re: What can you build in a small low budget shop?

My woodworking mentor designed and built every piece of millwork in his rather amazing loft apartment in downtown Manhattan with nothing more than a decent tablesaw and a few very basic other tools. No planers, no lathes, no other big stationary tools. The thing he tried to ingrain into me more than anything else is attention to detail. A little creativity and attention to detail can take you a long way. It wasn’t really that long ago that none of these gadgets even existed and the only tools obtainable would fit into a relatively small tool chest. A chest you made for yourself, of course.