I don't have a dream shop. The power tools that I have, I've kind of gathered over time. I do seem to have several saws. Circular saw was the first power saw and it STILL gets used a lot. Then I got a table saw. Not a GREAT one, but so far it's ok. Then a band saw. Small one. And then recently I got a sliding compound miter saw. Again... YEARS of gathering.
I also have hand saws. Crosscut, back saw, and a few japanese saws. Just 2 years ago I got a small bench drill press. I have chisels and hand planes too. My wife bought me this:
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/i...OD&ProdID=4656
and I love it. Probably takes less time to just go ahead and hand plane something than it does to set up a machine to do it. Now if you have a LOT of planing to do... then the machine would make it easier and faster (maybe) but .... "better"?... I think would be a subjective call. I get a great deal of satisfaction from "feeling" the wood. How is the grain running? How hard is this piece of maple? How is this maple planing when compared to this OTHER maple or that piece of southern yellow pine?
I have 2 routers. For me that's kinda where this whole adventure started.
Yeah I watch the wood shows too. It's funny to watch David Marks make a "simple, yet elegant" little table and then use an $8,000 band saw to resaw something or $500 worth of clamps to hold it together.
You'll also find that you can make jigs to help you do thigs with your smaller collection of tools. The guys that have tens of thousands of dollars invested in power equipment may be able to get it done faster, but you're not a production shop so you take your time and you put some of YOU into whatever you're making.
well... that was probably a bit OVER my 2 cents, but.....keep the change
