Suddenly you have a financiall windfall - what would you do?

[Highdesert Splintermaker]

Okay, its early March. The kids are still in school and you don't have to till the garden, pull weeds, or mow lawn yet. You've just learned some rich relative you never knew you had died and left you multiple millions. After paying the taxes, your mortgage, your credit cards, you car loans, setting up college funds for the kids and signing up for Obamacare, you remember your first love - your workshop, your tools, and all the stuff you enjoy doing using them. Kinda' like "If I won the lottery!" Okay! What's your plan? 

[dwain]

i'd probably put this guys recommendations to good use:
http://toolguyd.com/if-i-lost-all-my-tools-which-brands-would-i-pick-for-replacements/

[DR99]

Well I would probably move and buy a small house with a huge pole barn to build a cool shop to work in. It would also cost quite a bit of money to equip said workshop with a bunch of cool woodworking and metalworking tools.

[ChrisK]

Hmmmmm.....Fe....Fes.....Festool? And with the lines that DR put in....I would build a huge pole barn for my lady and her horse and a huge woodshop in said barn. Oh yeah, a three car garage with in law apartment. Oh and while I'm dreaming a Mercedes truck. Oh yeah and twin fifties on all perimeters to protect my said property from the serfs!!!! Gotta keep the people in check.

[BK13]

My local Snap On guy would begin referring to me as "Mr. BK"!

Probably the same as everybody else, depending on how big the windfall was... If it is big enough, get the heck out of the city/suburbs, build a stick built shop/garage big enough to park a pretty good sized jet sled, my Jeep, and a full size longbed crew cab pickup. Divided area for a woodshop. Plumbed for vacuum on the wood side, and a big compressor plumbed with a lot of outlets on the other. Lots and lots of power plugs, 220/240v outlets for welder/plasma cutter.

More modest windfall, I'd get all the M12 and M18 tools I want:

12v... Fuel 1/4" impact wrench, 1/4" and 3/8" ratchet, Fuel drll driver(non-hammer), Fuel screwdriver

18v... Fuel hammer drill/driver, impact driver, 3/8" and 1/2" impact wrench, 1/2" high torque impact wrench

Euro 4.5 and 5" grinders, Fein, Metabo, or Bosch

Tool box... HF 44" and/or 56", Snap On KRSC46 cart.

[Highdesert Splintermaker]

Deleted - see next post  

[Highdesert Splintermaker]

I'd probably do much the same thing. New digs with a 1,600 sq. ft. home, a three car garage, and a whole 'nother 2,400sq. ft. building for a wood shop. I'd live in the shop and visit the house for meals, showers, naps, and those occasional household honey-do repairs and improvements.

 

That shop would be the front page article on some issue of America's Best Workshops magazine. Plenty of heat, AC, and 110/220 current everywhere. Lots of windows facing North. Large doors for full sheet access to the lumber storage room. An in-floor full shop dust control system and compressed air hose reels everywhere. The air compressor and main vacuum units would be in a sound baffled separate equipment room. Rock solid and ready to rock, etc, etc, etc. Oh, and a separate clean room for painting. 

 

One thing I would do differently, however, is try to work with some tool manufacturer(s) to develop tools designed for woodworking. See my comments on drill presses and jointers in the topic; Are tool Companies Stupid On Purpose?, for my top two pet peeves with some not-really-made-for-woodworking power tools. Then there are band saws which could definitely use adjustable height work tables. And, come to think of it, no planer worth it's salt should snipe the tail end of your work piece. I could go on but you get the idea. I really don't think tool companies are stupid on purpose. It's worse than that. They are stupid by accident caused by greed. They are simply holding their bottom line nickel so close to their eyes they can't see a sales dollar five feet away. 

 

I also think there are better ways to enhance the efficiency of a workshop than to build another 4,000 jigs, fixtures, sawhorses, tables, mobile bases, shelves, racks, stands, and other plywood contraptions you and I both see at least one or more of in every issue of ShopNotes magazine. Those things don't really create any space they just create more clutter and sell more hardware. Most of those space saving organizers take up three to five times as much space as the cigar boxes you were perfectly happy with before. And, in the overall scheme of things, they delay you from making the things you really wanted to make in the first place.

 

There is a saying, named after some old and long forgotten philosopher I suppose, that goes something like; The more you know about your trade, the less tools you should need to do it well!

At this point, I'm still buying ShopNotes magazine, and believe I should be thankful I can't remember that philosopher's name.

 

 

Your comments are invited.

[Conductor562]

Man, I'd call the Mac guy and tell him to come by. I guarantee it would be the single biggest sale of his life.

I'd love to have a dedicated, stand alone, wood shop. Nothing crazy, 1200 square feet would be sufficient.

I'd love to have the small hay field that adjoins my property to allow for a little more farming.

I'd definitely build an addition with a master suite and a parlor type room big enough for a pool table, bar, and a card table.

An old car of some sort. Late 60's Mopar or Mustang.

[Highdesert Splintermaker]

Mr. C:

 

Sounds like you'd have a lot of fun doing quite a few different things.

 

I like the idea of a muscle car but I think I'd try to find a cherry '57 Chevy - my first car (shoulda' kept it).  I had a 150 2-door, 283 with a power pack, and an HD seal kit in the slush box. Ran like a striped a$$ ape! The good old days. Being something of a perfectionist, however, I'd probably let the damn thing drive me (no pun intended) crazy looking for original stock parts, etc.

 

I think I'd better stick to makin' splinters. 

[BK13]

'69 Mach 1! Get it set up so it will go fast around corners and stop on a dime.

'77-79 Ford 4x4 Crew Cab, swap in a 12v Cummins, set it up as a hunting/boat towing rig... Big brakes, big tires, big winch and bumper.

Love to get a 911 or a Ferrari, but 6'6" tall, 300+ pound guys just don't fit in them...

[Conductor562]

HDSM: I wouldn't want one of those perfect, nicer than new, cars, that I was afraid to drive. I'd want something nice, but not so nice that I leave it in the garage 360 days a year.

 

BK: Those late 70's crew cabs look weird when I see them on the highway. Crew cabs are the norm now, but back then they were unusual. I guess it was probably in the mid 90's before the crew/extended cabs really started outnumbering regular cabs noticeably. The certainly have a strange sense of unique about them. 

[NicholasShetley]

I completely agree conductor. What is the point of having a nice car if you chant show it off and enjoy it once and a while.

[DR99]

It's pretty crazy how uncommon crew cab pickups were back then. Dealers probably didn't even keep them on the lot except in certain areas for the most part. Have you see some of the 6 door crew cab conversions they look pretty crazy.

[BK13]

BK: Those late 70's crew cabs look weird when I see them on the highway. Crew cabs are the norm now, but back then they were unusual. I guess it was probably in the mid 90's before the crew/extended cabs really started outnumbering regular cabs noticeably. The certainly have a strange sense of unique about them.

It's funny how having kids change you viewpoint on things. I was perfectly content with standard or extended cab trucks, until Little Big Kurt came along. Now, between the airbags in the front seat and a long-legged, tall four year old, I couldn't imagine having a standard cab now.