SWMBO is interested in buying me a machine for some reason. I can't figure
it out either, but she brought it up.

She has in mind to buy me a scroll saw, I think. That could have side
benefits if she herself will play with the thing. She could make lots of
little cut-and-paint stuff, and might have a blast. Might, if. She's not
much of a tool person, and even though she *could* use it, I wouldn't give
better than a 40% chance that she actually *would* use it. My kids might
play with it too though, so that's probably another plus in that column.

As far as my own someday list, I keep constantly wishing I had a bandsaw. I
don't have *room* for a big one, period, no way, no how, can't happen. I'm
already going to have to get *very* inventive to figure out how to shoe
horn my JET mini lathe into my shop. So I was looking at the 9" Delta at
Lowe's. Not much capacity, but maybe enough capacity for most of the
things I have in mind right now that I would do with it. The real question
I have is whether I could get $100 worth of use out of it during the time
between now and whenever (1-5 years, depending) I build a larger shop.

Is a baby bandsaw better than nothing? How about resawing something like
box trays on a scroll saw?

Back to scroll saws for a moment, let's just look at Lowe's. They have a
cheap, medium and expensive model. The expensive one is a Dremel. Seems
like a nicely made unit, but since I'm the one providing most of the cash
SWMBO would use to buy such a thing, I can understand why she winced at the
$189 price tag. The $99 variable speed Delta would be less painful, but it
looked somewhat crappy. I'm wondering how crappy it is in actual use.

Finally, let's throw routers into the fray. My Crapsman router is all but
useless. I have to set the height in my table by propping it up with
various bits of scrap until I get somewhere in the neighborhood of where I
want to be. It won't even pretend to hold a depth setting anymore. Is
there a router worth looking at in the $100 price range? I'm still not a
router person, but I do like to put decorative edges on things
occasionally, and I do use my router once in a blue moon. Having something
more agreeable would not be unwelcome. $100 is too low, right? I figure a
good router would cost $250. Is that in the ballpark? I haven't been
looking at them.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/