Every wood worker has to start somewhere. My somewhere began with the purchase of a Shop Smith and this began the evolution of my woodworking tools. My mother and father had a friend that was selling their Shop Smith multi tool system back in the mid 1990’s and I was lucky enough to purchase it. This Shop Smith is perfect for doing small projects but not big construction jobs like I was used to. I decided that buying this system gave me a reason to put my creativeness to work and begin doing some actual wood working. This system came with a band saw attachment and is a table saw, lathe, drill press, and has a sanding disc all in one unit. This has turned out to be a great piece of equipment that I still own and still use from time to time. Now granted, the shaft between the tools motor and the band saw attachment is currently duct taped together; I still cannot bring myself to get rid of it. It has some sentimental value to it and I have created a lot of projects with this piece of equipment.

There was a stretch in my life where woodworking was put on the back burner. With running a business full-time and raising two kids, I spent more time at football and cheerleading practice than in the workshop. The Shop Smith always did fine for those occasional projects. Now my children are grown and having children of their own, so woodworking has taken a forefront once again.

A few years back, my mother had a good friend whose husband unfortunately passed away. He had a wonderful workshop filled with some remarkable tools and equipment that she wanted to part with. Again, I was fortunate enough to purchase some of his things and I have put them all to very good use. Among the items that I purchased were a Delta table saw, drill press, wood lathe, joiner/plainer, dust collection system, a router table and various boxes of small hand tools and jigs. This allowed me to completely redo my workshop with all new equipment. This has worked out perfectly now that I am doing woodworking a lot more now.

I acquired my band saw from my brother-in-law. He never used his and gave it to me one day while consolidating his work space. As a way of saying thank you to him, I made him a piece with it. The piece is titles Fish out of Water and I chose this one for him since he loves to fish.

For a very long time, I have wanted a scroll saw, but I have never justified getting one. I am doing more and more intricate work, and finally decided that it was time to get one. After looking on-line, searching for deals, and reading reviews, I decided to go with the Dewalt variable speed 20†scroll saw. This tool was priced a little above my price range, but decided to purchase it anyways. I am so glad that I did. The unit came in on Wednesday of this week and I hurried home with it to use it right away. I believe this tool has taken my woodworking to a whole new level. In fact, I cannot believe that I ever operated before without one. I am currently working on a Clydesdale Horse project that has very small pieces. I now cannot imagine doing these without a scroll saw. I will continue to use my band saw for larger pieces but the scroll saw will be used for the more intricate detailing. This tool was everything that I was expecting and more.

My next tool that I have my eye on is a belt/drum sander combo. I have not seen this tool a lot, but the combination of the two types of sanding capabilities in one tool would defiantly increase productivity in my workshop and make shaping the intarsia pieces even better. Currently right now, I use a sanding wheel to shape the edges and a drum sander on a Drimmel tool for shaping. Hopefully this new tool is in my near future.

Please leave me comments on my blog with project ideas of what projects you would like to see and what types of articles would interest you.

-- Chris Mobley - http://www.cmobleydesigns.com

Chris, wonderful transformation sir. From the Shopsmith to today, just proves how we do grow out of our tools as we grow out of our comfort zone with our work! I bet when you were using the ShopSmith, you never thought you'd be doing Intarsia! I have always loved the looks of the ShopSmith, and Made in the USA! Thanks for sharing your evolution Chris!

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project

Thanks John

Hey Chris, you can go to the MY PAGE tab at the top of our site, and hover over the tab for a drop down menu, click on MY SIGNATURE and there you can have a signature that populates all your posts automatically with your name, and anything else you want in it such as links to your blog or FB page. Let me know if you need any help with it.

Chris Mobley said:

Thanks John

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project

Okay, I'll have to try that. Thanks!

Great evolution of the tools Chris. I think that it is important for people getting into woodworking to understand also. I see post all the time with new woodworkers asking what they should get to start a shop. They get the list given to them of all the top pieces of equipment. By the time they look up the prices and realize what it would cost I think it runs some of them away. The main thing is get something and get in and find out what you like to do and what the real differences are in the tools. I started with a small table saw from Sears that was 179.00 brand new. Had a 24" fence, blade was mounted t the motor, the table top was small and aluminum. A bench top router table, bench top drill press, bench top planer and have upgraded all of those to bigger tools and I saw what I really enjoyed doing. I made several pieces of furniture using those tools. It took longer as you had to really think about cuts and spend a lot of time making sure the fence was always square, but it was fun and let me to wanted to challenge my skills and use better tools.

I don't regret starting with the smaller tools, I think it give me a greater appreciation of the tools I have now been able to add to the shop.

Thanks for sharing your story. 

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John Moody
Site Administrator


John Moody Woodworks
http://www.johnmoodywoodworks.com

Great story, Chris!

I think you have eloquently expressed what most all of us have experienced as we journeyed thru this woodworking world- especially our sentiments for our early tools.

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Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time traveler. Purveyor of the world's finest custom rolling pins!

I had one of those pastel blue  plastic  body  hand drills that K-Mart sold, another cheezy  blue pastel plastic  finish sander also from either K-Mart or another similar place. A Crapsman track  sander was later added along with a crapsman table saw,  Which saw I still have after more than 36 years.  I use it to cut metals It's got an abrasive blade in it

Other tools: A found handleless  half inch chisel, a found hand saw. a found hammer. 

  A  reciprocating  type saw  that I dragged out of the trash  and repaired that stood about 5 feet tall was made from oak and strap iron and when I pedaled, it would cause a couple feet of band saw blade to go up and down.

A drill bit collection second to  none as I snarfed  every dull and discarded drill out of the trash in machine shops and sharpened them by hand.

A collection of files and rasps many salvaged from machine shop trash bins

Some nice guy gave me his hand plane collection - to this day I still have no clue why.

There were other things, but not much

And armed with that motley assortment, of what today I would look down my nose at, I made and repaired  guitars and all of my  furniture children's toys yadda yadda.

Many years ago I wanted to get a Shopsmith but never had the money or the room for it, not to mention that my family had to move a lot due to my Step-Father being in the Air Force Then when i got on my own of course the money wasn't there, nor was the room to put one. Then finally a few years ago I got a Turncrafter Pro lathe which did great for about a year then started to have issues with things turning out of round. So with the help of a few TPW friends here, we identified the problem. Unknown at first to me, a few of the TPW friends here got together and secured a new lathe for me as well as a new table to put it on. This system works wonderfully since i am wheelchair bound and am lower to the floor than people that stand.

I also have upgraded the tools I use. I started with a small set of pen turning tools and a set of no name tools that I got from eBay for like $30 or so, I went from that to a set of Benjamin's Best tools, Which I still highly recommend for anyone just starting out, and finally this past December, my sister sent me two of the mid sized Easy Wood Tools which have helped me considerably with my turning, both with speed and accuracy with turning. It's been a long road to get this far but I am now happy with the tools I have. Future tools to consider are a dust vac that doesn't wake the dead, if there is such a thing. A scroll saw if possible. A chop saw of some sort (my highest priority) and finally a drum sander or orbital sander or something that can do power sanding so I don't have to take all day to sand something up

I am actually glad that this topic was started, sort of like where we started and how far we have come in our woodworking tools Thanks for getting this started Chris.

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Charles Nicholls
Site Host
nicholls61@att.net
Proud supporter of The Wounded Warrior Project, Homes For Our Troops and the NRA

http://www.etsy.com/shop/nichollswoodworks