Work with What You Got, Buy Only What You Need

Corey Young

The solution doesn't always mean more money being spent

You're looking for a new tool, right? Whether you're buying your first tools to get started, or you've been growing a bit, but need this one thing to push to the next level, but can't afford the latest and greatest, buy used, Harbor Freight (HF), or from a scratch and dent room like they have at Grizzly. Hear me out.

If you know of another place like Grizzly that has a scratch and dent room, let us know. There's Woodward Fab, I don't know if they have scratch and dent deals, or if they do much woodworking stuff, but I got some of my metal working supplies there close to 10 years ago. They still work great.

Often, you'll hear about guys with this thing they thought they needed, but then they never used it for one reason or another. Plus, if you've never cut with a table saw before, you don't really know what you're looking for yet. If you don't have a tool, it's hard to say how much you'll end up using it. You may not like making what you bought it to make, or what you do make with it doesn't sell. I ran a mechanic shop for 4 years, and if I haven't lost them, I have a lot of tools that are still in their packaging, or I only used them once or twice. You can get "like new" tools for half price all day, often less.

I just picked up a little router table for 20 bucks, because I've thought I'd probably use it, and it's 20 bucks. It was even on my way to my brothers to pick up a table saw, belt sander, palm sander, and drill that he's renting to me for 25% profits until I replace them. Yeah, it sucks losing that 25%, but I wouldn't get that 75% without it. Better believe I'll be buying a used table saw asap.

Now for why I recommend HF for new tools to your shop. One, if my DeWalt miter saw takes a crap, I have to mail it in or drive it like 4 hours to one of their accepted locations. If my dad's Hercules takes a crap, he drives 15 minutes to get a new one. I'll have to wait for it to be repaired, he'll put the new one in his trunk.

Another perk to HF is you can buy the extended warranty, bring your tool in and walk out with a new one. But make sure to buy another warranty. So, you can get a new saw every 2 years for whatever the warranty costs. Then if you have the money for a REAL saw, 4 digits, industrial use, etc., get that. Also, when HF discontinues a product, they have to give you the new version. I brought a socket in I cut up to make a valve spring compressor for a motorcycle. I brought it in cut and welded. Dude asked what they hell happened, out of curiosity, I told him, he laughed and told me to go grab a new one.

Now you can combine ideas here, buy the Hercules tool because it's so easy to get replaced, you can get a new one every 2 years for pennies on the dollar, and you can browse for a steal on the good stuff. I picked up a $2,900 bandsaw for $400 and have about $200-$300 into parts. It's 21 years old. Grizzly BTW.

That brings up another thought. Grizzly has a scratch and dent room in Springfield Missouri, and somewhere in Washington. I picked up a smaller bandsaw for about half of the price of the same one on the floor. It needed a couple of bolts. I got a 240 2 hp motor for my nice bandsaw for less than half price. I didn't end up needing it, but I can sell it for about what I paid for it or have it lying around. If you're saving a thousand dollars on an item, it's likely worth the trip. If you're smart, you'll grab a few of their deals while you're there. And the discounts can easily be that big with the high dollar items. Dust collectors are ALWAYS in there. They don't always list the price, you have to call and ask, that's the downfall. If you do call, ask for Jon, he's awesome. I used to live 45 minutes from there, so I went in a lot after finding out about it.

When I'm done typing this, I'm going to Home Depot (HD) to get some bits for my $20 router table to play with. I'm getting the Ryobi variety pack for 40 bucks. Are they likely to be amazing? No. If I use that bit much, will I stick with them? No, I'll get a better one. Especially with consumables, I start cheap, and if I make enough money from them, or use them enough it's worth getting a better product, I will. I didn't know how much I'd use my jigsaw, now I know probably quite a bit. If my Black and Decker lasts long enough, I'll buy a better one when it dies. I also want to buy better blades, I'm using the cheapest ones at the blue store that sells everything, but I needed them when everybody was closed.

Anyway, if you're still reading this, thanks. I'd use an exclamation mark, but the number buttons above my keyboard don't work most of the time, and it isn't worth buying one just for that right now.

Now get out there and make something or start looking for a good deal on that tool you've been wanting (exclamation mark)

---time passes---

I'm back from HD and had a few other thoughts that may help those still reading.

I have a garage I've been setting up to work in and am very fortunate for that. However, it's been stupid cold the last week, and I really just wanted to do SOMETHING. It's been weeks of watching videos and taking notes. My wife is really understanding with some things (most things) and let me set up a small shop in the basement.

Many of us are just waiting for the space to work. You don't need that much space to get started. I'm in a basement under both of my kids' bedrooms and the bathroom, it isn't big. There's a ton of stuff down there. But I have a bench, and an old kitchen table. When I say bench, it's kind of a stretch. But it's a bench right now, with a belt sander, which you absolutely do not need, and a router table on it, which if you really need, get one for $20-$50 on Facebook Marketplace.

I don't have anything fancy. My jigsaw is a Black and Decker and I don't know how I came to own it to be honest, and it sucks, it gets hot pretty quick, but it works, and I made 3 cutting boards from wood I had lying around. I could have just rounded the edges with a palm sander, but the router table made it just so much easier. And there are a ton of used router tables near me for dirt cheap. If you don't have a single room in your house to spare, a small storage unit is cheap, and a lot of them have at least one outlet. I built this giant loft workbench thing in my 14x40x14 down south, before moving north. I did it all in the storage unit, well, I cut a lot outside. I also made bunk beds for my kids in there as well. You can get a small one for probably $40 a month or something.

Also, I struggled with coming up with money to buy wood, so I jumped on Facebook Marketplace, and found a guy wanting a 16x16 or something deck removed and hauled off. That's a lot of wood, and various forms of it. The top and whatnot is painted white a long time ago, so it's already weathered and painted. The bottom stronger boards, 2x6-8, whatever, are not painted. There's 4x4's for the railing. There's a ton of wood, not only free, but he gave me 50 bucks the first time I was there. Weather turned before I could finish, so when things thaw, I'll be going back. But I am getting a ton of wood for the cost of gas, and consumables from disassembling the deck. He paid me to take enough wood to make thousands of dollars with. I've heard some cabinet makers will give their drops, cuts, or scraps, whatever you want to call it, away as well.

Do not underestimate the power of the circular saw. It is dirt cheap and can do the jobs many high dollar machines can do. It isn't as efficient, you may have to make a jig or something, using that circular saw, but they can rip things, they can crosscut, they do angles, not a dual bevel or whatever, but they do basic angles. They can cut dados into the wood like a table saw or miter saw. I've even seen a couple of people use a circular saw to make a table saw, then mount it underneath the table coming up. With a jig, you can make straight cuts very easily. You can actually make it into a track saw ultimately. That $50 circular saw just replaced about $1,500 dollars in equipment.

This is getting far too long, but hopefully it's helped some of you, as it's helped me learning all of this.

It's warmed up a bit, so I'm going to go get some of the 4x8 piece of the deck I cut off as it's taking 4x8 feet in the center of the shop. Or do I go downstairs and play with the router bits? It's dark, I think it's router in the basement time (exclamation point)

If you have any questions or want to chat about this, find me on Facebook in The Woodworking Group!