Hi guys,

I’m new to the forums, so I’ll do a quick intro and then post my question(s), and see what you all think.

I am an industrial designer for a furniture company in Adelaide, South Australia. I also have experience as a wood machininst and some joinery experience but wouldn’t consider myself a real “wood worker” yet. I did a 6 month wood working course in 2001, where we learned mortise and tenons, dovetails, dowels, biscuits etc and built a nice chaise lounge which I still have at home and a side table which my Mother still has, a step ladder and a cubby house.

I then went and did wood machining, polishing, assembly, upholstery for a gymnastics equipment maufacturer for 5 years which is where I found my love for design. In 2006 I started my industrial design degree, which I graduated from in 2009. From 2009 to 2012 I worked at a foundry, designing tooling for taps and valves for non-ferrous casting (aluminium, brass, copper, zinc). Ejector plates, 0.005 tolerances and shrinkage calculations. 

In late 2012, I found my current job as a designer for a big furniture company. We have 100 employees and a huge warehouse of machinery and tools. It’s an amazing place to work and I love it. I design in solidworks and render in modo, build prototypes and do a lot of problem solving.

Now, to my question… I want to get back into building more furniture at home. I have a decent sized workshop and some basic tools, but I have a possible job to design and build some tables for a winery and want to use this opportunity to get some tools and set up my workshop a bit better.

I currently have a cheap but decent circular saw, a triton router, a few drills, chisels, clamps and a groz vise. I am thinking about what I would need to make some nice tables out of reclaimed timber and do some nice joinery. I can get my timber planed at the lumbar yard, but would prefer to do it myself. 

I am thinking maybe my first purchases should be the vertitas bevel up jointer plane, a drill press, a good hand rip saw and hand tenon saw and a radial arm saw. That way I can flatten my timber and square it off, cross cut it, drill out and chisel my mortises and cut my tenons. I do want to build up as I go and make a great wood workshop and start building furniture for friends and family. 

Any advice would be great! Sorry about the essay length post.

Cheers guys,

Aaron