Help with first tools

[scotty38]

Hello everyone,

I'm new round here and have not really done any woodworking since my O levels however I have decided I want to have a go.

I realise there are lots of threads about best tools, first tools and so on but I have a specific question that I can't find an answer for.

I also don't have a view on what I want to do/make apart from I want to make a bench in the first instance. I have made a list of hand tools I'd like/need but I'm in a catch 22 position of having nothing much to start with so for example how could I rip a length of 3x2 CLS to get rid of the radius and make it suitable (flat) for the bench top. I know I could plane it but I don't have a bench plus in reality I don't have the skills to go straight into that.

There is, however, a multitool, for sale on this site (multico-pro-mex-combination-machine-shopsmith-t88380.html) and whilst I don't want to affect anyone's For Sale ad would something like this get me going and also be useful later on too?

Thanks for any help in advance....

 

[custard]

Hello Scotty, personally i'd avoid the multitool at this stage in your woodworking career. It's great that you're clear about what you want to make. So many aspiring woodworkers seem to want to be able to make everything, from boats to billiard tables to guitars to Carlton House desks to...

You could get a second hand Workmate, with that you could make a pair of saw horses, and with the saw horses you could build a bench. That route also has the benefits of a) teaching you some basic skills before you tackle the bench, and b) leaving you with items you'll likely use or can easily sell.

Good luck!

 

[AndyT]

If you want to make a bench, with only the minimum tools and no bench to work on, using cheap CLS softwood, settle back and watch Paul Sellers show you how it really can be done. I wish YouTube and teachers like him were around when I started!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD39949332C7FB168

 

[scotty38]

Thanks both, much appreciated.

I've seen the Paul Sellers videos and it was one of them that prompted my question around planing the lengths of timber for the top. I just felt that hand sawing the best part of 2m of timber to "square" it off and then planing it, for me, would be disastrous and I'd be better off not bothering and putting up with the ridges

 

[Droogs]

Hi Scotty,
The thing you have to remember in wood working of any type, is that in 99% of the time, THE starting point of all projects is with flat and square timber. This is regardless of whether you are makind something in the round or furniture, or even just a bench hook. You need to have your initial datum faces that ALL other measurements, angles and cuts are taken from.
Now whether your intended woodworking route is through using power tools of whatever type, or by handtools. They both have skillsets that are needed in order to use them, not only efficiently and safely but with skill and knowledge of each tool. And the only way to gain this is by using them of course.
I understand the desire to rush into it and get cracking, but if you want to develope into a skilled and happy woodworker, then please take this opportunity to use the fact that you have limited tools, skills and knowledge, to develope them.
Your idea of building a workbench is commendable, it not only will give you a place to work but will develope your skills. Yes you're bits and pieces will hurt and ache when you first start but they will get used to it and as they do your skills will get better and better as you develope "muscle memory" for each task. Thsi will give you an excellent starting block to go on from.
But please don't try to skip the basics as the bench will suffer for it just as you and all you later projects will. That is if you don't get dispirited by mediocre results and give up, which does happen all too often
This is the best advice i can give anyone starting out in this most amazing and satisfying of hobbies, you're making the time in your life to do this so why not learn new skills, grow your knowledge at the same time. and remember it's not how good the tools are but how well you use them.

best wishes and regards
droogs

**edited for typos**

 

[Racers]

You need to understand wood by getting to know how it cuts its strengths and weaknesses, this is best done with hand tools.
Nothing like hand chopping a mortice to get a feel for the structure of wood and plaining gives you a feel for the direction wood likes to be cut.

If you make a mess of your bench top just plain a bit more off.

Pete

 

[AndyT]

A year or two ago, Lost Art Press republished a little book, about how a boy learnt to be a joiner and cabinet maker - http://lostartpress.com/collections/books/products/the-joiner-and-cabinet-maker-1

In it, the young apprentice's first project is to make a packing case - and by making it properly he learns a lot about measurement, layout, sawing and nailing, before he even has a plane to call his own.

There really is no subsitute for basic skills and familarity with the material.

 

[scotty38]

Thanks everyone, that's all very useful and I will take the advice and continue with hand tools (as I had really intended to be fair until I saw that machine).

I'll just keep planing the timbers for the top until I get it right then

It reminds me of my old woodwork lessons where we were making stools (which i still have 40 odd years later) and one of the lads kept planing and planing and more planing until the stool was fit for not much more than a doll's house. The teacher let him continue for lesson after lesson until one day he picked up the stool, looked at it and cut it in half. "Start again laddie" was his parting comment

 

[Graham Orm]

If you want to make a bench, with only the minimum tools and no bench to work on, using cheap CLS softwood, settle back and watch Paul Sellers show you how it really can be done. I wish YouTube and teachers like him were around when I started!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD39949332C7FB168

Pus 1 for that!

Don't use CLS just use ordinary 3x2 or better still 4x2, it doesn't have the rounded corners.

Once the bench is done, maybe a couple of simple boxes to start off? Only hand tools and skills required, not too big or too much wasted if you mess up.
Experience is your friend, choose a joint, maybe mortice & tenon, then practice practice practice. Then build the joint into a simple project.

 

[scotty38]

Thank you. 4x2 normal timber it is for the top then. Just need to set aside a couple of hours at the weekend to finalise and order some tools and I can make a start.....

 

[Graham Orm]

What tools are you buying Scotty? Hand tools or power tools?

 

[scotty38]

All hand tools to start with, a couple or a few saws, plane, chisels, some measuring and marking bits and pieces and hopefully that will do me to start with.

 

[GarF]

If you have the opportunity, personally pick out the straightest boards you can. For my current project I just ordered a stack of 3x2 CLS- because it saves me having to ease all the edges when finished, I am not doing any joinery (all the corners are just screwed) so straightness isn't very important, and it saved me a bunch of time (a 2 minute phone call instead of an hour at the timber merchants or more once we get chatting).

From the resulting selection I would say I have maybe 50% dead straight lengths, 40% slightly bowed, and possibly 10% with a curve in both planes. In addition there is a substantial difference in density between some of the lengths. I've just been selective which ones to use for what, and kept the bendier ones for the shorter components.

I've learnt the hard way that straightening timber that doesn't want to be straight is a pain in the behind.

Good luck with the build!
G

 

[AndyT]

That's good advice. I got mine from our local builder's merchant. They were stored indoors and I was able to work through the pile (tidily) and pick out the best pieces.

 

[undergroundhunter]

Scotty where in Lincolnshire are you?


Matt

 

[Paddy Roxburgh]

If I were you I would start off buying PAR (planed all round) timber. It costs a bit more but it is normally perfectly square, just watch out for twisted boards. All timber yards I have been to let you look through the timber and choose the pieces you want. A stanley/record no.4 and 5 plane from ebay ( or ask on the hand tool forum if anyone can sell you one), a few chisels (Lidl or Aldi if they are doing them, or narex from workshop heaven),some kind of sharpening (diamond, oilstone or water stone) and leather strop a tenon saw, a square and a mallet and you're good to go. There are then loads of handtools you will want, hand router (not a machine router), plough plane and spokeshave are all very handy and all available on ebay for very little money. Leave off machines for now, later a bansaw and a planer thicknesser will allow you to buy rough sawn planks and make them PAR yourself.
I wish someone had given me this advice many years ago. I started woodworking always asking "what machine does that?". I bought and made router (machine router) jigs that I never really use now. I've found that the more I get into woodwork the more a cutting edge is better than a spinning disc, both for the wood and for you.
A couple of days ago a couple and small child came into the boatyard where I work with a hole in their boat. A pipe for the toilet water inlet had broken off. There was a jet of water coming into their boat. I got the Dad to stick his finger into the hole, went into the workshop, got the spokeshave and a little piece of larch and made a tapered round plug, hammered it into the hole and stopped any water coming into the boat. I was reminded how this simple task with a tool I paid £5 for would have been such a struggle some years ago as i tried to knock up a jig for the router/bandsaw/tablesaw to make the tapered plug.
My point is that often machines make things harder not easier and are a lot less fun to use. If you get really in to woodwork you will eventually need some machines but start off with handtools and get machines when you really need them. I know I wish I had.
Best of luck with it all
Paddy

 

[scotty38]

Thanks again everyone for the advice re timber and tools. I was trying to avoid being specific about the tools as I know there can be many views on the way to go so wanted to avoid any further confusion. As it happens the Narex chisels from WH are the ones on the list... I have also been looking at the Quangsheng No. 4 and was avoiding Ebay on purpose as I wouldn't know if what I'd bought had any issue or not so, in my mind, was going safe and new.

Location wise I'm not that far from Newark....

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you've only one plane, No.5 or a No.5 1/2 would be better. I'd go for the latter, but opinions differ.

 

[ade_tumu]

Hi, If you are near the Lincoln part of Lincolnshire, I'd suggest looking at the Lincoln College/ Newark College website as both colleges offer carpentry / joinery and cabinet making courses, some of which are evening or part time. If they don't have anything suitable now, check again in the summer for September term. It might be a nice way to pick up some good tuition.

 

[undergroundhunter]

The reason I asked was I have all sorts of handtools if you want to come and have a look and a try. Just drop me a pm.

Matt