I’ve been given a gift of $250 at Woodcraft. Once I got over the initial excitement, I realized that my choices were overwhelming. What do I buy?
Background: I consider myself an amateur woodworker. I was a carpenter in college for the theatre department scenery and prop shop. After I graduated, I spent a year as a cabinet maker in a small custom cabinet shop. I’ve always been spoiled in that I’ve been able to borrow any tool I need from whatever shop I’m currently working for. Now I am sans-shop, and want to keep up woodworking as a hobby.
What do I get first? A router? The cheap fixed-base ones cost around $100. What else would I get?
Or…
I really wanted a lathe, but their cheapest mini-lathe is $250, and it doesn’t include the tools, stand, safety gear, dust collection, etc… And I don’t want to go over my gift amount.
Or…
I suppose a sensible thing to get would be a cordless drill. But they’re not terribly useful for small woodworking, which would constitute most of my projects.
Or…
Any suggestions? What would ***you ** * get first?
A router is exceptionally useful and versatile and was my first choice of ‘serious woodworking power tool’ (i.e. beyond drill, jigsaw, orbital sander).
Do you have much woodturning experience? - I appreciate you’re an experienced woodworker, but you can teach yourself to adeptly use, for example, a router more readily than you can teach yourself woodturning - not that it’s impossible, just that using a router is a mechanical skill - requiring precision and care, woodturning is a skill and also very much an art, requiring a ‘feel’ for the techniques. Ignore everything I’ve said if you have already acquired all these skills and this is egg-sucking talk.
Beyond my basics of drill, jigsaw (by which I mean scrollsaw), sander, I would prioritise power tool acquisition something like this:
Router
Planer (at least for me, as I make use of a lot of reclaimed timber)
Table saw (again, for ripping reclaimed timber to appropriate sizes)
Drill press (or possibly just a decent stand for my handheld power drill
Fret saw
I would probably look to acquire a lathe somewhere in the middle, but it’s such a different style of working to all the other stuff, it’s difficult to fit it into the scheme.
The answer, of course, depends entirely on what kind of woodworking you do and what you already have. If you have absolutely nothing except a few hand tools, I’d recommend starting with some basics – handsaws, chisels, measuring tools. If you do have the woodshop basics, like a table saw, then it would pay to invest in some high-quality saw blades.
Assess what you have, get several opinions on priorities (mine are different from Mangetout’s, but then we probably do different kinds of woodworking) and always keep in mind the kind of woodworking you want to do (fancy scroll cutting, jewelry boxes, cabinetry, etc.)
I realized several years ago that once people found out I was a woodworker, I would get gift cards for Christmas for the rest of my life. So I made these two hard, fast rules: (1) No matter how big or small the gift card is, ALWAYS use it to buy at least one clamp. You will never have enough clamps, so start buying them and never stop. (2) Never use a gift card to buy stock or consumables (glue, sandpaper, finish, etc.) Always use it to buy tools.
Sound advice - it’s very much dependent on the kind of work you do. Most of the work I do for leisure involves making small knick-knacks and boxes. If I made predominantly items of furniture, my list would be ordered differently, and might include different things altogether (such as a bandsaw).
Agree also - I’ve recently bought a couple of the trigger type that can be placed and tightened with one hand - they’re really useful.
I’m not a woodworker, but the daughter of one. My recommendation would be not to buy a cheap router. Invest in good quality tools. It’ll take longer to build your workroom, but you will use those tools the rest of your life.
And here I was about to recommend that you buy $250 worth of clamps.
But if you’re starting from scratch, the thing you really need, above all, is a bench. You can’t buy a decent one for $250, but you could probably buy the hardware and the plans. Or you could buy the bench top, which, by an amazing coincidence, is $250.
And the first problem you’ll confront is how to build a bench without a bench.
I agree with the bench, but look around, scrounge. I found two lab benches for free. They will eventually be replaced with a more traditional workbench (maybe even this year, fingers crossed)
There are a lot of good suggestions above, the only thing I would disagree with is the biscuit joiner suggestion. It’s not recommended for aligning panel glue ups, and for joining case work, I think you could use a Kreg jig to better advantage (or dado/rabbets and brad nailing)
Since you didn’t list any tools you had already, my suggestions are
Chisels: $69.99 - I haven’t used them, but I have heard decent reviews of the Irwin/Marple blue handled chisels (You will want higher end chisels one day, but till you get more gift certs)
Corded drill. Cordless is nice, but when you are on a budget, corded drills are cheaper, and more powerful
Cabinet scrapers… Look at Lee Valley’s website.
When you have more money to spare, get a table saw first, then a router/make a table for it, then a planer and jointer. Then do google searches on Wood working forums, you will find all sorts of people that can help you spend money you’ll never have
I ran out of time to add:
I am not endorsing those products per se, I have never used those models. I am a Lee Valley addict But those types of tools go a long way. There is no project that I don’t use my little block plane, or chisels on. Most projects get the handsaws as well, but only because they are so much fun
Gifts and gift cards are awesome, most of my tool purchases, especially the pricier hand tools arrive via gifts.
Excellent advice. I’d add only that price doesn’t necessarily equal quality. Getting started, you could be stumped by the price tags on top-of-the-line power tools. For example, I’m getting ready to plunk down $500 on a table saw, but that’s because my needs have outgrown my original $150 table saw and the $250 contractor’s saw I’ve used for several years. When I bought my first table saw, I passed up the $99 special because it just wasn’t good enough quality. I spent a little more and got something that lasted a long time.
Thanks everyone for the solid advice! My main mental debate is really between:
Getting one tool or kit that would be fun and could stand alone. (Something that would allow me to start makin’ stuff as soon as I received it.)
Getting the tools that would get me started with my own shop. (Something that would allow me to start makin’ stuff after years more of collecting more tools.)
The perponderance of the advice seems to be to get the requisite tools to start my personal shop. Sigh. I should have known that the dopers would all tell me to be sensible.
Yes. Though everything I’ve ever made on a lathe has turned out (yuk yuk) pretty ugly. But if you’ve ever done any woodturning yourself, you know how easy it is to fall in love with it.
Probably pretty smart. Of course, it would be pretty easy to blow my whole stash on just a few nice bessy clamps, the kind I’m used to using.
Oh man. A bench would be nice. But the workbenches at my last shop were just 4x8 sheets of white melamine attached to a frame and four legs. (Probably took someone in the shop about half an hour to make each one.) And I’m used to those now. I don’t think I’ll spend my money on something I could make myself for $50. But you’re right about clamps…
A very sensible list. Again, there’s not a whole lot I could do with just those items alone. But as everyone seems to be eschewing a single big stand-alone toy, your list, again, seems pretty solid.
Amen to that, brother. I’ve used a lot of different tool brands in my few short years as a woodworker, and I’ve found that (as in any consumer product,) you can pay a lot extra for a brand name.
You should follow my instructions carefully:
[ol]
[li]Buy two Lie-Neilson dovetail saws,[/li][li]Email me and I’ll send you an address where you can ship one for sharpening,[/li][li]Use the other one until it gets dull,[/li][/ol]
This way, you’ll always have a sharp dovetail saw … and so will I.
A dovetail saw is the same thing as a backsaw, right? While your idea sounds like a really great deal for everyone involved, I’ve never used a backsaw before, and wouldn’t want to sink $130 into one (or $260 for one for each of us ) if I didn’t know how properly to use one.
A dovetail saw is a backsaw with fine teeth (14 tpi) that are filed for ripping and are set for a thin kerf. Lie-Nielson makes beautiful tools that I would buy in a minute if money were no object. Stanley is more suited for my budget.
I have a cheapo dovetail saw, but the kerf on it is so thin that I couldn’t use it Sunday when I was trying to saw some rabbeted dovetails into some very hard pecan. I was wondering if the extra money for the Lie-Nielson saw would be worth it at that point.
Well… if we’re one-upping each other over dovetail saws, I have one of these. Now that I have the basic tools, whenever I get gift tool money, I can indulge myself by buying something I really want but couldn’t otherwise justify buying for myself. Of course, you need $5,000 worth of “necessities” before you can even get to that point.
Ain’t that the truth. That is a very pretty saw. My handsaw arsenal is definitely more humble. The two latest Xmas additions to it are (since I started it )this and this.
The sad thing is that between the numerous colds, bronchitis and pneumonia I have had since Xmas I haven’t played with these saws yet. It was a very Lee Valley Christmas for me and I really want to make some sawdust!
But those types of tools go a long way. There is no project that I don’t use my little block plane, or chisels on. Most projects get the handsaws as well, but only because they are so much fun 
) if I didn’t know how properly to use one.