At this point in building the machine part of your shop, you would have a thickness planer, a router with key accessories, a router table built or bought, a power drill, and a table saw. What comes next is, I feel, a close call.

I suggest a bandsaw. With good quality, size, and blades, it will always stay useful, especially as you advance in designing projects and using interesting wood. There is no good substitute for a bandsaw. 

I suggest not doing what I did a long time ago. I bought a bandsaw with only a 6” resew capacity (maximum cutting height). After years of missing the ability to resew anything wider than 6”, I sold it for the saw with the 12” capacity that I use now. The larger saw takes up virtually no addition space than the smaller saw. 

12” is enough for me. The 2.4 HP is also good. I would not go less. A weaker 1.5 or 1.75 HP motor does not get through the cutting as easily or as accurately. The quality of the machine should be at least very good – wheel quality and alignment, table and guide accuracy, blade guidance, etc. 

Bandsaw blades is a big topic but suffice to say here that I do everything I need with three fine quality blades.

With the table saw and the band saw in the sizes I prefer, 220V outlets are necessary.

Despite all I have mentioned above, a lot of time on the band saw is done with 1” or 2” thick wood, often cutting curves and angles. With that in mind, I mention that one way of delaying buying a bandsaw is to get a cordless jig saw with a good variety of blades.

It will certainly not match a bandsaw but can still get a lot done if you do not mind making up for the reduced cut quality and accuracy.   

So now as your shop is continuing to grow in power machinery, let’s see what could be next. This is coming up in the next post!

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CAUTION: Electric woodworking power tools are extremely dangerous and can cause severe injury including amputation of fingers. Please do not even begin to use an electric woodworking tool without first learning safety from a highly reliable source, understanding, and using appropriate safety procedure. 

This website is NOT the source for learning this important practice. The brief mentions on the topic are not nearly sufficient to keep you safe.    

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