What to buy with my birthday money?

[slowlearner]

Right, so for my 40th instead of pressies, I asked for guitar building $$$. I have lots of awesome friends and after counting I have about $2.5k to spend. What do I need? Well the following I think...

Decent band saw (to resaw tops as well as other basic stuff)
Jointer
Saw table (for ripping and scarf joints)
Dust extractor
Router table (maybe)

I'm building electric basses (and the odd guitar) really, so I don't need a thickness sander. Any thoughts on specs and models would be good. I also have a mate who works for Hare & Forbes, so hopefully I can get better than retail prices. Thoughts?

P.s. the next thing I build is gonna have to be pretty special...

[DaveW]

Dust extraction ,cant put a price on your health and Im sure your friends wouldnt be giving out that sort of cash if they didnt want you around for a while longer
while I dont have room for large extraction systems
I purchased a Festool RO 90 Dx sander/ polisher and the festool vacuum (which I can use with other products) and it aint cheap probably nearly 2k
and I can now sand and not get any dust on me let alone in me !it makes sanding a pleasant experience now ?? best money I ever spent
But a good bandsaw would be nice
DAve

[rocket]

I'd go in order of priority,,, 1/dust extractor, 2/17" band saw, and 3/ everyone needs a thickness sander, so one of those, 4/ jointer, 5/table saw, 6/router table.
With the birthday money you'll probably have to tip a bit more in to get the first three but it's gonna be a fun shopping spree, have fun and don't forget to show us the pics of your new toys.
Cheers,,

Rod.

[DaveW]

SO ?????????
what did you get
Dave

[simso]

If your goal is to build electric guitars, then you can save a few bucks on the bigger stuff

Dont buy a jointer, simply buy your blocks of wood sized already
Dont buy a router table use a hand router

No 1 definetly buy a dust extractor
No 2 buy a bandsaw
No 3 Buy a belt sander

Maybe buy a table saw, dependant on budget

Everything else $$ will easily be consumed in basic hand tools, hand tools IMO are more important than big machinery that does one job and then sits there until the next guitar build.

[Phil Mailloux]

Right, so for my 40th instead of pressies, I asked for guitar building $$$. I have lots of awesome friends and after counting I have about $2.5k to spend. What do I need? Well the following I think...

Decent band saw (to resaw tops as well as other basic stuff)
Jointer
Saw table (for ripping and scarf joints)
Dust extractor
Router table (maybe)

I'm building electric basses (and the odd guitar) really, so I don't need a thickness sander. Any thoughts on specs and models would be good. I also have a mate who works for Hare & Forbes, so hopefully I can get better than retail prices. Thoughts?

P.s. the next thing I build is gonna have to be pretty special...

I build electric basses and the odd guitar and I couldn't live without my thickness sander, it replaces a thicknesser and thins down fingerboards and necks perfectly for glue up. If I had to get rid of all my machinery and only keep two pieces of equipment my 8" jointer and 16/32 thickness sander would win over everything else, of course you'd need the dust extraction too with these two.

My 17" bandsaw is probably the least important one of the bunch, I'd get a few other sanders (belt, disc) before paying for a large bandsaw, a smaller bandsaw would be perfectly fine for what i do with it. I also thought I'd need a super large bandsaw for resawing before but so far have done very little resawing with it.

[slowlearner]

Thanks for those insights Phil.

In the end I've been able to afford everything on the list. I'd love a small CNC router like your's but that's not gonna happen any time soon, so a bandsaw (which I use heaps) and the thicknesser will do for now. I can, in the future though, sell the thicknesser and get a thickness sander. I've got a luthiery mentor/mate who has a thickness sander, so I can scab a go on his... he said the other day, "buy a jointer, then I don't need one".
He's been resawing all my timber up to now, so I think I'm safe. Which is the other point. I'm using a LOT of timber that is either recycled or cut down from large sizes I buy it in from the local timber merchant. I think that's gonna continue firstly coz I like recycled timber, but secondly because using the big sizes keeps resawing/dressing costs down.

In fact I scabbed a hardwood desk today. Have to pull that apart yet and see what I want to use.

[kiwigeo]

Sod the machinery...its your birthday for c*****'s sake. Just go out and spend all your money on a sh*tload of piss and come home with a hangover that lasts 2 weeks

[slowlearner]

You know I'm a church pastor right?

[P Bill]

A Preacher, with a $2500 windfall? What wood Jesus do?

[EricDownunder]

Dust extractor, bandsaw and double drum sander would be the most used machines in my workshop.
A dust extractor is used foe allmost everyrthing and is relativly cheap.

[slowlearner]

A Preacher, with a $2500 windfall? What wood Jesus do?

Cute. Windfall no, present, yes.

[slowlearner]

Ordered!

Now to wait....

[kiwigeo]

You know I'm a church pastor right?

Doesn't matter if you're one of God's angels.....birthdays are the one day of the year you should let yourself off the leash.

[kiwigeo]

My order of priorities for workshop machinery...

1. Beer fridge.
2. Routers (at least half a dozen)
3. Bandsaw
4. Drill Press
5. Drum sander and dust extractor.
6. Table saw
7. Jointer
8. Turret cannon to protect my tonewood stash.

[rocket]

Just one turret cannon Martin? and at the bottom of the list ?
Rod.

[slowlearner]

Doesn't matter if you're one of God's angels.....

I'm no angel. I don't even have a motorbike license, let alone a harley.

[slowlearner]

Excitement! Tools arrived today!







Of course there is a day's work in unpacking a assembling all this stuff. Suffice to say, I need to leave most of it until thursday.... and clean all the unused crap out of the garage... AGAIN!

[rocket]

Hurry up i wanna see what you got
Rod

[Nick]

Awww no wrapping paper

[EricDownunder]

A hiab!

[rocket]

Shrink wrap

[slowlearner]

Well so far we have...



3 down and 2 yet to be unpacked. I'm swimming cardboard and unidentified accessories. The router table is literally a mystery to me. So many bits. Took me three goes to get it together right.


Got the jointer and Bandsaw yet to unpack. If I did it again, I'd leave the saw table and router table in their boxes and unpack the dust extractor and bandsaw first. Unfortunately, everything is so heavy I need to assemble it off the pallet instead.

My old bandsaw and a bike is on ebay at the mo. The sooner they go the better too. :help:

I know I can fit it all in, but by golly I didn't allow for how much time all the assembly and setup is gonna take. Oh well, still very excited to have some proper, safe tools.

[rocket]

Exciting time Pete, must feel like a 5 year old kid on Christmas morning!!
Rod.

[slowlearner]

Exciting time Pete, must feel like a 5 year old kid on Christmas morning!!
Rod.

Only I have to put my own bike together...