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RM MS
 
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Default Ok, so how much more do I need to get started making real wood...

Just start by just getting started, making the projects that you want.
The need for any specific tool will make itself apparent. Too many
people in this group would have you believing that you need to buy out
every item in nothing but the most expensive and exotic catalogs before
you are worthy of their notice. Don't listen to their crap. Nobody can
own everything, and too often people get wrapped up in the details of
their new toy and it just becomes a distraction. It sounds like you
already have a good basic set of machinery. So many specialized tools
can be substituted with a little bit of initiative, and just general
shop experience will usually suggest a solution automatically after some
years of work. I am a journeyman pattenmaker, 24+ years in the trade.
My work is as exacting, intricate and complicated as anybody's, and many
times throughout a working day we are required to solve problems on
jobs, with no time for excuses. We use WWII era power tools, and our
chisels and planes are working tools, not showpieces. We don't have the
luxury of stopping a job and waiting for the UPS to deliver a shiny new
gizmo every time something a little bit different shows up on a
blueprint. Instead, we devise a solution on the spot, either making a
tool or using what we have to get the job done. So you don't have a
"biscuit joiner", then use a spline joint off the table saw, or a dowel
joint using drilled holes. Don't have a fancy, lockable, index-marked,
titanium-coated taper jig for your saw? Tack a plywood scrap onto the
workpiece and go for it. Throw it away when you are done and you don't
need to store it. I think you get the idea. Just get busy and produce
something, and it will all flow from there.