"Leon" wrote in message
...

On 4/25/2013 8:59 AM, John Grossbohlin wrote:

Before the demise of Woodworkers Warehouse the local store was too
easily accessed. As a result I went through 3 generations of table saws,
2 jointers, 2 dust collectors, blah, blah, blah. It wasn't so much that
I couldn't control myself as it was that as I took on more projects and
my skills grew I found I needed different types of, or larger more
stable and powerful machines. WW seemed to time their sales (and
demise) to my needs pretty well...

WOW that is a lot of equipment! Although I am waiting as I type this for
my 3rd TS. I have had 2 DP's, and 2 planers, that is about the only
duplications of the big stuff.

Unfortunately the brands of equipment that I have been buying in the last 5
years or so never goes on sale. ;~(

It does seem like a lot but when I found that things seemed unsafe or that I
was taxing the equipment I had it was time for something bigger. The jointer
is a prime example... I had a 6" but when I started jointing long heavy
boards I actually had it standing on edge one day with the end of the out
feed table facing the floor. Needless to say, this was dangerous! Bolting
it down was not really an option due to space and concrete issues. The short
beds also made jointing the long lengths tricky. That is when the DJ-20 came
along... no way I can tip that over and the longer beds allow me to joint
long boards with no problems. If I was only making furniture and not doing
any architectural/structural woodworking the smaller machines would have
been fine. Truly needs based acquisitions vs. compulsion!

I've gone through generations of table saws, dust collectors, shapers,
thickness planers, jointers, and ambient air cleaners. The only stationary
tool that I will continue to have multiples of is bandsaws. I have an 18" in
my shop and a 36" in my wood shed. The latter of which, a Crescent made in
1905, is intended for milling logs (small but not firewood size) and
resawing as it is large, heavy and has 5 HP of power. I sold my old stuff
off... It's probably a good thing that I don't have room to keep the dups.
;~) Then again, I havent found anything I was doing on the smaller machines
that I cannot do on the larger ones. I also watch carefully and patiently
for deals so as to not break the bank...

John