January 10, 20251 yr Vintage FWW on which three tools are essential. Author's choice Bandsaw Jointer Wide belt sander Got me thinking. My most used stationary power tools Table saw Planer My most used portable power tools Drill Router Random Orbit sander My most used hand tools #4 plane Chisels Hand saw Measuring tools : square, tape measure, pencil, 6" rule Clamps & vise Edited January 10, 20251 yr by kmealy
January 10, 20251 yr My most used stationary power tools Table saw Planer Bandsaw My most used portable power tools Drill Router Random Orbit sander My most used hand tools #4 plane Chisels Measuring tools : square, tape measure, pencil, 6" rule Clamps & vise
January 10, 20251 yr Guess I'm pretty much the same- Stationary- Lathe Bandsaw Table saw Portable- Dewalt planer sanders cordless drills Hand tools chisels and mallet Japanese pull saw Measuring tools center finder saddle square bevel square/digital protractor Wixie angle box 15" steel rule given to me by my neighbor who used to work in data processing. Parallel jaw clamps
January 10, 20251 yr Author 16 minutes ago, lew said: Guess I'm pretty much the same- Stationary- Lathe Bandsaw Table saw Portable- Dewalt planer sanders cordless drills Hand tools chisels and mallet Japanese pull saw Measuring tools center finder saddle square bevel square/digital protractor Wixie angle box 15" steel rule given to me by my neighbor who used to work in data processing. Parallel jaw clamps > 15" steel rule given to me by my neighbor who used to work in data processing. I have one of these and one of the measures is count of punch cards, another one is characters on a fixed font printer (10 per inch, IIRC) i think a choice of tools depends a lot on what type of work you do. I do a lot of casework, boxes, picture frames, and no turning.
January 10, 20251 yr Stationary: lathe tablesaw band saw Portable: cordless drills chain saw Right angle sander Hand Tools: hand planes turning gouges wrenches Measuring: tape measures Starrett squares hand calipers
January 11, 20251 yr Tablesaw Bandsaw Drill press Sanders...belt, palm, ROS, Cordless drill/driver Circular saw Electric Router/router table Planes Saws Chisels MitreBox & Saw Mallet/Hammer Bevel Gauge Combo Squares Marking Gauge Ruler Normal Try squares Marking knife And A sharp No. 2 pencil
January 11, 20251 yr Stationary Table saw jointer CNC Portable Orbital sander Cordless driver/drill Router Hand tools Chisels wrenches hex wrenches Measuring measuring tape digital calipers Taylor’s tape measure combo square
January 11, 20251 yr Popular Post Essential? Bandsaw Drill press Chop saw (slider in my opinion) Myl list assumes, of course, proficiency with all manner of planes and a stout enough workbench to use them proficiently. One could easily substitute a table saw into my list without much argument. Just a question of how one is comfortable working. Nice to have? Everything EDIT: Also got me thinking about why I stopped reading magazines! Figure you eventually get to the point where you would argue with the authors of articles - in this case over wide belt sander. In my view, there's just too much infrastructure involved in owning one of those to include it in a list of "3 essential machines" in my opinion. For the cost of purchase and operation and the amount of floor space it takes up (and the dust collector it requires) one could have a decent hand tool bench, lots of nice hand tools, and elbow room to spare! Edited January 11, 20251 yr by JWD
January 11, 20251 yr Popular Post 51 minutes ago, JWD said: argue with the authors of articles - in this case over wide belt sander I can see where some machines would be more useful for specific woodworkers. A luthier would have more use for that particular item vs a chair maker.
January 11, 20251 yr Popular Post 1 minute ago, lew said: I can see where some machines would be more useful for specific woodworkers. A luthier would have more use for that particular item vs a chair maker. Yup, and neither one would likely put a thickness planer high on the list! Luthier might like a jointer though, especially a wide one. Personally I don't like wide belts. Worked with one for a couple years when a furniture shop was my day job, and I found that they made wood flat-ish rather than flat. When a flat and square cut is crucial, don't go to an abrasive. But I doubt I would have learned that lesson quite so clearly without working in that shop. So much of shop practice seems to be best learned by having things work out not quite as well as you wanted!
January 11, 20251 yr I got by with a miter saw, vibration sander and jigsaw from sears till I bought other tools and made money with them. I was making $4.25 an hours back then and couldn't afford stationary tools and living in ann apartment no place to store it.
January 11, 20251 yr 2 minutes ago, BillyJack said: I got by with a miter saw, vibration sander and jigsaw from sears till I bought other tools and made money with them. I was making $4.25 an hours back then and couldn't afford stationary tools and living in ann apartment no place to store it. Hey, Billy Jack! Long time no see!!!!
January 12, 20251 yr #1… you can buy enough dimensional lumber to build products for ever without a planer. #2… If you know how read a measuring tape, you should know how to look for straight lumber., #3… At some point you might want to cut lumber to width… you’ll probably want a table saw at this point. #1 or #2 require nothing but a miter saw, ROS and jigsaw. I made a lot of crafts shelves in the early 80’s to help my weak income at the cabinet shop. It doesn’t take a lot of tools to be a good woodworker, it takes a lot of tools to be a fancy one… You can do it. Edited January 12, 20251 yr by BillyJack
January 13, 20251 yr Author Another thing I recently read: "Expensive tools do not a craftsman make."
January 13, 20251 yr For me stationary: TS Band Saw Jointer Planar Mitre Saw Dust collection Portable: RO sander SQ pad sander Circular saw Hand: Chisels No 4 plane hand saws
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