student for the day – playing with power tools

As you can tell my sporadic posting this year, even though I promised myself (and you guys!)  I would be back to blogging at least semi-regularly, things have been a bit up in the air. Work has been crazy due to many, many changes in the last 8 months. While I have a blast at work, it is also very stressful and draining at times. I decided I needed to start scheduling some mental health days. We have a decent vacation policy, so I added a few to the calendar to regroup and have some fun. Since the hubby is off on summer break (lucky man!) and has access to all the studios in the arts department at his college, I scheduled a day for playing with power tools. We have the basics at home, and I’m quite comfortable with them, but now was the chance to learn with the big boys.

Here is a glimpse inside of the studio. It is twice this size, but this shorty had a real hard time getting a full picture of the space.

These are a few of the power tools I got to play with while in the studio last week.
Clockwise – A radial arm saw, table saw, belt sander, and bandsaw.

This is a blogger/DIYer’s dream come true. I squealed when I realized this was all scrap wood that could be used for various projects. Being married to an art professor has some amazing perks! Part of me wants to go back to school just to take woodworking classes.I grabbed a few pieces from this for some upcoming projects, stick around to see what comes out of them.

This is the radial arm saw. Think of it as a chop saw on steroids. It does the chop saw motion, but also moves back and forth, which allows you to cut up to a 12″ board. I used it to chop down a few different pieces for upcoming projects.  I will admit that saws with blades this big give me the shakes. I’m terrified of chopping off my hand even though I use all the safety precautions. After a few cuts, I was quite comfortable on it.

The bandsaw is such a great tool. I found some MDF boards in the scrap pile, that I traced out for some upcoming Halloween projects. This tool cuts MDF and wood like butter. It is so easy to make simple and even intricate shapes with this. I definitely wish we had one of these at home.

Oh the belt sander. How I LOVE the belt sander!  I  am not a fan of sanding. I have a great orbital sander at home, but this…this, is epic. I have a few projects in the works with small pieces of wood, odd shaped pieces and large boards. All of those only took minutes to clean up. Amazingly smooth and so easy to use.

I had a blast playing with power tools and getting started on a handful of projects on my day off. I only used about 60% of the tools in the studio so I’m definitely planning on taking up the hubby and his fellow professors up on the offer to spend more time learning the rest of the equipment.

If you could have any of these power tools in your home (or others not mentioned), which one would you get? I’m torn between the belt sander and the bandsaw. I love them both so much. Can’t wait to show you what is going to come from the items I started in these photos!