My first purchase (summer of 2oo6) for my upgraded shop was a new table saw. This is probably the most used tool by any cabinet maker. I learned to use a table saw at my dad's shop. This was an old 12" Craftsman and while it was a strong saw the table was stamped metal and the fence was a joke. To accurately rip a certain width of board it was necessary to measure fromt the saw blade teeth to the fence - from and back. It worked but man was it time consuming. I knew I wanted a professional saw, with a cast iron table and a good fence. Never having used a good fence I wasn't real sure what to expect but I knew it had to be better than what I was used to. I looked for a used saw without much luck and finally decided to bite the bullet and go for a new one. I read a lot of reviews and checked prices of every saw I could find that met my needs. I finally settled on a Grizzly 10" table saw. I based my decision primarily on the fact that I could get a professional saw for under a $1000 from Grizzly. The closest comparable saw from any other manufacturer was closer to $1500. That, plus some fairly good reviews of Grizzly convinced me.

Grizzly 1023SL Left Tilting 10" Table Saw
The saw has a 3 hp, single phase, 220v motor, a Shop Fox Classic fence, and mobile base. The saw arrived in a somewhat flimsly cardboard box on a small pallet. Despite this it was in fine shape. I choose to pick up the saw at the truck terminal. At 500 pounds I wasn't sure I'd be able to get it off a tractor trailer if they delivered it to my home. I was able to use my tractor to unload from my pickup.
I assembled the saw without much trouble. Instrucitons were clear. Attaching the table extensions wasn't easy as they were difficult to handle due to their weight. Cleaning off the anti-rust goop was a 30 minute job with lots of rags and mineral spirits. Attacing the front rail with necessary shims was not easy but I managed it and then started on the alignment procedure. I found I did not have to make any adjustments, everything was square and flat. Finally I installed the mobile base and powered up the saw. I ripped a couple of pieces of red oak and the saw never slowed down. I tried some 8/4 oak and same thing I've since run hundreds of feet of oak, cherry, pine, and mahogany thru the saw and couln't be happier. After some adjustments the fence is dead on. I can set the saw for the exact measurment I want with no need to measure from the blade to the fence. After 2 years I am extremly happy with my Grizzly saw. I love the mobile base and the dust collection system. The table is heavy, well built, and the table is flat with a mirror like finish. To me it has the look and feel of a high quality piece of equipment. I'd buy it again tomorrow. I give this saw 5 stars out of 5.

Grizzly G1079 16" Drum Sander
       With 16 feet of running bookshelves with hundreds of feet of shelving the project would include way too much sanding for me. I'm tired of sanding! I liked myh Grizzly table saw so much I purchased a Grizzly 16" Drum Sander. It has a 2 hp motor to drive the drums and another smaller motor to drive the feed rollers. I love this tool! Oak and cherry come out smooth and ready for finishing. I thought the 16" width would be adequate for most of my needs and 2 years later I'm still happy with that decision.
       The drums had to be aligned when first set up and this took some time. Grizzly's instruction manuals are clear for the most part. I found the alignment procedure tedious but I am very happy with the results. I did go back later and adjust one drum slightly - even better now. The sander came with sandpaper already attached. This is my only complaint but it's a big one. The attachment mechanism seemed like a poor design. I saw drum sanders in the Grizzly catalog with "velcro" (hook and loop) sandpaper. After the paper that came on the sander tore or began to come loose much earlier than I expected. I replaced the paper with new and that's when I realized I really didn't like the way the paper was attached to the drum. I ordered the hook and loop kit. Attaching the material to the drum was straight forward and has not given me any problems. Using the old paper as a pattern I cut the new paper and attached it to the drum. It seemed secure but the instructions tell you to use a strip of duct tape to secure the ends of the paper to the exposed ends of the drums. I followed the instructions, being sure the paper and tape go around the drum in the right direction - vey important. The hook and loop workd great and I ran a lot of cherry thru the sander with great results. Eventually it was time to replace the paper, that was last summer (2007). I followed the same procedure for attaching the new paper. All went well and I started using the sander again. Before long I had to open it up and replace a piece of tape that was flapping. This happened a couple of times and then a board jammed and the paper tore in the middle. I taped over that section and kept on sanding. I had several problems of this sort over the summer and tried to determine why. I believe there were two main causes. First I may have gotten careless after running so much lumber and tried to go a little faster. You really need to take it slow. I caused a board to jam more than once by trying to take off more thickness. This caused a lot of stress to the paper. An associated problem seemed to be that the loop material was not staying attached to the sandpaper. I had not noticed this problem before. The shop is not cooled and gets very hot in Alabama in July. I felt like this contributed to the failure of the glue. This winter I've replaced the paper again and it seems to be fine. Overall I'm very pleased but thing Grizzly should make the hook and loop attachment a stock item on this sander. I've had a couple of problems with the switch but just haven't had time to take a good look at it. It goes through another swith so I just turn it off and on there. The sander has dual 4" dust ports and you almost have to have a dust collector when using a drum sander as huge amounts of fine sawdust are generated.
Overall I'm very satisfied now that I've got a couple of problems cleared up. There's just no way I could sand all those bookshelves by hand. I've since run a lot of molding through the sander, what a joy! I've always hated sanding long pieces of trim and molding. I give this sander 4 out of 5 stars.

Grizzly G0453 15" Planer
A thickness planer is almost an essential for any woodworking shop. I often made trips to my dad's shop just to plane a few feet of lumber. A year after purchasing the table saw and sander I was ready for a planer. Again I read lots of reviews and checked a lot of prices and decided on a Dewalt DW375 13"planer. I purchased this at Lowes. I could have gotten it cheaper online but I needed a planer right away and I was concerned about returning it if not satisfied.
I unpacked the planer and had it set up in just a short time. No alignment was needed. I planed a piece of oak and it seemed awful loud. The finish on the board was "ok" but not as smooth as I expected. I tried a few more boards and just wasn't happy with the power, speed, or finish. Also, the planer seems to be made of way too much plastic and just didn't seem to have a real professional look and feel. After thinking it over I cleaned it up, packed it back in the box and returned it. With an optional table extension the planer cost close to $600.
I next decided to purchase an inexpensive (about $200) Ryobi benchtop planer just to get by until I could decide on a professional tool. I purchased the Ryobi off Ebay. It looked almost new and everything worked fine. The planer was adequate but slow and extremely loud. I absolutely had to wear ear protectors as the high pitched noise really hurt my ears. After running a few dozen feet throught the planer I cleaned and packed it and re-sold it on Ebay for about what I paid for it. My next move was to bring home my dad's old Parks Planer. It had to use a winch and "come along" to load the planer and again used my tractor to unload it. Did I mention this planer is heavy? I fould a source for blades and blade holders and replaced the existing ones. I found an old service manual online and managed to adjust and align the old planer. It worked great and had enought power to never bog down. I used the planer for a few month until the day a nut vibrated off and the chip deflector dropped into the spinning blades. This destroyed the deflector along with the blades. Worst of all the cast iron frame was cracked. I looked for another Parks for awhile but gave it up as I didn't want to drive out of state. Happy as I was with my Grizzly table saw and drum sander I choose the Grizzly 15 inch planer and once again the company came through with a heavy duty, powerful, well made machine.

Grizzly G0452 6" Jointer
My last tool purchase was a jointer. Over the years I have done a lot of woodworking but wasn't really sure just what a jointer was used for. Glueing up two (or more) boards in order to create a wider board is a fairly common job. I've used a table saw to "straighten" the edges in the past but this is not very satisfactory. For one thing if a board has a slight curve to it the curve will still be there after running through the saw. Another problem is saw marks sometimes leave a less than ideal surface for gluing. In the past I've used a very straight board that I keep for just this reason. I use a few small finishing nails to attach the staight board to the curved board along one edge. I then run the whole thing through the saw giving me a fairly straight edge. This works but is very time consuming and you are still left with sawmarks at times. Turns out a jointer will straighten the edge of a board beautifully leaving a smooth edge. Doesn't sound like much but after years of gluing up less than staight boards it is amazing how much time this saves. In the past if the board was almost straight I just ignored the slight curve and used enought clamps to compensate. This works also but puts a lot of stress on the finished board and often makes clamping difficult. I use the jointer only on ocassion but it is absolutely my favorite tool! There's just nothing like a very straight board when it comes to building quality furniture. The jointer from Grizzly works great but having never used any other jointer I don't have much to compare it to. The price was right, all my other Grizzly experiences have been good, and I am extremely satisified. The only change I would make is a longer bed. This one is 46" and when you are trying to staighten a long board it's easy to see why a longer bed would be nice. That being said I think I can get by with this particular jointer for several years. The jointer shipped quickly from Grizzly, was easy to assemble, and needed only a little alignment. The dust collection port is nice, this thing generates a lot of shavings.