Starting over... small hybrid shop must haves?

[kompera]

Hey all, formerly very active member crawling back out of the dust and cobwebs to hopefully be around a bit more. We've had some crazy life stuff including adding a kid to our lives, my spouse getting very sick but making it through, moving houses to one with no good shop area, changing jobs 2-3 times... it's been a crazy 6 years not even counting this whole pandemic thing thrown in there for good measure.

My tools have all been mothballed all this time, but if all goes to plan I'm about to join some friends in a shared studio space where I'll get a small corner to call my own and set back up a woodworking space. They do other types of arts (a jeweler and a general crafter), so I'll need to be very good about dust management; a strong point in the pro column for going mostly hand tools.
It'll be maybe 150-200 sq ft of dedicated space out of a 600 sq ft studio so not a ton to work with given needing lumber storage in there too, but nice tall 11' ceilings, so I can go vertical for storage. I'm thinking it should be plenty to setup a small hybrid space to do some furniture building and keep me sane. Maybe I can finally finish that Maloof style rocker that's in pieces in my shed too...


So if you were doing a small hybrid shop setup prioritizing lower dust and noise levels, what would be your required larger tailed tools? 
Assumptions:

• My hand tool collection is ample, and I know how to use a jointer plane.
  
• Not counting things that can go in drawers like routers or orbital sanders.
  
• Dust collection/vacuums are a given and will be added on as needed.
  
• Buying mostly S2S/S3S wood, or planing rough wood down in my yard/driveway (or having someone else do it locally) before taking to the studio.
  

I'm thinking this as a kind of prioritized list...

Key tools:

• Workbench. Duh.
  
• Bandsaw (I have a Rikon 14" Deluxe)
  
• Miter Saw or RAS
  
• Drill Press
  
• Track Saw + dust extractor
  

Lower priority:

• Lathe (possibly up to key? depends on projects. Good dust collection will be a PITA.)
  
• Oscillating spindle/belt sander
  
• Scroll Saw
  
• Jointer
  
• Planer
  
• Table Saw (though maybe on wheels with a plywood topper and use it as a multi-function table in the middle of the space?)
  

Leaning towards throwing the jointer up towards key... it's on wheels and can easily stow away somewhere when not needed, and for larger pieces (benches, tables) it'd be VERY helpful.

What am I missing? What am I discounting too far?

[TGW]

Hey all, formerly very active member crawling back out of the dust and cobwebs to hopefully be around a bit more. We've had some crazy life stuff including adding a kid to our lives, my spouse getting very sick but making it through, moving houses to one with no good shop area, changing jobs 2-3 times... it's been a crazy 6 years not even counting this whole pandemic thing thrown in there for good measure.

My tools have all been mothballed all this time, but if all goes to plan I'm about to join some friends in a shared studio space where I'll get a small corner to call my own and set back up a woodworking space. They do other types of arts (a jeweler and a general crafter), so I'll need to be very good about dust management; a strong point in the pro column for going mostly hand tools.
It'll be maybe 150-200 sq ft of dedicated space out of a 600 sq ft studio so not a ton to work with given needing lumber storage in there too, but nice tall 11' ceilings, so I can go vertical for storage. I'm thinking it should be plenty to setup a small hybrid space to do some furniture building and keep me sane. Maybe I can finally finish that Maloof style rocker that's in pieces in my shed too...


So if you were doing a small hybrid shop setup prioritizing lower dust and noise levels, what would be your required larger tailed tools? 
Assumptions:

• My hand tool collection is ample, and I know how to use a jointer plane.
  
• Not counting things that can go in drawers like routers or orbital sanders.
  
• Dust collection/vacuums are a given and will be added on as needed.
  
• Buying mostly S2S/S3S wood, or planing rough wood down in my yard/driveway (or having someone else do it locally) before taking to the studio.
  

I'm thinking this as a kind of prioritized list...

Key tools:

• Workbench. Duh.
  
• Bandsaw (I have a Rikon 14" Deluxe)
  
• Miter Saw or RAS
  
• Drill Press
  
• Track Saw + dust extractor
  

Lower priority:

• Lathe (possibly up to key? depends on projects. Good dust collection will be a PITA.)
  
• Oscillating spindle/belt sander
  
• Scroll Saw
  
• Jointer
  
• Planer
  
• Table Saw (though maybe on wheels with a plywood topper and use it as a multi-function table in the middle of the space?)
  

Leaning towards throwing the jointer up towards key... it's on wheels and can easily stow away somewhere when not needed, and for larger pieces (benches, tables) it'd be VERY helpful.

What am I missing? What am I discounting too far?

Working without the ability to dimension your own timber will put very strict limits to what you can make and limit your choice of timber severely. I have hand planed enough timber before I got my first planer/jointer combination to know that it is possible but very time consuming. To the point that one doesn't get much else done.
Therefore planer and jointer and table saw are proritized. Because that is where the machines save most time compared to doing the same job by hand. The coarse dust produced by old style HSS knives is usually fairly easy to control.

I see absolutely no need for an oscillating belt/spindle sander if you are good with hand tools. It makes lots of dust and saves little time compared to hand tool work.

You can make do without a mitre saw if you want. It saves time but not enough to be really crucial. They also tend to spray a lot of dust around.

If you learn traditional turning techniques based on cutting not scraping and constantly apply those techniques you can have a lathe without making too much dust. Modern style scraping and sanding based lathe work would in my oppinion make too much dust.

It isn't that hard to make do without a drillpress in woodwork. Nice to have yet not a priority.

A router is not very necsessary and it makes plenty of fine dust. Only when my sideline grew into what one would call a part time job I found it worth the cost to buy a router. There are hand tools that can do the same work almost as fast as long as you are doing one offs not production runs. The router really shines for production runs.

If you are going to work a lot with sheet materials you may need a track saw. Otherwise not.

Just my thoughts. As a part time professional.

Fine dust is your enemy. It is produced by high speed carbide tooling and by sanding. A cutterhead with hss knives chugging along or an old style HSS table saw blade produce a coarser dust which doesn't spread as much.

[barryvabeach]

I won't argue your list, but if you are making case pieces ( not just chairs ) you will definitely want something to let you cut glued up panels to length and width,  a TS will do that , plus help cut dados,  the track saw would work as well, and has the benefit of taking the work outside on some sawhorses, thus minimizing dust.
If you do proceed without a jointer planer, I did a fair number of pieces before I bought mine, I suggest you rething the 4 square method of stock preparation.   I would make one face of each piece flat, get the two sides straight and 90 degrees, then glue up a panel. There was no need to be sure the sides of each piece was parallel till it was time to cut the panel.  In some cases I planed the backside when done, other times, I just hit it with a scrub or left it as is if  would not be seen.  That is the way it was done on many of the old pieces, and if you start trying to do the 4 square method with hand tools, you will find out why they didn't thickness each piece to the same size, and left unseen sides very rough.  Note that in some cases, you do need to plane the backside to be flat, though not to the level of machine perfection.  Good luck.

[mdhills]

I'd return to this adventure with the minimum tools you can and see where your interests lead.

If your intent is to use handtools, a workbench makes a lot of sense.  This will take up a good chunk of your working space.
I'd recommend planning on a shooting board, and see whether you can meet your crosscut and miter needs with that, or if you really need to get a mitersaw or RAS (both are loud and dusty)

Since you already have a bandsaw, I'd make sure to get a good dust extractor and then build a dust hookup just below the throat plate (see Rob Cosman videos on bandsaw dust collection).    Because I have other tools I go to first, my bandsaw is underused, but it is reputedly a good complement to handtools.

I like having a drill press, but it gets used for a variety of things and isn't strictly necessary.  (maybe your shopmates also have something?)

The other tools I'd wait to figure out whether you really need them.
Enjoy learning how to do things anew.

[kompera]

Thanks all!

A bit more color, my shop mates do jewelry and mixed media, so there’s already a miter saw in the studio that they use for miscellaneous cutting needs, or i would probably do that aspect by hand.

I’m not doing high throughput work, just one off “for me” kind of pieces because i enjoy it, so I’m not usually concerned with the most efficient methods.

There’s another woodworker in the building, i plan to make friends with them and hopefully borrow time if they have a planer, but worst case i can do that dimensioning outside at my house and then do the joinery in the studio.

I definitely need to learn how to get a bandsaw tuned up really good, I’ve heard they can do just about everything (ripping and crosscutting) if you know how to make them sing, so we’ll see how that goes.