I wasn’t able to move any of my power tools from my workshop in the US over here, so I started with only hand tools. The space I am renting provided workbenches and a few more hand tools. I did pick up a cordless drill; I’m not a psychopath of course.
I have pretty much everything needed to make furniture. I’ve been making the shop furniture from spruce and pine, which isn’t too particular about board thickness and is pretty easy to cut by hand. But no one really wants nice furniture out of pine or spruce, so I’m moving to hardwoods. I’m cutting the legs and rails of the hall bench I’m making from a 2″ slab of what I think is European Beech. It is dense like oak and a bit harder than red oak.
I have realized that it sucks to thickness a board by hand, and will go by the tools store today to order a thickness planer. Yesterday I decided that ripping the boards by hand was too much work. So I used the tools next door.
When I rented the shop, the landlord said I could use the woodworking tools in the shop next to mine if desired. They have a lot of large equipment from when the shop made furniture for IKEA between the late 1940s and the 1980s. Not all the equipment is hooked up (like the huge thickness planer), some of it needs work (the jointer needs the motor installed), but some of it works. And one of the ones that is working is the tablesaw. I hadn’t used it before and it is a large 3-phase machine with three motors/blades. Pretty intimidating to use. But at least the section setup for ripping wasn’t too bad.
Long story short, I have the legs cut roughly to size and am waiting on the planer to get to proper size. I’m not at the shop today, but tomorrow I’m planning on cutting out the rails. Joinery will have to wait. Then to order the danish cord and hooks to weave the top.
