The time for dust collection really comes when you get item #1, the thickness planer. It is difficult to run any shop without dust collection. Let’s break it down into sections. 

The lighter, smaller, and mobile tool is the shop vac. This cleans up scattered wood dust and particles, including from hand woodworking. It also attaches directly from many types of machine work such as some routing and most hand held power sanding. 

Long ago I made do with a cheap vac from the home center – very noisy and not efficient. Much better is the Fein Turbo II (see photo) which has held up well for many years. This combines a filter and a non-woven fleece bag making it efficient and easy to empty. Less expensive options include DeWalt and Shop-Vac models.  

I like a wireless remote control to save the hassle of reaching around when working with things like cordless sanding or Domino. (The one in the photo is a recent replacement of an older model.) 

Also available are attached dust separator-collectors that collect more volume than fits in the vac itself. This seems like a good idea but it would take up too much space in my shop.  

For the big volume wood dust and debris – the thickness planer is the best example – you need a big dust collector. Let’s go through options.  

To save the most money, a portable dust collector is an option. It uses the usual 4” hose and takes up generally less space. I have not used one of these but at least one is said to manage a thickness planer.

In the next lowest price range are the machines with the loose absorption bag at the top and the collection bag below, with the motor on the side. Having used one of these long ago, the drawing capacity is good but the filtering efficiency is not good. 

Moving up in price is with a significantly better filter at the top, again with the bag below. Some look quite good. 

Going up more in price, I like the machine that I use – the Oneida. The HEPA filter really helps keep the shop clear of fine dust. Overall collection is excellent. (From their site, the Mini Gorilla that I have had for a long time has been replaced with a more convenient design.) They also have attachments to other dust collectors and shop vacs. 

In this post, I am just outlining for general guidance. If you are looking to buy dust collection machine(s) to build your shop, check models online, in a store, and with friends who use them. 

To make choices for dust collection in your advancing shop, I suggest understand: 1. collection strength and volume, 2. dust exposure, 3. space, 4. convenience, 5. cost. 

Next: for the final post (#7) in this series, we’ll go through most of the rest of machinery to develop a shop. 

Where are we so far for the developing woodworker building the machine segment of his or her shop? 

1. thickness planer with helical cutterhead

2. router with multiple functional accessories, and a router table built or bought. And throw in a hand-held power drill.

3. table saw, big or small; think safety 

4. band saw; maybe even start with a jig saw or add it on

Now for #5: Jointer.  

Like all the other power tools, you can do high level woodworking without it but the idea of this series is to help along most developing woodworkers with how to sensibly, efficiently, and money-wisely build the shop.

I see little point in going less than 12” cutting width for a jointer, just as I suggested in Part 1 of this series to get a common 13” cutting width for the thickness planer. Of course, most of the time, only some, maybe little, of the 12” is used, but it is really worth it when you need it. 

But what about a jointer-planer combo? Great – with a good helical cutterhead and the 12”. That is, if you can afford a sufficient quality and have the space.

I got an excellent Hammer combo (see the photos) before helical cutters became common. I hardly ever use the thickness planer segment now. I instead use the Oliver with the helical cutter (see post part 1). The “old fashion” blade cutters in the Hammer work remarkably well, though any defects from difficult grain can be fixed up with the Oliver. 

For practical purposes – money/quality/space/future plans – I suggest the thickness planer (with a good helical cutter) first, then latter the jointer – also with a spiral cutterhead. Though I have not used such a jointer, I think it is not bad to save with “spiral” cutters that are HSS/tungsten-carbide/two edges, not four. (Maybe a Rikon or Cutech?) You can correct defects with the better thickness planer cutters. 

These are relatively light, small machines that are manageable in almost any shop. 

One tip: Any new jointer should be checked (unplugged; no power on!) to make sure all of the cutting edges are in the same plane as the flat outfeed table. A trace higher is ok but edges should never be lower or variable across the width. A little imperfection on the alignment of the variable-height infeed table is probably OK. Primarily, the outfeed table governs the cut. And, of course, the fence should be flat and square set at 90°.

You can get each machine – thickness planer and jointer – for around a $1000, with the better quality for the thickness planer. 

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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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So there are my ideas so far. These posts really are more to help you come up with your own decisions as you build a shop, rather than declaring what are necessarily the “best” decisions. Like the rest of this blog, I want to help you see things YOUR way, not to necessarily follow me!  

Part 6 coming up.

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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The third machine to buy as you are getting into woodworking and making a shop: the table saw.

Clean, accurate, straight cuts along the length of grain, as well as dead-on cross cuts are required for most projects. Angled cuts at 45°, or any angle, are common. 

Hand cutting cannot match the speed and accuracy of the table saw. The band saw, miter saw, scroll saw, jig saw, track saw, and circular saw, even with all if their jigs and accessories cannot match the efficiency and convenience of the table saw.

There are, however, three big problems with table saws: 

1. statistically, the most dangerous tool in the shop 

2. expense 

3. they generally take a lot of space for the machine and the work itself

Starting with the first issue, I want you to realize that it really is critical! This website is not the place to learn safety. Please learn from the excellent sources available in books and magazines, some classes, and some of the online videos. 

An example is in Fine Woodworking #315, Jan/Feb 2025, page 32 – 37, by Roland Johnson, regarding kickbacks and more. I like some of Stumpy Nubs videos on YouTube. Search on your own for more. 

As you can see from the photo, I have a SawStop. This can detect blade-to-skin contact, and then stop and drop the blade extremely quickly. I have never touched a running blade in the 21 years that I have owned it but I am glad the precaution is there. You can consider SawStop despite the extra price. Machine production, marketing, and legal restrictions may change, so keep track of the available options in SawStop and other brands. 

In the photo here, I have intentionally left out the splitter, crosscut gauge, blade guard, kickback risk controls, and other safety devises and issues. That is your job to study. 

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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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Expense and space in the shop are issues for almost all of us. 

The photo shows the table saw in its mode (unplugged, with the blade fully lowered) as a secondary “bench top” which I need for some veneer work and assembly work. So you can work around the size of the table saw by converting a good, strong, accurate top it in this way. 

Perhaps you want to start off with a much less expensive compact saw (SawStop is an option). Consider that projects you want to do and the sizes and space of the boards involved. 

By the way, I do not own or want a table saw dado blade.

So, a table saw gets spot #3 for the developing woodworker, in my opinion.

Number 4 coming up. 

Machine tool number two that I suggest to bring on as you get into woodworking: the router. 

To repeat: yes, of course, high quality woodworking can be done without any machine at all, as it has been for hundreds of years. Yet machines do add many advantages of labor, time, fast accuracy, and production. 

Routers do so many things: joinery, grooves, curved edges, patterns, and more. I use routing in nearly every project. 

The Bosch 1617EVS 2.25 HP (photo above) is an excellent router for overall use. There certainly are other good choices of this type but the Bosch is one I can recommend based on using it for many years in countless projects. It can run 1/4” and 1/2” shank bits with plenty of power at 12 amps.  

This gets most of its use in my router table. Cutting hight is easily adjustable to .004”, though you can easily go to .002” increments. It also can be used upright with hand pushing guided by various types of edge or circle guides (one is in the photo above) and fences. 

Also get a plunge base for the Bosch and use it for mortising with a good jig setup. This topic is discussed in a series of 10 posts “End to side-edge joinery” 12/31/25 through 3/12/26, particularly the 1/9/26 post. In summary, the plunge base and jig setup are certainly worth having.

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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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I have long had a heavy Elu 3338 plunge router and use that for mortising. It can easily cut large, wide, and deep mortises. It has long been out of production but mine still runs well. Others are available.  

I also have a handy compact router, the DeWalt DWP611 (see the group photo). This is useful with various setups for figured edging, special joinery, etc. Transferred to its plunge base, it can be used in jigs for mortise and tenon. The 7 amp power is not a good choice for all but narrow, very short mortises.

Having the one router like the Bosch 1617 and accessories, buy or build a router table. I long ago made one that still works very well. I suggest to a new woodworker to spend the money, save the effort, and get one of the many well-made tables now available.   

You can get a JessEm or a Woodpeckers table for several hundred dollars to over $2000. I can only imagine they are excellent but having successfully used my self-made version for a long time, I know you can spend a fraction of that and work very well. For example, the Bosch RA1171 router table plus the 1617 router including the plunge base is now about $500. 

Remember, I do not sell here, or take any payments or kickbacks, etc. Shop around, read honest reviews, ask your friends. 

One more addition to the “part 2”: a power drill. Just a simple, good, cordless drill such as the DeWalt shown here. Screws, dowel joinery, and countless other holes are needed in every shop, as well as around the home.

That is what I suggest for a new woodworker’s second electric machines that follow the thickness planer.

In the next post, we’ll go to #3.

Having recently been visited by a starting woodworker for some discussion and tips, this topic quickly rose. This moved me to write, so here we go. 

You do not absolutely need any machines/power tools. Look in a museum, online, or in a book at some 300 year-old amazing furniture. No electric machines. Though surely one person did not make an entire piece.

Before about 55 years ago, I also had no power tools. Though I made lower quality things, a few are still used. Later, I bought an electric jigsaw and borrowed a power drill. 

So, if you want the quiet, prefer the effort, like the feel, and maybe want to save money, enjoy non-electric woodworking! You can still make excellent things!

The first power tool I recommend is a thickness planer with a helical cutterhead and 13” cutting width. Most have a 6” cutting depth capacity, more than you are ever likely to need in usual use. 

You can get one for well under $1000. A 15” model, though a stronger cutter with larger infeed and outfield planks, is much more expensive, much heavier to move, and you only gain 2” of cutting width.

I now use an Oliver (a little more expensive than some). It works very well for accurate flat thickness. It cuts an excellent surface finish with virtually no tear out, even in difficult wood. My old DeWalt, to which I built in a helical cutterhead, inexplicably bit the dust last year. 

The thickness planer does more work, faster and easier, than any other power tool in my shop.  

This is a fairly heavy machine to move, so I keep it removably screwed on a wood framed platform with at least 4 1/2 feet access on both in-feed and out-feed to allow the vast majority of my work. I use dust collection but that is getting ahead of the overall subject.

Of course, this machine only makes the side being cut come out flat if the bottom side of the board is already flat. Otherwise, the machine bends the board and transfers much of the error at the bottom to the cut surface at the top.

If this is your only machine, what can you do? The most traditional answer is to hand plane the foundation side to be flat. Keep in mind that hand planing has much of the same bending effect as the thickness machine.

You can tape a few slivers of wood/veneer/playing cards at the bottom, using a truly flat workbench for reference to make it not wobble. Once the top surface is planed flat, flip it over, remove the slivers, and machine it. Alternatively, you can bypass hand planing by securely taping the slivers and then directly feeding it into the machine. Make the top flat, then flip it over to do the other side after removing the slivers.

Thickness planers at this level tend to slightly over cut the first 2 to 3 inches of the board going in and coming out. The simplest trick to avoid this is to send in a foot-long piece first, touch the tail end with just the workpiece going in, grab the foot-long by its leading end on the way out, and pass it or another piece in again at the tail of the workpiece. This works. Safety is your responsibility but please keep your hands well away from the opening of the cutting zone!

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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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Having no other machine, you can still size, straighten, and square the edges and ends of the workpieces to perfection with a hand saw and hand plane. Sure, I do most by machinery, but if you are starting out and/or lack space or money, this is very doable work without plugging in. 

Next, my suggestion for the next machine to buy early on. 

I have accumulated attachments for several handy items on the wall just behind the right side of my workbench. This allows for quick grabs and returns of very frequently used helpers.

Here they are, left to right, top to bottom:

1. The shop-made tool oiler. I wrote about making this in a 3/29/2009 post:

The Camellia oil gets used on lots of tools every day. It sits in a little box rack screwed to the wall.

7. The handy little brush with bristles cut short. This gets countless uses, such as clearing the cutting edge opening of a hand plane.