What Tools Do You Need to START Woodworking? Beginner Woodworking Tool List

one of the most popular questions that i get is what tools do i need to start woodworking so instead of typing out a novel every time someone asks i decided to make a video so i can just send a link now there’s really no straightforward answer to this because it depends on what kind of projects you want to make are you going to primarily be working with plywoods or hardwoods do you want to build furniture do you want to make cutting boards or build guitars or maybe all of the above so i’ll try to touch on those points along this video to show which tools are better for what sorts of projects there are some really obvious tools that i’ll just gloss over really quickly you’re going to need a drill and a sander after already having some basic tools for like home repair stuff the first major tool that i purchased was a miter saw but i actually don’t think that this is a necessary tool to start with at all i’d say start with a circular saw with just a circular saw drills and a sander you can make a ton of projects you could probably find a combo pack that has all three and you’ll be golden to get started on that note when you’re first starting out pick a brand it doesn’t matter what brand whatever works with your price point and your budget the reason for that is the batteries so all these batteries are going to be interchangeable between all the tools within the brand so if you pick a brand to start with you’re always going to have extra batteries lying around that fit all of your tools yes there are some tools that have more power and more features a drill is a drill a circular saw is a circular saw just get whatever works for your budget and your price point at that time with just a circular saw you can use a straight edge guide or just use a square to make precise cuts you can even use it to make half laps so you’ll get going with some basic joinery if power tools aren’t your thing and you have a ton of time on your hands you can also use a handsaw to get started most people suggest jigsaws to start with but i hate the jigsaw alright so you’ve made a few projects with your circular saw and you love woodworking you want to invest more and you’re ready to dive deeper what do you get getting a table saw was a game changer for me even back when i was just making furniture out of two by fours i remember the first time that i ripped the rounded edge off of a two by four and it just like amazed me and it opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me the second most popular question that i get is what table saw do you use this is the dewalt dw745 and i’m sorry to say that they no longer make this saw everyone’s always disappointed when i respond with that there’s nothing that i could do about that and i apologize again i can’t suggest another model to you because i don’t use any other models but this one so this smaller contractor size has been working for me for the past five years because of the surround that i built for it so if you’re a weekend warrior there’s definitely ways to make a contractor saw work for you but that being said i do hope to upgrade soon to a full-size cabinet saw with this saw i just have to do some work around sometimes like when i’m making jigs i have to take into account that this in feed section is pretty small which brings me to all the awesome things that you could do with your table saw with jigs we’ve got a cross cut sled a tapering jig a tenoning jig a thin ripping jig and that’s not even half of it there’s just so much that you could do on the table saw it will change your life when you get it because of the accuracy and precision that you get when you’re using it but just be aware that these tools require maintenance when i first started i just wanted to build stuff i didn’t think about how much time i was going to be spending maintaining and taking care of my tools i remember when i first got this table saw i probably spent about three hours trying to align the blade to the miter slot and i remember it being a super frustrating experience and i almost gave up on setting up my tools properly but now after doing it a bunch of times i streamline the process and now it’s just all part of the routine speaking of which the height adjustment wheel on my saw has been a little hard to turn lately so i think it’s time for a tune-up [Music] not a pleasant sound even though the sauce hooked up to dust collection sawdust builds up in the gyros of the blade height adjustment mechanism so i’ll just use a blower to blow all that dust out and while i’m at it i’ll just clean up this entire inside of the saw the fence has also been getting stuck a little bit so i’ll blow out all the dust that’s in the rack and pinion fence as well once all the dust is cleared out you want to lubricate all the moving parts so that they move smoothly but you can’t just use any old lubricant or oil it’s best to use a dry lube like this wd-40 specialist dry lube with ptfe this will provide long lasting protection but it won’t leave an oily residue and that last bit is the most important part since it’s a dry lube meaning it will be dry to the touch sawdust won’t cling to it and it will prevent the gears from coming up again which means less maintenance time and more building time so much smoother switching to a dry lube was a lesson that i had to learn it the hard way and now this is the only lubricant that i’ll use on my machines so back to talking about those machines you are comfortable now with the table saw you made a few beautiful projects what tool do you get next i highly suggest getting a router next specifically a trim router i remember the first time that i used a chamfer bit on the edge of a project with a trim router and it just completely transformed the project and it was instantly hooked so when you’re looking for a trim router though look for one that has an optional plunge base this will give you more options and it’ll be more versatile and it’ll be more useful and then once you get comfortable with this then you can upgrade to the big beasts with a trim router though you are limited to a quarter inch shank router bits so the shank is this little stem that fits into the collet of the router so you are going to be limited to smaller bits if you’re using a smaller router larger router means larger collet which means larger shank which means larger bits on these larger routers you can actually swap out the collets to half inch or quarter inch so they are more versatile but i highly recommend starting out with a trim router and then working your way up to the big guys and if you make the right jigs like this loose tenon jig router edge guide six in one trim router jig and exact with dado jig the possibilities are endless if someone forced me to get rid of all my tools except for one i would keep the router if you’re just planning on working with plywood and doing cabinets and things like that everything that i just listed would be totally sufficient circular saw table saw router drills and sander obviously but let’s say you want to dive deeper into working with hardwoods the next tool that changed the way that i work is the band saw being able to resaw wide boards was such a game changer for me so that means that you’re able to take a wide board like this and slice it along the grain creating thin boards like this and this just opens up so many opportunities with what i do so before getting the bandsaw i was able to resaw wide boards but it took a really long time because i didn’t have the right tools i was using a combination of the table saw and a handsaw one time i even used a reciprocating saw so it is doable without having the right tools but having the right tools just makes it so much easier and opens up so many more opportunities like making my own veneers i got this band saw pretty recently but i’ve been finding it to be so versatile and so useful for all my projects that i might even venture to say that someone should get a bandsaw before a table saw if it weren’t for the whole blade changing situation so changing a blade on the table saw takes about a minute changing the blade on a bandsaw could take me sometimes up to 20 minutes and that’s because you have to get the tension just right you have to adjust all these bearings to get that all just right it’s a learning process for sure and if i thought that it was frustrating to align a table saw blade to a miter slot when i first started i for sure would have given up on the bandsaw if i started with a bandsaw before a table saw so now it’s all just part of the process and i’ve discovered a routine that works for me if you’re interested in learning how to adjust a band saw i’ll link down to some excellent videos that i learned from down below bandsaws are great and all especially for curved cuts so guitar builders a bandsaw should for sure be on your list but no matter how well you tune up the band saw it will not leave a buttery smooth finish like a table saw does there are always going to be lines going up and down the piece from the cut so you’re going to need more tools to deal with this i’ll start with the simplest first a sander one option is to get a benchtop sander like this this is right next to my bandsaw because this is a very usual progression for me for my build straight from the bandsaw to the sander this is really awesome for all those curved cuts so guitar builders take note another option is to just clamp a belt sander to your bench and achieve similar results if you want an even more refined finish than that that’s where hand planes and hand tools come into play so you might think that a hand plane would be the simplest tool but it’s actually not at all it takes a lot of practice to get these to do what they’re intended to do you need to sharpen them correctly you need to set them up correctly and you need to run them along the grain correctly so this is definitely a learning process to get right but once you do it is so satisfying and the finish cannot be beat if you want to get into hand tool woodworking and you don’t know where to start i suggest getting a spokeshave and making a spoon that will give you the best lesson in grain direction that you can ever possibly get a spoke shave is easy to set up easy to use safe to use and really fun to use so i let my kids use these they’re an excellent introductory tool for kids to get started woodworking or anyone who wants to get started woodworking you can use these to clean up those curved band saw cuts i use these on my guitars as well and both of these are from woodcraft and i’ll link to them down below along with a bunch of other tools that can help you get started woodworking back to cleaning up those bandsaw cuts if you’re going to be resawing on the bandsaw you’re going to need a way to clean up the cuts you can either use a drum sander or a planer a drum sander is a total luxury tool that should not be on any beginner woodworking list but i think a planer should especially if you want to end up saving money by buying rough lumber instead of surface lumber but once you’re here you’re down the rabbit hole and there is no going back before getting a planer i was limited to s4s lumber that means it’s surfaced on four sides which means that it’s square ish and ready to use so once i started getting more interested in woodworking and more serious about it i did some calculations on how much i would save by buying rough lumber instead of surface lumber and it was a no-brainer for me to get a planer so i bought this for myself for my 10-year wedding anniversary and it’s been a game changer ever since so besides for cleaning up the rough band saw lines if you’re re-sawing you can use a planer in tandem with a table saw and a few jigs to mill rough lumber without a jointer and i have a whole separate video on how to do that so a jointer is not on my initial tool list because i’ve been getting by just fine without one after purchasing a planer i got another hard lesson a lesson in dust collection so before getting this a shop vac was enough for me i would just hook it up to each individual tool as i was using it and it was fine not so much for this guy it would fill it up in like two seconds so this stand here was actually my attempt at building a built-in dust collection system for the planer and it just didn’t work out there was like a garbage can over here a hose that went down here the dust and the chips were still everywhere and worst of all they got built up inside the machine so the next tool that i purchased was a dust collection unit so this solved the problem of the planer but i think that dust collection is something that i should have thought about earlier on and i wish that i had a whole desk collection unit in my shop i am planning one soon but i think i should have planned it earlier on in the process because dust collection is the bane of my existence all right we covered the large tools that you need to mill cut and shape wood now let’s talk the smaller accessories so this gets glossed over in every one of my videos but ppe is really important personal protective equipment that’s glasses mask and hearing protection i will link to the ones that i prefer down below along with all the other tools that i discussed in this video after purchasing that ppd the first woodworking specific accessory that i got was a pocket hole jig and i thought that this was going to be the answer to all of my problems for a while it was until i attached breadboard ends to a tabletop this is what that table looks like five years later but i’m happy that i experienced that mistake first hand because i got a hard lesson in wood movement and that’s actually what prompted me to do some more research into different methods of joinery so if you’re working primarily with plywood and you do a lot of cabinets and case work a pocket hole jig is your friend otherwise there are other methods that are just as easy as pocket holes that are just more appropriate for other materials like dowel jigs i purchased this sensor finding dowel jig pretty early on and i use it a ton i still use it and i also made this handmade one that i have plans and template available on my website if you want to make it these are really simple and easy to use all you need is a drill to use them and if you’re ready to move on from dowels to loose tenon joinery those are basically just bigger beefier stronger dowels you can make a loose tenoning jig this is just used with a router so a trim router even so once you get comfortable with a router it just opens up a whole new world of joinery possibilities and i have a whole separate video on what sort of marking and measuring tools are best for making sure that all that joinery is placed in the right location i’ll link that down below if you’re interested as well once you cut all of your joinery you’re going to need a way to hold all the pieces together while the glue dries so clamps are high up on that initial tool list so these clamps are 24 inches long from harbor freight and they’re seven bucks or like maybe even less than that i know the shorter ones are even less than that so just get a ton of those clamps even though i’ve upgraded most of my other clamps i still use these harbor freight ones all the time these squeezy clamps are also really awesome and if you plan on gluing up a lot of panels i highly suggest getting these cabinet master clamps ratchet straps are also an amazing solution for oddly shaped items or really big glue ups as well hand screw clamps are also really useful i use these a ton to clamp things to my workbench or to hold pieces at my machines i use it a lot at the drill press now that i mentioned drill press this is totally not a tool that you need right when you start you might actually find that you don’t need one at all with the work that you enjoy doing but that’s just it with this list it’s very personal it depends on what you need for the projects that you like to do so there’s a general guide but it’s really very personal what kind of projects do you want to make if you’re going to be making pencil holders and drill press is going to be your friend band saw boxes a band saw is a must scroll saw signs obviously you’re going to need a scroll saw so the way that i always determined which tool i was going to get next was to look at my upcoming projects and think what tool is going to save me time so that i can finish those projects quicker almost everything that i make can be done with minimal simple tools it would just take me way longer to complete those projects it would take me months instead of days or weeks so every tool purchase was a thoughtful decision on time management and efficiency i was spending way too much time trying to resaw boards with a handsaw so the bandsaw was the next logical tool for me to purchase i was spending too much money on surface lumber so a planer was my next tool to purchase the answer for what tool you need for your projects is not going to be the same for everybody so you have to look at your own projects and what you’re making and you have to look and see where you’re wasting precious time money and resources and see what sort of tool is going to help you save on those things so this is basically what i tell people when they reach out to me asking me what tools they should get so now i can just send them this link hopefully that’s going to be helpful for them and hopefully it was helpful for you so thank you guys so much for watching thank you to woodcraft and to wd40 for sponsoring this video i’ll see you on the next one …

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