If you are a new woodworker or are interested in trying your hand at woodworking, you may be wondering what tools you should start out with?
With so many tools on the market today it is hard to know what you should spend your hard earned money on. There are certain fundamental basic tools that everyone should start out with in their shop.
Let’s think about it this way. You have in front of you a rough sawn piece of white oak and you need to make a simple shelf out of it. Nothing complicated, you just need to make this one piece of wood flat, square, and smooth.
You have a couple of different options for doing this. The option you choose will depend on the type of woodworking you want to do. The old fashioned/traditional blood sweat and tears method or the newer 20th/21st century get it done now method.
This article will address the newer 20th/21st century get it done now method. We will discuss the old fashioned/traditional blood sweat and tears method elsewhere.
The first thing you need to do with a piece of wood is to make one face perfectly flat. To do this we need to run it across a jointer. A jointer has an in-feed table and an out-feed table and between these is a spinning cylinder with very sharp knives or blades. The out-feed table is slightly higher than the in-feed table and the blades are adjusted to be at the same height as the out-feed table. As you run your board across the jointer (it may take a few passes) it will perfectly flatten that one face.
The next step is making the opposite face perfectly parallel with the first face. You might think that you can flip the board over and run it across the jointer again. That would make both sides smooth, but probably not parallel. The best way to do this would be to run it through a thickness planer (also called a surface planer). That will truly make both faces parallel.
You now have made your piece of lumber into what is called S2S (surfaced 2 sides). Now what about the 2 edges? Well, for the first edge we will go back to the jointer and run the board across the jointer on one edge. This will perfectly square the edge to both faces.
For the last edge you would go to the table saw and rip the edge parallel to the first. Now you have a piece of lumber that is called S4S (surfaced 4 sides). Now you need to cut it to the proper length. You can do this at a power miter saw sometimes called a chop saw.
The last step would be to sand it. If you have already spent all of your money on a jointer, a planer, a table saw, and a chop saw, then you can just sand your shelf by hand. It takes a little longer but is certainly doable. If you have a little money left over then the purchase of a good palm sander will make things go much smoother (pun intended).
If you are going to purchase lumber that is already S4S then you can forego the jointer and thickness planer for now. You will find, however, that S4S lumber is much more expensive than rough sawn lumber. Also, S4S lumber usually only comes in ¾” thicknesses which will limit what type of projects you can build.
My recommendation for the order of tool purchases is this:
- Power miter saw/chop saw ($60-$800)
- Table saw ($50-$6000+)
- Thickness Planer ($300-$4000+)
- Jointer ($130-$7000+)
- Palm sander ($15-$300+)
As you can see, the cost of each of these varies widely. There are the low end, casual user tools and there are high end power user tools. You may want to start out with some low end tools, allowing you to buy more sooner, and then upgrade at a later time. Or you can go a little slower buying good tools as you go. Another option is to buy used tools. There are some great bargains out there if you are willing to take the time and hunt them down. The decision is yours. Research the tools thoroughly, and buy the tools that will suit your needs.
Another important tip is to take note of the safety features of a tool. Especially when it comes to the table saw. We have all heard the jokes about the 3 fingered woodshop teacher and these stories are NOT funny. Safety is a serious issue in the woodshop and I always consider the safety features of a tool at least as important as its other features.
Now, go have fun buying yourself some new tools. Yes, it is fun. I always get a little giddy when I get a new toy to play with. My wife has witnessed this and has actually described me as giddy.
