Hmmm. For the price of a good table saw I could buy one of these ...

http://www.thebestadirondackchair.com/product_details.asp?id=67

... and skip the whole pending workbench/chair/saw/bottomless pit fiasco

Decisions, decisions...

Thanks for all the advice so far. I do have to agree that a table saw would make a big dent in all equipment requirements I have been complaining about. I already have a miter saw and enough firearms to cover drilling requirements between 1/4" and a couple of inches (stand further back for larger holes).

Hmmm Bowmanville. Ok. Good. Unless he acquires some ballistic "drilling tools", I should be safe.

Wood shops always center around the table saw. It is the workhorse of the shop. A router table would be a close second place for me. I use the two every project I get into. If you buy wood in S2S, a planer and joiner would be the third and four choices.

If you do not find joy in working with wood, don't bother buying anything. Just have someone else make it for you and you'll be money ahead. If I sold all my 'stuff', I could buy no less than four of darn near everything I've ever made. However, woodworking helps me keep my sanity.

Yeah, I guess I really need to decide if I enjoy woodworking, or just need the finished product. I never really considered whether I enjoyed building things or not - it was more along the lines of "building your own lightsaber" ie if you have and use certain things (like adirondack chairs) you are expected to have made them yourself.

I realize this was probably obvious to everyone but it wasn't obvious to me.

Thanks for all the advice and putting up with the dumb questions. Guess I'll go ahead and build a workbench and then think about whether I enjoyed it or not.

Oh, and Murph - when I make holes in things I always take care to point "down" not "east"

I never thought of using firearms to make a hole in wood. The tearout's probably a bitch, though.

If you had a table saw, you could easily make a workbench. Also, a workbench isn't very useful if you're not big on hand-planing, sawing, etc. It takes up more footprint than a tablesaw (unless you have a 5' outfeed table like I do) and won't come in very handy if you're assembling a bookcase or a cabinet. A home made assembly/finsihing table (the biggest you can fit with overkill lighting) is preferable.

So, table saw (and you do not need a cabinet saw!), sliding dual compound miter and a router (table expands possibilities greatly) and you're in biz.

Seriously, all bigboy/bogtoy yap here aside, you could actually make a living with those three things. How do you think I got the $$ to get all the stuff I don't need?

Rifles make an extraordinarily clean hole, even in metal. I was amazed the first time I shot a .303 at an intake manifold.

No the intake manifold was not attached to an engine at the time.

Shotguns definitely give you a ragged edge (probably requiring a rasp for initial cleanup) but have the advantage of instantly and infinitely adjustable hole size.

Years ago, I was doing a job out in the Ca desert (enviromental clean up) on an old 50's/60's JPL site for testing jet engines and I guess rounds. The 6"-8" holes thru the 1 1/2" plate steel, were very clean! The concrete bunkers were sortof a hint.

Back in WW2, those German 88's were so powerfull that on a light armoured vehicle, they'd often put a hole clean through one side and out the other before the shell exploded, or clean through a jeep WITHOUT exploding.

Build the workbench John!

I built a 13' x 28" deep workbench from 4x4s and 3/4" plywood several years ago and it comes in handy for just about anything I do in the garage, I love it ... It's also excellent for storing and collecting junk as well.

If you’re set on building a bench, take the time and expense to make it right. You don’t need to make it out of butcher blocked hard maple, but you really should use hard wood. Oak works well and it’s fairly cheap. You can use fire or pine for the verticals, but don’t use it for anything else. Softwood will twist and bow on you and you’ll cuss at it every time you try to assemble something because it won’ be flat. I’ve done this three times now, because I went cheap twice. My current bench works very well. I build it 28” wide by 7’ and it’s about a half an inch shorter than my table saw so I can use it for an out feed table. On one side I have an open tray for ‘stuff’ I use all the time, like scraps of sandpaper, glue scrapers, straight edges. I built it sturdy as hell with 4” fir legs and 4" X 1" Red Oak for the table top support spreaders 12" O/C and 3/4 MDF screwed to the spreaders. I then use ¼” hard board for the top, screwed to the MDF and it's edged with oak. After a few months or so, I’ll just yard out the hard board and screw a new sheet down. This way I don’t feel bashful about beating the hell out of the top as if it was a pretty maple top. I do all my glue ups on this, stain on it, sand, port work on cylinder heads, file ring gaps, whatever. I also installed bench dogs and a screw on the bench, but I never use it. I usually just clamp my stuff down with quick clamps if I don’t want it moving around on me. I also have good, lockable casters so I can roll it out of the way. I buy my casters from Woodcraft, they are excellent.