Early Retirement Extreme Forums

I know Jacob does woodworking, and a few others here do too, I think. Anyway. am looking for some tips to get started with woodworking. What are the sort of bare minimum tools you need? Online resources you recommend? I know there's a lot out there, but any particular you feel offer the best advice?

I've noticed lately a TON of scrap wood being left out for the trash. One person in my neighborhood in particular has been putting out a lot of wood packing crate material. Seems like such a waste for it to go into a landfill. I was thinking about maybe getting started making some wooden toys or boxes or something.

Back when "ReadyMade" magazine was still around (how I mourn its demise....) they had several "MacGyver" competitions about making things with wood pallets. I recall some pretty cool garden benches and Adirondack chairs.

Anyway, just curious about what you all might recommend.

The first thing to decide on is whether to focus on powertools or handtools?

The next thing is to realize that tools exist to make things easy and that the less you know the more tools you need. This means in the beginning you'd like to have a lot of tools but later on, you realize you can make do with fewer tools.

But first .. power or hand?

Basically the difference is this:
1) With power you setup the machines to cut each part accurately and then you assemble them later.
2) With handtools you make each part and join it to the parts you already have, and so on.

Toys are really fun to build (and you can use either power or hand with no particular advantage) because you don't have to be super accurate or fancy. Boxes are easier to build with power tools.

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A nice table saw is the best tool to have. You can do so much with it.

I think maybe hand tools. I see a lot of hand tools at estate sales, and that might be a way to dip my feet in to see if I want to continue.

My grandfather did a lot of wood working (no, I never sat at his knee and learned anything!). He used primarily hand tools. He build things like chairs, tool carry-alls, things for the garden, and my grandmother's quilting frames.

As others said, it depends on what kind of woodworking you want to do.

You can go pretty far as a handyman-homeowner with a rip hand saw, radial saw, power drill, one rasp, sandpaper and block, one chisel, a hammer, measuring tape, and T-square. You can build rough stuff out of 2x4s, plywood, and screws, with that too.

Fine furniture and cabinets requires a lot of clamps and measuring tools, and large high precision power tools and/or high precision hand tools and expertise. Painting another set of tools, staining yet another. Turning requires a lathe, scrollwork a scroll saw, whittling requires knives, steam bending another set of tools. Like we've said, the tools you need depend on what you want to build.

Well, if you are using scrap wood, fine furniture is out. For toys, if you have room, I'd recommend a band saw and belt sander. Both are common as dirt, with a minimum of danger. A novice on a table saw is likely to drop the idea after her first kickback. Handsaws are flexible and friendly, and come in bench top versions. Belt sander, because hand sanding takes a form of Zen I don't have or want. Then buy tools as they are needed.

Most new table saws are built for anti-kickback, but you should definitely be careful on them.

For the power tools and engineering subset: http://woodgears.ca/

When we read that "Zero to Maker" book, it noted that there was a trend towards community organizations where you could borrow tools and learn how to use them. But I don't know if there is anything like that in your area.

Often times the best place to get started with anything is to find somewhere to watch. Although I suppose these days you can find lots of YouTube videos that would serve the same purpose.

ffj recently introduced me to the Kreg jig and powertools (table-, miter-, and circular saw) and I must say that if you're interested in building furniture (square boxes), this is a supremely fast way of doing it. For a more ghettoish(*) flavor, see the many books on 2x4 projects. (I've mainly used 2x4s but with handtools and glue rather than powertools and screws).

(*) Here, nerd-speak for quick and dirty.---Which can be very satisfying.

See http://ana-white.com/ for what's possible. Also http://www.pneumaticaddict.com/

Sorry for long post - message me if you want to talk more woodworking beyond this:

1. Google your city and woodworking. For instance - if you live in Harford County, MD like I do you can use this shop for $100/year: http://parksandrecwoodshop.com/ YMMV - but it's worth looking

2. Youtube is your friend - I would watch some projects and see how the different tools work and get a feel for the different capabilities. Recommended channels:
- Matthias Wandel http://www.youtube.com/user/Matthiaswandel (this is the woodgears.ca guy linked to above)
- Woodworking for Mere Mortals (good for beginners) http://www.youtube.com/user/stevinmarin
- The Wood Whisperer (good for inspiration, but not really for beginners and his tool selection is very high end) http://www.youtube.com/user/TheWoodWhisperer
- The Drunken Woodworker http://www.youtube.com/user/DrunkenWoodworker

There's a bunch of other good channels out there beyond those 4 as well.

3. How much space do you have for your woodworking? That can dictate the type of tools you can have.

4. If you get power tools make sure to get safety glasses, hearing protection, and breathing protection. Also need to think about dust collection once you use bigger power tools.

5. Depending on where you live there may be tools for sale on craigslist - but in my experience they tend to be beat to hell (i've personnally never found low-mid range power tools worth buying on there)

6. For small wooden toys I think the bandsaw recommendation is a good one. If bandsaw it not in the budget then you can try a jig saw. I would probably get a random orbit sander as my first power sander - but you can also do ok with a little sanding mouse for $30.

7. One word of caution about wood crate / wood pallets - those may not be the best material of choice for children's toys (depending on age). Some pallets are treated with chemicals and the wood tends to be rough. Also need to watch out for nails/staples.

8. For boxes: the tool selection really depends on how you want to join the corners. The Kreg jig (pocket hole screws) is a great option for making simple but strong joints. You'll need a power drill. For cutting wood down to size you can use a jig saw for most operations (will be slower and less precise than some other options though).

9. You're eventually going to need clamps. The most useful clamps are F-Style clamps (up to 12") and parallel clamps (>24") (parallel clamps are expensive). Don't bother with C-Style clamps. I would probably start with just two 6" or 12" F-Style clamps and go from there.

Try this project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g73E6eR ... 8UqSQYc9-w
you only need a jig saw, a hammer, a drill, and a sander for this one

Also, if you are medium serious about wood/metal work(planning to spend 3 digits, but not 4 digits. Not looking to provide dedicated shop space) air tools are a good way to go for handheld power tools. All your power comes from your compressor, the tools are very cheap, since they don't have a dedicated electric motor. I've found harbor freight air tools to do as well as dedicated power tools for handheld work.
Example: air powered reciprocal saw, 20 bucks, dewalt sawsall, 80, down from 100, a few years ago. Yes, the dewalt has a bit more power, but the air tool is lighter, smaller, and air hose vs power cord is an even trade off. Same for sanding tools, cutoff saws, etc. Plus, they make fossil fuel compressors, if you want to take your sanding work far from home.

air tools in woodworking definitely good for
- nailing/stapling
- painting/finishing

I've never used an air powered impact driver or drill - seems like they'd work fine. Same with sanding.

I think sawing operations would be the hardest thing to do with air tools. For instance - a reciprocating saw might be good for breaking down pallets or something - but past that would have limited use in making toys or boxes and other things like that.

I've never seen an air powered jig saw or circular saw.

I have an air powered jig saw. Worked great for cutting up sheetmetal, so imagine it would be fine with wood.

Sorry - did not mean to imply that air powered saws (like jig saws) don't exist - just that I've personally never seen them in operation.

The air powered approach is an interesting way to go - just make sure you plan ahead in terms of size of your compressor being capable of handling the types of tools you want down the road.

Question for anyone who's done hand tool work in an apartment: How'd you deal with clean-up?

I just moved into a 1BR with carpeting, and while I'd like to get some hand tools and do some hobby work, I'm worried I'll need an industrial strength vacuum to get the shavings/sandings out of the carpet.

Lay down a tarp first so you can roll it up and shake it outside.

Broom and dustpan ... on a wooden floor. BTW, for a handtool worker, sanding is shameful Sawdust generated from sawing is actually fairly minimal and I contain it by placing my workmate bench on an old piece of cardboard from a moving box. It folds well. Plane shavings are by far the biggest waste byproduct. I get to ankle deep. BTW shavings make for really impressive fire-starters for camping purposes.

Also consider working outside! Especially with hand tools it can be really pleasant.