The Workshop

 Our woodshop is located in a 24' x 48' steel building.  The centerpiece of the shop is a MiniMax CU300 Smart Combination Machine.  This is 5 machines within one cabinet.  It is a 12" table saw, a 12" jointer and planer, a shaper and a horizontal boring machine.  Two years ago I sold a full shop of Powermatic machines and bought the combination machine to save floor space.  There are good features and there are bad features about the change.  I will discuss these in my blog page in the near future.

The shop  has a Model 520 Shopsmith which is also a 5 in 1 machine similar to the MiniMax but much smaller.  The advantage of the Shopsmith is its variable speed feature.  For 22 years, the Shopsmith was my entire shop.  After retiring from the Navy and settling down in one area, I began accumulating stationary machines but I'll always hold on to the Shopsmith.

I'm not finished with the combination machinery yet.  We also have a Woodmaster Model 725 moulder/planer and gang ripper.  It enables us to produce virtually any custom moulding requested out of any lumber species.  A cusomer would provide us with a sample of the moulding and we would send it out to have knifes made.  We would then be able to produce the moulding in any quantity out of any material.

Other major pieces of machinery include:  a Powermatic Model 3520B wood lathe, a Hegnar 18v Scroll Saw,  a Minimax Model S45 Bandsaw,  a Jet 12" Mini Lathe, a Bosch Mitre Saw Station, a Festool Workstation which includes almost all of the Festool line of power tools,  a Jessem Router Table, a Grizzley 48" Edge Sander, all of the typical array of portable power tools and 40 years accumulation of had tools and jigs.