On Tue, 31 May 2005 12:06:48 +0100, doozer
wrote:



Cheers, I didn't think an electric plane was the right tool for the job
as they always looked to bulky for fine work. As for table saws etc etc
I am getting round to them. I can't afford the outlay at the moment but
as I move onto bigger jobs I think I'll just have to.


If you are going to do a fair amount of work or unusual shapes, it's
worth getting a) a table saw and b) a planer/thicknesser (or separate
planer and thicknesser.

This allows you to buy sawn rather than prepared timber and to machine
it to exactly the required sizes. There is often quite a price hike
for prepared timber even in standard sizes. If you want it machined
to size it gets very expensive.

So to some extent, if you are committed to making things from wood
then you can justify the machinery costs.

For example, over the weekend I was making a ramp with 2.5 degree
slope for my parents' garden. This involved cutting 2.4m joist
bearers at this angle along the length. I was able to do this on the
table saw pretty easily once I'd worked out a suitable jig. I needed
the same angle across the width oof a piece of board and was able to
do that in the thicknesser using a jig.

I still used a handplane to finish in a few places, though.

--

..andy

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