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This is basically just a quick update for all those just dying to know about my powertool adventures.

I did actually purchase the Skil Xshop. It put a hefty dent in the checking account, wouldn’t quite fit into the car (had to take it out of the box… yikes — there was a reason I was asking the guy at Lowe’s what size the box was, afterall… he didn’t know, heh).

Putting it together was an adventure of its own. Out of the billions of pieces, one is to put together the cabinet first. The instructions were wrong! The bottom (floor) of the cabinet is supposed to be inserted into cabinet after the “shell” of the cabinet is put together. Slight problem with that — the instructions show the bottom as being more of a “plus” (+) shape, but the bottom is actually rectangular, there is absolutely no way to wedge that in after the sides are together! I believe they must have redesigned the bottom and forgot to update the instructions, so after taking it apart (so many little bolts!) I managed to squeeze the bottom into the right place and put it all back together again.

I suppose it was actually Tuesday that I bought the thing, instead of the two hours as indicated in the book it took me a few days to actually fully assemble it, haha. Now, granted, I wasn’t working on it full time, but ehh… It’d take a good long while either way I think.

I finally had it all put together Thursday morning/afternoon. I still hadn’t even cut the little ziptie that held the power cord in the “off” position until this morning. I’ve been reading tons of information about table saw safety — I definitely don’t need to lose hands or fingers! …and it has me fairly deathly afraid of using it now.

I did; however, actually use it this morning. Nothing like the sound of a 15 amp table saw jumping to life to wake up the neighborhood at 9am, right? So far I’ve started it up three times, every single time I jump out of my skin. It’s so incredibly loud and… terrifying. Wouldn’t you know, despite everything I read, when I actually did cut a scrap piece of MDF this morning I used the table saw “unsafely” …oops. It just seems so logical to me to put a piece of whatever up against the rip fence and then guide it through with the miter gauge. It’s a very dangerous thing to do, and the little piece of MDF I’d just cut off sort of “wobbling” on the table was terrifying… it is nice that the power can be shut off by basically slamming your hand into the front of the cabinet though, lol. Lesson… little pieces are supposed to be cut off to the LEFT of the blade, so they don’t get stuck between the blade and rip fence! Yes, lesson learned with no personal injury involved, thankfully. I think I’m going to have to make a little sign to remind myself to not do the “logical” thing when it comes to cutting smallish pieces off a larger object.

I also finally figured out how to mount and setup the router in the router table insert. Oh, yes, I ran out to Lowe’s on Wednesday morning to get that little tool. You see, I have this project in mind, and I need a router, table saw, and miter saw to do it. This is total false economy of course, as usual, being that what I want to make can be purchased for $100 or so, and the tools required to make it cost me $550 or so… but whatever. I can now easily make the bar cabinet thing I’ve been wanting, but couldn’t find anywhere, as well as pretty much anything. I still need sheet goods (plywood/mdf) cut down small enough that they’ll fit into the car, but all the “precise” cutting can be done in my “shop” now, yay!

I do still need a “good” circular saw, the ancient (and I mean more than 30 years old) Craftsman just… well, apart from being terrifying (I really do have a fear of giant metal circles with sharp teeth spinning at 6000 RPM — I think we all should!) it’s doesn’t quite work right anymore anyway. I want a new one with a laser, wheee, lasers! I didn’t get the laser-equipped compound miter saw, basically because that can be so easily added after the fact with the little thing that fits onto the saw blade (which is how all the ones I was looking at were done anyway).

It turns out that the corded drill I have won’t work with the drill press attachment of the xshop. At first I thought it wouldn’t work because it didn’t have the “handle attachment” area/thing. When I went to check for that though (which I was certain it didn’t have) I discovered it infact did have that, but then I noticed it was a 3/8″ drill, and the attachment works with 1/2″ drills. D’oh! It might still work, I really don’t know, but a corded drill isn’t all that expensive, I think.

So, right, back to the router. I bought the Skil 2.25 HP “combo” pack, it seemed having both a fixed base and a plunge base was the right way to go. Granted, I spent “only” $100 on this, whereas the “big brands” were twice that. I think I’ll be fine, at least I didn’t get a Black and Decker! Not that I see a problem with that, my 1/4 sheet finishing sander works wonderfully, and even if it didn’t burn out or whatever, I’d be able to buy several of them before even getting close to the cost of the DeWalt or whatever “better” brand. Skil is the lowend Bosch, and Delta (my CM Saw) is the lowend Porter Cable, so… again, whatever. It isn’t like I’m using these things all the time. It’d been about a year since I’d last used my finishing sander until two weeks ago.

I do think I want to get a belt sander now though, and it’s not just the whole having a table insert for it. It’d be really useful for smoothing out the end grain on my smaller projects, and making sure I didn’t “round it” — which I have a tendency to do with the finishing sander. Plus, if I do build my table/desk as planned, my lumber will probably be “rough” and in need of some heavy duty sanding — unless of course I have the mill do it for me. If they plane it though, and it has any tearouts I’ll be relatively screwed. I don’t know, it’s really a toss up/confusing issue for me. I don’t even know if I’ll really be capable of doing such an elaborate glueup anyway… we’re talking about 15 board feet of lumber being edge-glued together. I’ll definitely need some bigass clamps! A planer and jointer are definitely out of the budget, hah. I think making sure the wood is “straightlined” at least, then doing the glueup, then belt sanding the hell out of the top… I think that’ll work, emphasis on think. If it doesn’t, it’ll be one expensive “experience” in the bad sort of way.

Anyway, I’m a bigtime wannabe woodworker now… hopefully as time passes the “wannabe” part can be safely removed. :)