Who writes this

Jean-Benoit Buisson

Every page on this site is written and signed by one person. This page says who, how the judgments are reached, and — just as importantly — what he is not.

How I got here

I live in Paris, in the Charente, and the workshop is half a garage with a door that has never quite sealed. Most of what I know about woodworking machinery I learned the expensive way, one purchase at a time: a first table saw chosen on its motor rating, which turned out to have a fence that moved under the hand and made every rip cut a negotiation; a packet of sanding discs bought for a hole pattern that did not match the sander; an extractor picked on its airflow figure that strangled the moment a 100 mm hose was stepped down to 64.

None of that was in the numbers I had been shown. All of it was in the numbers I had not been shown — the ones a listing leaves out, states in the wrong unit, or contradicts two bullets further down. Reading that gap is the whole of what this site does.

What this site covers

Everything listed here is taken from the catalog of this site, and each entry links to its own page. When the catalog changes, this list changes with it. It is a list of what is covered — not a list of what I own.

What I care about

Three beliefs, and every page rests on them. The number that gets quoted is usually the wrong one — a saw sold on motor wattage rather than on the rigidity of its fence, a drill press sold on its speed count rather than on its quill travel, an extractor sold on a figure measured with nothing attached to it. The consumable decides more than the machine — the blade, the grit, the bit shank, the hose diameter, and whether the one you can buy fits the one you already have. And the part that hurts you is the part you cannot see: the fine fraction of wood dust, which is the single subject a workshop full of exciting machines is guaranteed to skip.

What I am not

I am not a cabinetmaker, a joiner by trade, or a machine technician, and I have never worked for a manufacturer or a dealer. I have no formal qualification in any of it. If you are looking for someone whose authority comes from a job title, this is not that site.

What each judgment rests on is stated on the page it appears on — see how these pages settle a choice.

How I work

Every figure names its source: a manufacturer specification, a manual, a standard, or the weight of long-term owner reports.
No price, product reference or specification is ever invented. Where a figure is missing, the field is left empty and the gap is stated on the page.
Product references are verified against Amazon before publication, per market. Where a model is not sold in that store, you are sent to a local search rather than to a page that does not exist.
Where the cheap option wins, the page says the cheap option wins — and where the honest answer is a jig you should build rather than buy, it says that instead.

Why this site exists

Because woodworking machinery is sold on the wrong numbers. Saws are advertised on motor wattage, which is close to meaningless, rather than on fence rigidity and table flatness, which decide every cut you will ever make with them. Extraction is sold on a suction figure that describes the wrong kind of suction for half the machines it gets connected to. And consumables — the blade, the grit, the hose diameter — are treated as afterthoughts when they are usually the actual fix.

There is also a part of this that is not about buying anything. Wood dust is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the IARC, the harmful fraction is the part you cannot see, and it is the one subject a shop full of exciting machines is guaranteed to skip. It is not skipped here.

Correcting me

If something here is wrong, tell me and I will fix it and date the correction on the page. Write to [email protected].

Jean-Benoit Buisson · Paris, France