Woodworking machinery
The next stage up from portable power tools is static woodworking machinery, the kind you need if you become a serious hobbyist or a professional woodworker.
You’ll find that the basic workshop will have three or four machines.
The first will be a table saw, also referred to as a dimension saw – essentially a circular saw set into a heavy-duty body. The left hand side of the table will slide, allowing you to do cross-cutting of timber (across the grain), while the right-hand side will be fixed, for ripping (cutting along the grain). There will be a couple of fences, adjustable metal beams with accurate markings to set up precision cuts and hold your work steady, and a guard to keep your fingers away from the blade.
The second big machine will be a bandsaw, where a narrow toothed blade, manufactured in a big loop, passes down through your workpiece and into a slot in the table. You can use the bandsaw for basic cutting, curved work, or for what’s called resawing: cutting a thick board into thinner pieces. You can even use it to produce your own veneers.
Finally, the third machine many people buy is the dual-purpose planer/thicknesser. This is basically a big, solid cast-iron table with a revolving cutter set into it. It’s used for processing rough sawn timber. First you plane one surface of the wood on the top of the machine, and square off one edge against the fence. Then you pass the planed timber through a slot on the underside, so that the cutting block is working from above. This “thicknesses” the piece, reducing it to the desired width and thickness.
Additional kit
You’ll also need an extractor to remove the harmful wood dust that these machines produce. Once you’ve got this basic set, you can progress to perhaps a lathe, used for turning circular or cylindrical work, and a spindle moulder, which can cut elaborate mouldings and complex shapes.
The price of all this will inevitably run into thousands of pounds, but you can make savings by buying secondhand machinery. Old machines tend to use what’s called a three-phase electrical supply, rather than the standard single-phase. Talk to a qualified electrician about this. And make sure that anything you purchase meets current health and safety standards.
Whatever you do, never operate any woodworking machinery without thorough training. Health and safety law is very strict in this area, with good reason: this equipment is potentially lethal.
