Beginner workshop - first order

[sammy.se]

Hi All,

I've started building up my (hobby) workshop, to make furniture for home, like desks, cabinets etc.
My first tool order placed, I think I found some good deals on some essentials... what do you guys think?

4 off 100mm Axminster Power Hand Clamps - PACKAGE DEAL
£14.95

Ratchet Strap Clamp 25mm
£2.98

Axminster Sash Cramp - 1,370mm (54")
£13.94 each
Ordered: 4
£55.76

Quick-Grip Irwin Mini Bar Clamp - 300mm (12in) Twin Pack
Ordered: 1
£11.28

Faithfull Engineers Square 150mm (6in)
£11.11
Ordered: 1

What other essentials should I be getting? I need some decent calipers and a 45 degree measure, but i didn't find one with good reviews.

In terms of power tools, I have a trend PRT router table (no router yet!!), Stayer mitre saw, Ryobi sander, basic workbench, makita drill, Bosch circular saw (basic one)...
I need to get a good router (Trend T11, or Dewalt 625) just waiting for a good used one to show up.

Anything essential I'm missing before I start cutting expensive wood?

Cheers,

Sammy

 

[sammy.se]

By the way, the ryobi sander is just a basic random detail sander... i know i'll need to get a proper sander at some point... same with the plunge/circular saw...

 

[marcros]

some cheap wood to practice on! You may also want to build a few jigs- a sawboard immediately springs to mind. How are you planning to rip timber to size and square it up? A couple of handplanes wouldnt go amiss- probably something like a no5 to start with, and maybe add a jointer to it later on. If you are on a budget, woodies would be worth looking at. You will need to learn how to adjust them, but it is easy to master, and you could buy a lot of planes for next to nothing when you have mastered it. You would need some means of sharpening said plane(s).

Choose a project, plan it out, how you will do each stage and you will highlight what you need. You mention a basic workbench, a "decent" workbench would be a good first project if your basic one is lacking.

Tools really depend on what you are planning to make, and from what material. There are multiple ways of achieving much the same thing, and whatever you read on here, almost certainly no universal correct way to do anything. From your description of "furniture for home", you are probably on the top of a slippery slope. It would hint that in time you are likely to need some chisels, bevel edge and mortice, planes of various forms, measuring and marking equipment and a whole host of other goodies. They neednt cost a fortune to start with, or even ever. If you have a few quid in the budget i will make a list of suggestions that looking back i would recommend for a beginner. Give me a few mins

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Sammy, watch the "for sale"s on here. There's been some really good ones lately.

 

[marcros]

ok. Looking back to when I started, and what bits i have stumbled across by accident or recommendation, I would buy the following if starting again. Some may sound a bit daft, but...:

A box of decent pencils- staeedtler, mars etc. HB, H, F somewhere around about that hardness.
A box of chalk for marking rough timber. Some people use a wax crayon.
A couple of pig sticker mortice chisels. probably start with 1/4" and add either a smaller or larger one depending on what you are making. If you are building a workbench, then it would be worth getting a bigger one too. Ebay is good for these, and they are very cheap. A new one would cost you 50 quid, and yet a used one from a hundred years ago will probably be a fiver plus postage.
Something to hit the above with- mallet. If you have big chisels, a big mallet.
Some bevel edged chisels. Buy something used but reasonable. If you can find boxwood handles, it usually suggests high quality. But failing that I have some Marples "unbreakable" handled ones which i bought years ago, and do the job for me. Stanley black or blue handled ones also get favourable reviews. You dont need a set, hust something around 3/8" and something around 3/4", for general use. If dovetailing you might need a finer one.
A means of sharpening. I use a diamond stone, others use oil stones, water stones, sandpaper. A debate for another day.
A small 4" double square http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-DOUBLE-SQUA ... 33900aa3c5 I think that mine was marginally cheaper, and I see to think I bought it from ebay USA. But they are really useful because they are so small. Setting up machines, checking squareness of edges etc.
A swann Morton scalpel handle and blades. I went for quality and splashed out on the stainless steel handle http://www.scalpelsandblades.co.uk/hand ... o-0907.php and number 10 or 11 blades- i forget which. Make sure that the handle size and the blade are compatible. These are idea for marking out and have a number of other uses in the workshop too.
Abranet abrasive for the sander
Abralon or scotchbright for fine sanding and denibbing- a couple of pieces of each colour will do to start with.
A marking gauge, ideally a wheeled one in my opinion, but people use all sorts of types.
A rubber mallet for assembly- £2.50 well spent!
A "gents" saw. I use mine often and have both rip and cross cut patters. They are not essential, but I find them handy.

Even if you have a limitless budget, i wouldn't spend that much on the above items. Because when you make something and want to put a bit of finish on it, say oil, shellac, and a bit of wax you will realise that you dont have any of those, so it ends up costing 30 quid to buy whole tins for just a splash, and a bit more for a couple of brushes. Then some scotchbrite to denib with. The second project is cheaper until you realise that you need a different coloured wax!

 

[sammy.se]

Marcros - this is great feedback - thanks!! I have a few of those items, but others I wouldn't have thought about (e.g. the scalpel). Will be getting that stuff soon. I'm going slow, and letting the projects tell me what I need, but I know i'll need some basics...

Regarding ripping and squaring the timber - i want to be able to do that, but I'm not sure how to accurately go about that without spending hundreds (that i dont have at the moment) on expensive mitre saws and plunge saws...

When you say "sawboard" do you mean a home-made track for a circular saw, or something else?

Thanks,

Sammy

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Marcross is right - get some half decent hand tools then build a decent bench. Many of these can be bought at markets, car boots, auctions, evil bay etc. New more often than not is NOT BETTER. Keep your eyes open for basic power tools but get hold of other stuff as neccessity dictates - otherwise you may well end up with tools that, nice as they are, you're still looking at unused in ten years time. No one person uses a set of tools identical to someone else's.

 

[marcros]

yes, exactly that. there was some discussions on them the other day.

If you were to use one of those, you are able to rip down the timber to rough size in width, and the square it up using a (ideally jointer) plane, and a bit of skill keeping it perfectly at 90 degrees to the edge.

You will need to flatten the width of the timber, adjust it to the correct thickness etc. Hundreds would buy you a planer thicknesser, but you can do it by hand as people have done for many years in the past. Look on youtube for details, not something I do often.

The alternative is to:
buy timber planed up to your requirements (more expensive but you can then get on and practice the other elements of woodworking), buy planed timber and adjust your plans to what you can get (things may look very chunky if you do that)
or use what you can get for frames etc, and use a veneered mdf top. Your circular saw will cut the sheet to size.

Veneering is a skill in itself, but isn't difficult once you get the hang of it. It doesnt necessarily need a lot of tools, and you get to use some timbers that would be eye-wateringly expensive, or not available in boards. Dont automatically think of cheap furniture when you think of veneer, it has been used for centuries, including by the most famous of makers.

That is the starter set that i got http://www.scalpelsandblades.co.uk/hand ... -9210.php- i have just bought some replacement blades and the postage was 97 pence. great little company!!

 

[sammy.se]

Cheers guys for the great feedback - looks like the bench will be my first project then

I'd love to get into veneering - a skill i dont mind building up over time...

 

[MikeH]

Be a bit careful about the "cheap wood to practice on" statement. Working with cheap wood (often pine) can be a lot harder than with a good quality hardwood, therefore the results are not as good and hence you can get a bit disillusioned.

At the very least get some smaller pieces of good quality timber and work with that a bit so at the very least you can easily understand that working in a good hardwood may well produce results far superior to the normal shed type pine prem-board, often with less effort.

Regards
Mike