. I smile every time it does its job while I can breathe freely.

[Bob Jones 5443]

Oops: favorite tool might be my shopmade router fence.

From simple Home Depot oak boards — 1x4, I think — I cut off 1” strips and laminated them into a true 1” x 6” x 30” slab. The bottom 4” are the sliding faces and the top extends the height and also has a T-track for feather boards. There’s a little dust collector chamber behind the bit with a 2-1/2” port.

Behind the slab is a frame that matches the Biesemeier fence height on one side and ramps up to 6” to meet the oak router fence. The frame gets clamped the the Biesemeier

Today I was scratching my head about how to trim off 3/32” from a 2’ x 4’ frame made from 1x2pine. The thing was too big, thin, and unwieldly to run over the jointer, and the table saw would have made the job a dusty, ragged mess. I ended up removing the outfeed sliding fence, taping 3/32” scrap strips above and below the internal T-track, and refitting the . Instant jointer!

When not in use, the router fence clips into an elegant full-length hanger on my French Cleat wall.

[Bob Jones 5443]

Oh wait. My brother-in-law gave me a Type 2 Stanley router plane a few years back. It’s now 127 years old and still works like new. For longevity alone, it holds a venerable place in my shop, the Neanderthal side.

[Bob Jones 5443]

No, check that. My favorite tool has to be my hard-working 3D French cleat wall. It holds over 20 cubic feet of tools, and there’s still more capacity. I make my holders to extend a foot or more out from the wall, so a lot of tools take up minuscule wall space. For example, my 30 Forstner bits sit in a three-drawer unit with a Plexiglas cover that takes up 3” horizontally by 14” high on the wall. They’re nestled next to a similar three-drawer case that holds my two dozen router bits and accessories. Or the two sets of chisels in a rack with a 4” x 12” “wallprint.” And all of these tool holders can lift out of the wall and be placed on the bench, say for when I want to alternate between two to four chisels and I want them all right there with their edges safely away from my hands.

Three routers, a circular saw, shooting board, Biesemeier fence, router fence, staple gun, Cosman Dovetail saw in its box, 20 screwdrivers, random orbital sander, three tiers of drill bits, eight table saw blades, cordless driver and drill with charger, four marking gauges, a fancy Mayan pyramid of measurement tools, jigsaw, four feather boards, Young Je mortising jig, base-mounted Kreg jig, Systi-Matic dado set, 18” and 48” levels, holdfasts, cabinet scraper, dustpan and brush, various small clamps, several hammers, cheap miter box…. It’s probably 80% full.

[Bob Jones 5443]

Hold the presses. My favorite tool is the 2007 Lie-Nielsen 4-1/2” hand plane that I took to a weeklong David Charlesworth class in 2019. It turned out to be just me and him for a week in January in North Devon.

But back to the 4-1/2. David impressed upon me the benefit of pressing down firmly on the sole behind the tote with my thumb to get a controlled shaving for certain types of work. With his favorite, the 5-1/2, that’s fine, but with my 4-1/2 there’s not enough room around the casting shape to fit a thumb and reach the sole.

One day I was off flattening the sole of my block plane, and I noticed David has wandered off. I looked up and saw him across the workshop, his back to me and leaning into his bandsaw. After a few minutes he walked back with a little chunk of English walnut he had fashioned into a thumb block for my 4-1/2. It fit neatly into the trapezoidal solid space behind the tote and offered a wide, flat bearing surface for my thumb. How delightful.

While on some level I might prefer a flat-sole 4-1/2 to the corrugated one I chose as a beginner, I’ll never trade mine for a flat sole. It holds enormous sentimental value for me, having been made to perform even better than Lie-Nielsen New under David’s care, and especially for that little chunk of English walnut.

My favorite tool.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Router.

The scream reminds me of the time I got to visit the Indy 500 time trials in 1970 and hear the Offys scream.

[Mick Simon]

My favorite would be a tossup between my 20" Inca bandsaw and my CNC router. Both encourage me to step away from rectilinear projects and into the challenges that curves bring.

[John Kananis]

My favorite machine is also the one I have the least skill and experience with but I have a blast whenever I use my lathe.

[Larry Frank]

This is tough. I really like my Sawstop PCS because of how smooth it runs and the fit and finish. However, i love my Nova Viking Drill Press. It runs so smooth and changing speeds is so easy. I never understood how using the best speed made things better. Now, just a twist of the knob instead of changing belts.

I am not a hand tool user but have a LN 4-1/2 that I use mainly as a shooting plane. It is a pleasure to use.

[Gordon Stump]

My first thought was the cnc machine I call Paul after the movie (don't ask). But I always tease my wife when she says she has to cook dinner. I say.....oh push buttons on the microwave? So the other day I whined about having to do some work in the shop with Paul. She says..oh, push buttons?

So its the stroke sander!!!

[Roger Feeley]

Not a machine but my wife gets top billing. Once she bought me a Bosch glide for Christmas and there was some kind of problem with the bases so I couldn’t keep it. “Gee honey, I’m sorry that didn’t work out. How about I buy you a Sawstop ICS instead?” Yeah, definitely my wife.

seriously, the Sawstop.

[Derek Cohen]

I have some excellent machines by Hammer - bandsaw, combo thicknesser planer, and slider (K3). There are other machines of equal ability. The question asked by the OP was 'which is the favourite machine', and this is the K3. The reason is that it is a tool of precision and one that is operator-driven to obtain a range of precise cuts ...






However, were we to be discussing which tool I would rescue in the advent of a fire, it would be this simple hand plane ...



... made by Jim Krenov.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Lisa Starr]

Any of my older iron. It isn't that the machine does anything a newer version wouldn't, but I have a a certain awe that they could build something 80 years ago that still operates exactly as intended. Every time I turn on one of those machines, I think about those that used it before me.

[Mike O'Keefe]

My 1949 Unisaw then my old Delta drill press.