Help me spend some money

[Okele]

I will be coming into some money sometime around february. While I know what I want to do with most of it, I have a small portion(1000.00) ear marked for my workshop. We just bought a house and it has an attached shed thats roughly 8 ft wide and 12 ft deep. I have a basic idea of what I want to purchase as far as tools go, but what I really need to know is what kind of large tools should I look into getting(table saw etc). I will of course be taking a lot of pictures of before and after. Thanks for the help guys!

[SgtM]

Well, besides an interest in modding, what else do you do? Wood working, metal fab? Where do you live? Will you have to heat the shed? If you're looking for tools that are really handy to have for the DIY home owner, then I would suggest a miter saw, drill press, power sander(s), a really good battery powered drill, circular saw, drill bits, assorted allen tools, screw drivers and screw bits for the drill. One can never go wrong with a few good pairs of pliers, tape measure, soldering gun, side cutters, socket sets.. metric and SAE, 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" drive with extensions. Make sure it's Craftsman. There's nothing like having a faulty ratchet or breaking a socket and walking into sears and making an exchange with no questions asked. Air tools. At least an 8 gallon compressor. Air brad nailer, air stapler, attachments to blow up tires, air ratchet and impact gun.

I could really go on and on. These are some things that I have or at the very least have 24 hour access to (I'm slowly gathering air tools). Without really knowing what you want to do, it's hard to make an exact recommendation. Maybe you don't need all of that. Maybe a good screwdriver set and a power drill and hammer are good enough for your needs. Hopefully I gave you some food for thought though.

[blueonblack]

Like SgtM said, not knowing what you already have and what you plan to do it's hard to say, but I'd say the most versatile major tools I own are my table saw, drill press and router (with table).

My advice on these three: Buy Grizzly on the table saw, they have the best feature to dollar ratio I've found. Regardless of where you get it, the most important feature is a cast iron top. A good fence is second, but you can always buy that aftermarket down the road. Also, a belt-driven blade is a*lot* better than direct drive, for several reasons. Can't tell you anything on a drill press as I am still using my grandfather's old Chicago, well over 25 years old and running strong. On the router, get the most powerful one you can afford, but more importantly leave yourself enough money for a router table. Best bet on that is to hunt yard sales and junk stores for an old table (like a kitchen table) with a solid top, ideally a butcher-block top, and make your own. A router without a table is still handy, but so is a PC with a 10-gig hard drive.
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