Hmm. I just lucked into $500. I look at my wish list and find three
items that I need and that fall below $500.

A nicer circular saw and guide. Amazon sells the Festool with guide for
$325. Can that be right? If so, that's good because I cut a lot of 4x8
sheets of Baltic birch and appleply.

A router lift. The nicer ones are over $300. It would be a nice
addition to Norm's router table that I'm building. I do a fiar amount
of routing.

The Bosch Colt Router for little stuff and laminate trimming. It's only
about $140 which would leave enough for a dovetail jig. I'm a huge fan
of Akeda but the new Porter-Cable 4200 series is ample for me.....I
don't do too many dovetails but maybe I would with a modest jig.

Opinions?

Never Enough Money (in
) said:

| Hmm. I just lucked into $500. I look at my wish list and find three
| items that I need and that fall below $500.

| Opinions?

At the risk of being horribly obvious, why don't you get some really
first-class project wood?

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/solar.html

In article .com,
Never Enough Money wrote:

Hmm. I just lucked into $500.

Opinions?

I love woodworking.

Lucky type money - put it in an IRA or
college fund or something like that...

Woodworking money should not be serious :-(

Lou

I've got plenty of hard maple, some walnut, about 40 board feet of
bloodwood, and about 80 board feet of zebra wood. Several sheets of
baltic birch 3/4 inch plywood, and a couple of sheets in quarter in
baltic birch. What more do I need?

Morris Dovey wrote:
Never Enough Money (in
) said:

| Hmm. I just lucked into $500. I look at my wish list and find three
| items that I need and that fall below $500.

| Opinions?

At the risk of being horribly obvious, why don't you get some really
first-class project wood?

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/solar.html

Good advice but I will probably ignore it.....


loutent wrote:
In article .com,
Never Enough Money wrote:

Hmm. I just lucked into $500.

Opinions?

I love woodworking.

Lucky type money - put it in an IRA or
college fund or something like that...

Woodworking money should not be serious :-(

Lou

A nicer circular saw and guide. Amazon sells the Festool with guide for
$325. Can that be right? If so, that's good because I cut a lot of 4x8
sheets of Baltic birch and appleply.

I just got a near new PC at an auction for $50. $325 for a circular
saw!?!?!

A router lift. The nicer ones are over $300. It would be a nice
addition to Norm's router table that I'm building. I do a fiar amount
of routing.

A router lift would be darn nice to have, I just couldn't bring myself to
spend $300 on one.

The Bosch Colt Router for little stuff and laminate trimming. It's only
about $140 which would leave enough for a dovetail jig. I'm a huge fan
of Akeda but the new Porter-Cable 4200 series is ample for me.....I
don't do too many dovetails but maybe I would with a modest jig.


If you do a lot of laminate trimming, then that would certainly be good to
have. If you don't have a dovetail jig, that also would be nice to have.
So, I vote for #3.

In article .com,
Never Enough Money wrote:

Good advice but I will probably ignore it.....


loutent wrote:
In article .com,
Never Enough Money wrote:

Hmm. I just lucked into $500.

Opinions?

I love woodworking.

Lucky type money - put it in an IRA or
college fund or something like that...

Woodworking money should not be serious :-(

Lou


Don't blame you. I would too.

Lou

Thanks, Toller.

Regarding the Festool circular saw: it's fantastic. The $325 includes a
track (I think). If it does it's competive with a PC and a Tru-Grip
(http://www.trugrip.com/) track combo. Certainly competive if you make
it a worm drive and a tru-grip, especially the Pro ft'r model.

BTW, the Festool is a plunge circular saw. Festool sent me a DVD
showing demos of all their tools. You might look at their web page:
http://www.festoolusa.com/

That said, I could just get the Tru grip and use the old circular saw I
have. Not quite as slick, but still very nice.

And that said, your #3 pick may be the biggest bang for the buck.

Cheers.

Toller wrote:
A nicer circular saw and guide. Amazon sells the Festool with guide for
$325. Can that be right? If so, that's good because I cut a lot of 4x8
sheets of Baltic birch and appleply.

I just got a near new PC at an auction for $50. $325 for a circular
saw!?!?!

A router lift. The nicer ones are over $300. It would be a nice
addition to Norm's router table that I'm building. I do a fiar amount
of routing.

A router lift would be darn nice to have, I just couldn't bring myself to
spend $300 on one.

The Bosch Colt Router for little stuff and laminate trimming. It's only
about $140 which would leave enough for a dovetail jig. I'm a huge fan
of Akeda but the new Porter-Cable 4200 series is ample for me.....I
don't do too many dovetails but maybe I would with a modest jig.


If you do a lot of laminate trimming, then that would certainly be good to
have. If you don't have a dovetail jig, that also would be nice to have.
So, I vote for #3.

Never Enough Money wrote:


A router lift. The nicer ones are over $300. It would be a nice
addition to Norm's router table that I'm building. I do a fiar amount
of routing.
Opinions?

You know your needs better than I, but I sure love having a good router
lift. Makes life so much easier when making fine adjustments. I have a
Benchdog that I bought from www.routerbits.com I use my drill to run it up
and down for bit changes, the provided speed wrinch for minor adjustments.

--
Ed
http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/

In article .com,
"Never Enough Money" wrote:

Hmm. I just lucked into $500. I look at my wish list and find three
items that I need and that fall below $500.

A nicer circular saw and guide. Amazon sells the Festool with guide for
$325. Can that be right? If so, that's good because I cut a lot of 4x8
sheets of Baltic birch and appleply.

A router lift. The nicer ones are over $300. It would be a nice
addition to Norm's router table that I'm building. I do a fiar amount
of routing.

The Bosch Colt Router for little stuff and laminate trimming. It's only
about $140 which would leave enough for a dovetail jig. I'm a huge fan
of Akeda but the new Porter-Cable 4200 series is ample for me.....I
don't do too many dovetails but maybe I would with a modest jig.

Opinions?

325 US$ for the e65 with track and systainer is a great deal for some
awesome accuracy and power. The plunge action is precise.

ANY lift is too much money. They're toys. Then again, my Milwaukees
have accurate 'lifting' built in. Okay..... maybe a lift is nice if you
have an older router....but 300 dollars?

The Colt is kinda cute, but I bought a cpl of Ridgid trimmers which I
like.

So.... the saw and a Ridgid trimmer and a nice Merlot.

Ok. Your about the fifteenth gloat this week. What gives? I've decided
when I have a gloat I won't tell anyone. And I'll gloat about that too.

You won't be disappointed with a router lift and a big PC router. You
can never have enough routers around the shop.

"Never Enough Money" wrote in message

Hmm. I just lucked into $500. I look at my wish list and find three
items that I need and that fall below $500.

Opinions?

Pick a project that you really want to do, then blow the $500 on
something(s) that makes that project easier/feasible/doable ... that way all
your feelings are assuaged in one swell foop when the projects done.

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 10/22/05

Never Enough Money wrote:

A nicer circular saw and guide. Amazon sells the Festool with guide for
$325. Can that be right? If so, that's good because I cut a lot of 4x8
sheets of Baltic birch and appleply.

Are you finish cutting or rough cutting before the table saw? I rough
cut with my Bosch jigsaw and Makita cordless 4" circular saw.

If you're finish cutting with a circular saw, the Festool looks to be
about as good as it gets, complete with dust collection!

A router lift. The nicer ones are over $300. It would be a nice
addition to Norm's router table that I'm building. I do a fiar amount
of routing.

I do tons of routing, but can't comment on a lift, as I have a fixed
base router mounted in the table. G I've used many lifts in other
shops with plunge routers underneath, and they all seemed to work well,
including shop-made versions.

I might instead spring for the Milwaukee 3HP plunger with the above the
table adjusting feature.

The Bosch Colt Router for little stuff and laminate trimming.

_Never_ underestimate the usefulness of a small router!

I use my older Bosch for almost anything that can be done with a 1/4"
colleted bit. This includes: freehand clean out of hand cut half blind
dovetails, chamfering, smaller roundovers, shallow grooves, veining,
lock mortising, even occasionally trimming laminate.

It wouldn't be a stretch to say that my mini-router gets more work than
my larger hand held routers. 99% of stuff that needs the bigger router
goes to the table. A small router is a pleasure to use, and very easy
to use freehand.

The new Bosch looks like a jewel, I was checking one out Tuesday @ Coastal.

I don't use a dovetail jig, as I can cut them by hand with the "Klausz"
method quickly and accurately.

Whatever you get, enjoy the fun money,
Barry

I vote for a leigh d1600 and a porter cable 690, the one with the
D-handle. If you already have a good router, then the d4r. :-)

brian