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Ivan Bailey was an old-time tradesman I knew for a decade before he passed away more than 4 years ago at the age of 85. Like most builders in rural areas, he did it all -- masonry work, painting, renovations, carpentry, cabinetmaking. And even though the heyday of his career during the depression and World War II was a different world than the one we build in now, some things remain the same. I could carry everything I needed to earn my living as a mason in one bucket, explained Ivan, as we toured his workshop one day, early in our friendship, but it took my whole life to buy everything I needed to work with wood. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? If you've been a woodworker for more than 15 minutes, you know there's no end to your equipment wish-list. The trick is to buy right the first time. But how can you do that unless you've had experience working with the tools you don't have? That's where I can help. I've been there, and made the same mistakes you'd like to avoid.
Elsewhere on the site you'll find my suggestions about tooling-up for the first time. The Big Three I described then -- tablesaw, chopsaw and table-mounted router -- are the tools you should buy first because they perform basic operations for building projects. But as important as these bedrock machines are, they certainly can't do everything. The care you invest building the rest of your tool collection will make a crucial difference to your development in the craft. It's worth the trouble of choosing well.
Hand-Held Belt Sander
It's impossible make beautiful cabinets and furniture without sanding, but if you can afford only one sander initially, it should be a belt sander. The reason is this tool's ideal combination of power and maneuverability. A belt sander spinning an 80-grit belt can hog off lots of wood when smoothing edge-glued tabletops or leveling solid wood face frames. You can even use it to dress small pieces of rough lumber. But slip a 120 or 180-grit belt on the machine and you'll get surprisingly smooth results, too. After that, all you need is some diligent hand sanding and you're ready for finishing.
6 Jointer
The jointer is an under-appreciated and misunderstood tool that can boost the quality of your work in surprising ways. That's why I promote it whenever I can. The jointer's job is to imposed flat, square surfaces on wood -- a material that often exhibits a mind of it's own. Even if you use ready-planed lumber, a jointer -- even a small one -- will tighten up your wood joints and boost the crispness and precision of what you build. I believe you need a jointer (or the hard-won skill of being able to joint with a hand plane) to get beyond an intermediate level. Despite red-hot advertising campaigns that promote thickness planers as the ultimate wood-dressing tool, I'd take a jointer any day if I had to choose one or the other. |
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Jointers are rated in inches of bed width. Typical home workshop models are 6 wide, and that's fine for most applications. Wider is better, but it also adds cost, weight and size -- three things that are difficult to accommodate in a small shop.
Within the 6 category you find lots of variation. The best-performing jointers are cast-iron brutes with beds 4 or 5 feet long and adjustable in-feed and out-feed tables. These are great, but how do you get the hulk into the basement? How do you move it out of the way between uses? How do you make use of it for outdoor jobs, or at the cottage? My own jointer is a 6 benchtop model and despite its short, 28-long bed, I'd recommend this style of machine for most home workshoppers. You can choose from a handful of models offered all the big makers. What you lose in ability to joint long work pieces accurately with a benchtop model, you gain in ease of handling, portability and versatility. This last point is especially important.
A note about safety:
Of all the woodworking injuries I've heard of, most happened either on the tablesaw or jointer. Be careful. The jointer is treacherous because of the blades that spin mere inches from your fingers. Yes, all models have spring-loaded guards that cover the spinning cutterhead and swivel out of the way as the workpiece moves into the cut. But still, the danger zone on the jointer is large and hungry. Over the years I've spoken with four woodworkers who are permanently injured from jointer accidents. In all cases but one, the accidents happened when jointing in unusual ways. Protect yourself by jointing only the faces and edges of boards until you gain experience. Use a push-pad when jointing a board's face, too. Otherwise the palm of your trailing hand will come dangerously close to the spinning cutterhead.
3/8 Hand-Held Drill
Even though it can be tricky to bore accurate holes in furniture projects with just a handheld drill, I recommend you get one before buying a drill press -- the ultimate, precision-drilling power tool. The reason, once again, is versatility. With care, you can do a pretty good job drilling holes for your furniture projects using a handheld drill, but this tool's also outstanding for drilling holes while renovating and for driving screws, especially the great, all-Canadian Robertson woodscrew. I find that when you're building a tool collection on a limited budget, versatility coupled with good performance is a potent combination.
Cordless or corded?
That depends. Cordless drills offer convenience and a surprising amount of torque, especially the higher voltage 14.4 and 18 volt models. On the downside, you'll pay a lot more for cordless drilling power than you will for the same amount of corded power. You'll also have to keep batteries charged and replace them at least every 4 or 5 years when they no longer hold a charge. Replacement battery packs cost between $50 and $75 each. Make sure you need cordless convenience before investing in it.
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