dsavitsk

Was the first album I bought with my own money as a kid (quickly followed by Weird Al's In 3D).

The lift is great. Al has one, too. It's made by JessEm but with a few small changes for Incra. I have the rockler cast iron table (the one that works as a table saw wing - not sure if they have another in a more standard size). I think it is fine but not ideal. I bought it so I could use magnetic hold downs and such, but it turns out that the lift plates are aluminum, so the area where a magnet will be helpful is too far from the router. Cast iron is also useful for vibration dampening, but routers are pretty vibration free, so it is not that big of an issue. Where the cast iron was useful was using it as a table saw wing, but I have subsequently removed it from the saw as I found the setup didn't work for me. On the downside, the bottom of a cast iron top is not smooth which makes attaching clamps a pain. It also makes attaching a fence difficult. Additionally, rockler lift plates are their own size which means that your lift will have to fit it (incra obviously makes one that does) and you will be stuck with rockler if you ever want to change the table, get a new lift, etc. That may or may not influence what fence you can get. My top came with the "benchdog" fence which is functional but not my favorite. I've looked at the other brands of fences, but it's not clear that they will fit any better.

This probably renders this thread obsolete, but here's the Atlantic's list of best podcasts https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/12/50-best-podcasts-2020/617486/

Happy, birthday-ric.

Happy birthday!

Too much talk of tools, and not enough of What Are You Building Today? I made a lamp.

RIP Stella Tennant https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-55425816

I've seen them described as the last company making non-digital yet extremely expensive woodworking equipment

Definitely not. But Northfield might still be made here.

Taiwan I think. Basically, most power tools not made in europe (Felder, festool, scm, mafell, a few others) are made in the same factory. There are lots of overlaps and much of the price difference has to do with showrooms, warranty, and service. http://www.geetech.com.tw/index.php/en/strategic-partenrship-e

If you get tired of waiting, the exact same jointer is available from several other "manufacturers" for slightly more money. Just search for benchtop jointer.

The Hammers come in 10", 12", and 16". The 16" is pretty comparable in price to the 16" Minimax. I got the 10" because I have never needed to work with something wider than that, and don't have the space for the larger tool. The 12" is probably the best deal, which is what Al got. https://us.feldershop.com/en-US/en-US/Planing/Machines/

It is useful if you have a piece of wood wider than your jointer, narrower than your planer, shorter than your sled, thick enough for your clamps to grab, not heavy enough to bend your sled, and you only want to face joint it. That leaves out 99.5% of the wood you'll ever want to joint, as well as edge jointing. Edge jointing can be done on a table saw or a router table, but I don't think you have either of those things either. And in both cases it only works so-so. @Voltron and I have both recently purchased combo jointer planers from Hammer. Al is still waiting on his, and mine arrived after a 3 month wait only to sit in the garage due to movers failing to be able to get it to the basement. But I'm with @swt61that a small benchtop jointer makes sense until you think you are going to use it a lot. This one is fine for most things. Alternatively, you can joint things larger than any power jointer with one of these for far less money.

Fair enough. I've tried hooking up a shopvac to my jointer, and it did bupkis. The machine clogged. https://woodworking.stackexchange.com/questions/768/what-advantages-does-a-dust-collector-have-over-a-shop-vac

On a jobsite, does anyone care about collecting dust? A planer is always going to make more, and larger, chips than a shopvac can handle.

Yes. If you use it outside, you might get away without one. They used to sell it with just a bag, but the internal fan wasn't enough and they clogged so it didn't really work. Also, what good is a planer without a jointer?

They offer a 30 day no questions asked return policy. https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/festool-jigs-tool-enhancements/ts-55-anti-tip/

https://www.rockler.com/dust-right-cord-and-hose-holder Stand on the side of the saw rather than behind it and walk along the cut

You can clamp a board to it to act as a straight edge for the bearing. Or the festool router can run in the track saw track. I'm not sure I'm understanding your complaint. The track saw should be able to lock in the angle.

https://www.theunpluggedwoodshop.com/mitre-shooting-board.html

I like milk paint on Baltic Birch.

Where's Shel's chair?

I agree with Steve. This is easy on conventional tools. I also think it is really difficult on a CNC. My concern is how thin it is. Most wood will warp.

QFT