Sears 10" Radial Arm Saw

I bought this saw in the early 70's.  It was my first major purchase and has been a great saw!  I have it hooked up to a 4" and 2 1/2" dust collect line which takes care of 90% of the dust and chips.

AMT Sander

This a an AMT sander that I purchased in mid-1980.  Dust collection is a "must" for this sander.  Otherwise it will fill the shop with a cloud of dust.  The only problem that I had with this sander is that I forgot to oil the motor and froze the bearings.  Fortunately the bearings didn't freeze completely which saved me a costly repair bill.

Ridgid 610 Jointer

This is a great jointer and cuts like a dream.  It came out of the box ready to cut, no adjustment needed.  I have it hooked up to a 4" dust line which takes care of all of the dust and chips

Ridgid 1300 Planer

I got this planer in mid 2005 and it has been a real dream to use.  It also came out of the box ready to cut.  I have the planer hooked up to a 4" dust line which takes care of 98% of the dust and chips.  My only mistake with this planer was to take a "quick pass" on a small board with out turning the DC on......Big Mistake.

Sears 12" Band Saw

I purchased this saw in the early 1980s.  It gets used all the time.  Although not a big producer of dust, I have it hooked up to a 2 1/2" dust line.

Drill Press

I bought this drill press in the early 1980's.   Although it's only a 5 speed, which has been plenty for me, it's seen a lot of use and has been a good investment.  I recently made a new cabinet for it just to hold all "drilling" related items.  I use the 2 1/2" dust collection hose mostly when using larger drill bits or using the drum sander.

Router Table

I have a Sears router table with a DeWalt 621 router mounted under the table.  I built the cabinet for the router table which also holds router bits, etc.  I have one end of the cabinet on rollers so I can move it out of the way when not in use.  I have a 2 1/2" dust line that I attached to the back of the fence for dust control.

Workbench

It's not fancy, but over the years this has been the focal point of a lot of labor hours.  It's made with 2 x 4s and 3/4" plywood.  Two bench dogs and a wood vice are on the left end and a metal working vice is mounted on the right.

Here's another view showing my growing collection of clamps and saw blades.  This picture also shows a 2 1/2" dust line suspended above that services the workbench 

Lathe

This is an AMT lathe that I purchased around 1985 and built the cabinet for it.  I haven't use the lathe in awhile, but I have made many turnings in the past.  Turning wood is an art form that I enjoyed.  No two pieces were ever the same, which was part of the fun.

Harbor Freight Dust Collector

This is one of the best "tool" investments that I have made.  I went years with out a dust collection system and now wonder why I waited so long to get one.   The difference in air quality in the shop after installing the DC is like night and day.  The workshop is, for the most part, dust free.   Here's a link to the Harbor Freight site where I purchased the Dust Collector.

Wynn Canister Filter and Separator:

The first thing I did after ordering the dust collector was to order the 35A Wynn Cartridge filter.  Here's a [LINK] to the Wynn Web site.  After getting my new Ridgid Planner I added the separator which has worked great.  An added benefit of the separator is that I don't worry about "things" getting sucked up into the blower fan blades.   Most of the chips end up in the separator and the finer dust is sucked up into the DC bag.  I occasionally use an air hose to "back blow" the finer dust out of the filter.  Whenever I have to change the plastic bag, I use the shop-vac with a brush attachment and vacuum the inside of the filter.

Ducting:

I installed 4" S&D ducting running to each stationary tool.  Each tool has its own blast gate.  A short length of 2 1/2" hose runs from the blast gate for tools that can not accept a 4" line.  So far this arrangement has worked fine for me.  I have also installed 3 additional 2 1/2" drops from the main 4" line for use as a vacuum cleaner.  I find myself using the DC more for clean-up than the shop-vac.

Here are two close-up pictures that show how I connected the blast gates to the 4" S&D.  I used White Duct Tape to seal and hold the S&D joints. [Very good stuff]  The joints where I needed a little more "holding power" I put one or two short #6 screws into the unions and use Duct Tape as well.

The metal blast gates are smaller than the 4" S&D pipe and posed a problem to get them to fit snugly.  To solve this problem, I took a length of regular gray Duct Tape, ripped it lengthwise down the center and wound it around the metal Blast Gate sleeve until it fit snugly inside the 4" S&D pipe.  I then trimmed the access tape to the same length as the Blast Gate sleeve.   The snug fit provided a good air seal and I used a couple of #6 screws to hold the Blast Gate and the S&D pipe together.

I found that the Outlet Tool Supply on Amazon.com has some of the least expensive dust collection accessories (blast gates, reducers, hoses, etc.)

ON/Off Switch:

After installing a dedicated 20amp line to the DC, I went the easy route and installed two 3-way switches in a couple of convenient  locations.  This arrangement works for me since I have a relatively small shop and it was minimal expense.  If I had a larger shop, I would most likely opt for a different solution.

Porter-Cable Finish Nailer Combo

I purchased this Porter-Cable CFFN250N Finish & Brad Nailer Combo Kit in 2004.  It comes with a 16 gauge finish nailer (model FN250B) and 18 gauge brad nailer (model BN125A).  The compressor is an Oil-free design.  I find myself using it all the time.  My hammer and nails are a thing of the past!

Saw Blade Rack

I made this saw blade rack with slots to hold 13 blades.  My first design had the blade slots cut at a 45º angle but the blades protruded too far out for me so I re-cut new sides and cut the slots at a steeper 60º angle.  I used 3/4" plywood.   The dimensions are 7 1/2"W x 3 3/4"D x 24"H

Porter-Cable Dovetail Jig and Router

The Porter-Cable 4212 Dovetail Jig and 690LRVS Router were both additions to the workshop in December 2005.  In all my years of woodworking I had never made dovetails until I got these 2 beauties.  The Dovetail Jig is heavy duty and very well made.  It will make through, half-blind, rabbeted half-blind dovetails, box joints and sliding dovetails.  The jig is easy enough for a beginner to setup and create good fitting dovetails the first time out.  The 690LRVS Router performs well and is less noisy than my DeWalt.  This picture shows the results of my 1st attempt to make through and half-blind dovetails using just scrap pine.  You can see a demo of the 4212 is [HERE]

Bosch 1590EVSK Jig Saw

This was an early January 2006 addition to the workshop to replace my old Black & Decker that I purchased in 1985.  It's needless to say that the Bosch saw is far superior to the Black & Decker.  The Bosch is more powerful, creates better cuts and has more features.  Here's a link to the Bosch site.

Old Hand Tools

Here's a small collection of old tools that have found their way into my workshop.  The plow plane was produced by Henry S. Wells in Northampton.  The brace uses spoon shaped bits.  Its period and manufacture is unknown. The 16" Jack plane and larger 26" jointer plane belonged to my grandfather.