As we’re moving to Arch2 soonish, it’s a good time to gauge the interest for some new tools and machines. We have more space, giving us the luxury to explore different machines and ways of working.
We’re looking into some new tools, but what would you want to see in the space? Once we have a list, we can look into the viability and interest of those tools and hopefully get some of them into the space.
Add your tool and what you see it being used for. Below is a list to kick things off. Nothing is too big/small, so throw it out there, maybe you’ll have a following.
Drum sander gets my vote for flatting resin boards as a non-member looking to future projects when I am able to join.
Further suggestion: Sealey SM1300 oscillating belt/spindle sander (approx £300)
This is a combined belt sander/ spindle sander but the belt and spindle elements are at 90 degrees to the flat bed with the ability to change the bed itself to different angles to make sanding edges much more accurate. Oscillation means the belt and spindles much up and down as sanding so wear and tear is spread across the abrasive rather than in isolated places. (If I knew how to take screen grabs and add them here I would do !)
If we could have some T slots on the benches for clamping i think that would be good. or maybe some pegholes (not sure if that’s the proper name for them) to clamp stuff down from the top.
Also a router table would be nice (again i am just a beginner there might already be another solution present that i am not aware of)
A track saw with flexible fences would be great (in combo with a peg table MFT? that Christian mentions) Both because it’s a great tool but I would assume the threshold for being able to use it would be lower than the table saw? So more people would be able to break down sheets. (There may already be one about somewhere but I haven’t seen one in the current wood shop)
domino! … big fan there would need to be a charge for dominoes used but +1 here
disk belt sander… something like we used to have but was never installed i the woodshop would be good
6’‘-8’’ disk with a 4’’ wide belt ideal. also a bobbin sander.
tenon cutting machine. = bandsaw
but seriously some nice tenon saws would be good or someone to sharpen the ones we have.
Drum Sander?? not convinced, if there is a lot of call for it then ok but we need to know what it is to be used for. drum sanders are only to prepare flat boards prior to finishing. they are not for thicknessing or levelling out uneven boards, for flat faces we have the planer thicknesser and for end grain we can use a router sled.
then use an orbital sander or smoothing plane to prepare for the finish.
Some empty space to use put out these temporary 8x4 cutting tables and a good set of track saws to cut them with.
B&q, selco do cut ply & mdf sheets but their timber quality isn’t the best. Places like Arnold laver have amazing quality birch ply but do not cut them.
