Woodworking Equipment for the Shop

Last week I discussed factors to consider when buying machinery for the shop. For us, it was not just growth but we also wanted to increase efficiency and the quality of the process being performed.

With that in mind, here's a look at some of the equipment we purchased.

Air Assisted Airless Sprayer: Shortly after purchasing the sliding table saw, the next area of click image to zoomBinks Air Assisted Airless Sprayer production that we realized we needed to address was our finishing process. We finish all of the furniture, cabinetry, and shutters that we manufacture. Prior to manufacturing furniture and cabinetry, we finished our interior shutters using pressure pots to spray oil based paints and lacquer. But once we began fabricating and finishing cabinets and furniture, we learned that a pressure pot was not the best way to spray sanding sealer, lacquer, or varnish. The pressure pots just created to much overspray, resulting in a rough finish on large flat surfaces, such as a table top, or when spraying the inside of a cabinet. The quality of our painted and lacquer finishes was not to our liking, so we began investigating our options.

We met with our finishing rep and decided to spend $2000 on a new Binks air-assisted airless spray system, complete with the pump, hoses, and gun. The overspray is pretty much non-existent and the volume of material that is applied to the surface is greatly increased over the pressure pots.

The resulting finish achieved using the air-assisted airless is incredible! Perfectly smooth surfaces on large dining tables and inside of bookcases. We also switched over to using tinted lacquers to paint all of our furniture and cabinetry. We still use pressure pots to apply the oil based paints to our shutters, and to apply stain to all of our products, but when it comes to spraying sealers, lacquers, and varnishes, we go with the air-assisted airless.

click image to zoomJLT Door Clamp JLT Door Clamp: After purchasing the air-assisted airless, our sabbatical from purchasing new machinery came to an end when the owner of a local cabinet shop, who had done some edgebanding for us, called to see if I was interested in a few machines he wanted to part with. The JLT door clamp, seen above, and the Busellato UniBohr machine, seen below, were taking up space and collecting dust, and he wanted them gone. He said they could be mine, along with an air-assisted airless pump, for $1800. It didn’t take much convincing for me to jump at the opportunity, since I had almost purchased the UniBohr machine the previous year from him for $1800. For the same price I was getting two more machines!