It’s Not the Equipment

A sliding table attachment, overarm guard, dust collection and outfeed tables give this basic cabinet saw flexibility and convenience.

A sliding table attachment, overarm guard, dust collection and outfeed tables give this basic cabinet
saw flexibility and convenience.

Like most cabinet shops, the bulk of my work can be broken down into cutout, other machining, assembly and (sometimes) finishing. The heart of my shop (and I suspect most others) is the tablesaw. While I miss the sliding table panel saw I had in my previous, larger shop, I don’t miss the monthly payments at all. I’m currently using a Jet cabinet saw, with an Excalibur aftermarket sliding table attachment and an overarm guard/dust extractor. The sliding table attachment is absolutely critical for being able to make square cuts easily on large or long pieces, and I have found it to be very reliable for maintaining squareness of cuts. The overarm guard seemed like an optional accessory at the time, but it improves safety and eliminates the sawdust from being thrown at my face while cutting to the point that I now cringe when using another saw without one. (I know too many woodworkers who have to remove their shoes to count to ten.) It also raises and swivels out of the way easily for those operations where it would interfere, which makes it much more likely to be used for the next operation than a guard that has to be removed and re-installed. The lack of a scoring blade is a definite disadvantage, one that I overcome as best as possible by keeping blades sharp and the saw well-tuned. While the tablesaw does most of my cutting out, I also have a dedicated miter-saw station, bandsaw, and of course the ShopBot for those cuts that the tablesaw can’t handle effectively. Why not use the ShopBot for all my panel cutting? Mainly because I’m just not there yet with my software, panel hold-down system, or spindle. I hope to make that transition to mostly automated panel processing over the next year or two (and to document the good, the bad, and the ugly in this column as I go – so stick around!). But even so the tablesaw will always have an important place in the heart of my shop.

The rest of my panel processing equipment includes an antique Brandt edgebander (from 1992, but still going strong) and a Blum line boring/hinge boring machine, which will be used less and less for line boring as that operation is moved to the ‘Bot. Most of my panel joinery is done with a pneumatic stapler and particleboard screws, but I also use a Kreg pocket screw machine and a DeWalt biscuit joiner when appropriate.

This wide-belt sander makes quick work of processing wide panels, and makes a tedious job tolerable. The panels were surfaced on the ShopBot to make them flat before sanding.

This wide-belt sander makes quick work of processing wide panels, and makes a tedious job tolerable. The panels were surfaced on the ShopBot to make them flat before sanding.

For solid wood machining, I have the basics: 6” Powermatic jointer, 15” Jet planer, 18” Jet bandsaw, a shop-made router table, and plenty of hand tools. But I do have one other machine that has revolutionized my work almost as much as the ShopBot: a 36” widebelt sander, an entry-level model made by Timesavers, called a Speedsander. For both veneered panels and solid wood, it has made a previously tedious job tolerable and profitable. I’ve found that by using the ShopBot to surface wide or glued-up boards, and the Speedsander to smooth them, I can easily work with slabs or edge-glued panels up to 36” wide. It even has wheels so I can move it out of the way between uses.

I’ll tell you about my veneer press some other day – that may get its own installment here one day soon.

But in the end it’s not the equipment or tooling that produces results in the shop, it’s what we do with them. When I first started out (back in the parents’ basement) I made some pretty nice pieces using not much more than an old radial-arm saw and a Craftsman router mounted upside down under a piece of plywood. What the shop full of goodies does is let me produce quality work easily and efficiently – which allows me to stay in business and feed my family.

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