custard
Established Member
Let's say you wanted to equip yourself with the tools to build basic solid wood furniture and undertake modest joinery jobs. How much would the tools cost? If you'd have asked me that up until recently I'd have said about £1000, I'd have thought that would be enough for a decent quality, reasonably comprehensive woodworking tool kit.
Not even close!
A guy I know, who's two years into a City & Guilds furniture making course, often helps out in my workshop and takes advantage of my larger machinery for his own projects. A couple of months ago he mentioned he was running over budget on his tool buying. He's a meticulous record keeper, and keeps a list of everything he owns, what he wants, and how much it all costs. I was absolutely floored at just how much money he was spending. No wonder he works two jobs alongside his college training!
Here's his hand tool list,
Quangsheng 5 1/2 with spare iron 173.00
Record 04 (S/H) 17.00
Quangsheng Block Plane 67.50
Quangsheng 1" Shoulder Plane 111.00
Record Router Plane (S/H) 112.00
Stanley 50 Plough (S/H) 43.00
Bench Grinder (S/H) wheel, dresser, etc 68.00
Veritas Tool Rest 56.50
Misc sharpening items (saw set, files, slips, etc) 71.50
Panel, Tenon, D/Tail saws, (S/H) 36.00
Fret saw & blades 70.50
Card scrapers, files, burnisher 23.00
Set 6 Narex Chisels 66.00
Misc chisels and gouges (S/H) 52.00
Starrett 300mm Combi square 78.50
Starrett 150mm " " (S/H) 31.00
Mitutoyo 600mm ruler (S/H) 28.00
M&W 300mm ruler (S/H) 31.00
Layout & marking tools 65.00
Bosch cordless drill and spare battery 75.00
Drill bits 46.00
Spokeshaves (S/H) 14.00
Cramps 194.00
Hammers, mallets, misc hand tools 100.00
Bench with vice (S/H) 155.00
Materials for jigs & workshop accessories 180.00
Personal safety equipment 112.00
That totals just over £2,000. Two thousand pounds, blimey!
You might run down that list and say he could have economised here or there, I'm sure you're right. But bear this in mind, his purchases also included some great bargains (he found six Record 48" sash cramps in virtually unused condition for £110, and yet he still doesn't have nearly enough cramps), he found a fantastic barely used hardwood bench with a quick release vice that would have cost a lot more to make. Also he wasted a lot of money on purchases (don't we all) which I've excluded from the list, he bought quite a few used tools for example that proved unsalvageable, and he saved up for months to get a totally unnecessary shooting board plane that I've not included either. In addition, he's still missing some things. He hasn't nearly enough cramps or drill bits, he wants a longer bench plane, he could do with a smaller spokeshave, etc, etc. So taken in the round this doesn't look like a particularly extravagant or unrepresentative list to me. Furthermore, he was using college tools while he assembled his own toolkit. Most people don't have that luxury, they want a reasonably complete woodworking kit from the very beginning in order to tackle projects.
Then there's his machinery. He works in a single garage sized space and this is what he's got,
Axminster Trade planer/thicknesser 1170.00
Jet DC 1100 Extractor 240.00
Record BS300 bandsaw (S/H) 340.00
Trend T11 router (S/H) 190.00
Shop made router table (materials) 160.00
DeWalt 625 router (S/H) 145.00
Router bits 90.00
That totals over £2300. What's frightening is how much power equipment he's still missing. He doesn't have extraction for power tools, so spends a lot of time sweeping up. He built some clever router morticing jigs, but they struggle with deeper mortices, so he's cutting them by hand (or using my morticer). He'd like to get into veneering and lamination work, but he doesn't think his current bandsaw is up to that. He has to buy-in all his drawer pulls because he doesn't have a lathe and feels this sometimes lets his work down. Hand sanding is getting a bit tedious, so he'd like some power sanders. He really could do with a pillar drill. Most significantly he can't handle sheet goods and is finding that very restrictive. He doesn't have the room or the budget for a sliding table tablesaw, so is looking for a tracksaw. And if he's really going to be set up for sheet goods then he'd also like a Domino and/or a biscuit jointer. Ouch!
In addition to these you'd really want a starting stock of materials. Workshop consumables like abrasives, finishes, fastenings, ironmongery, and adhesives. Plus a decent selection of ply, MDF, and timber for the constant jig making that's required. That's probably going to be a few hundred quid at least.
He's not aiming for a professional standard workshop, but he wants to be able to make his own projects reasonably efficiently in his own workshop as a side line to employed work as a woodworker. So in that respect he's not too far removed from many hobbyists.
Put that all together and it comes to over £2,000 for hand tools, and probably £3,000-5,000 for decent level machinery and power tools.
That's an order of magnitude more expensive than I would have predicted. I'd tended to think of woodworking as a pretty affordable pastime, but looking at the hard numbers I guess I was wrong. If you actually want to make stuff then woodworking is a costly hobby, and I now feel guilty about encouraging people to take it up when the true costs might be excessive for them. Maybe it's just more financially realistic for many people to think in terms of something like turning or carving instead, I don't know? I was going to add luthier work to that list, but looking at the Stumac catalogue I guess that could soon run out of control as well!
I'd be interested to know what people on this forum are actually spending on their woodwork, both in terms of the kit they've bought and how much they spend on an annual basis on tools and materials?
Not even close!
A guy I know, who's two years into a City & Guilds furniture making course, often helps out in my workshop and takes advantage of my larger machinery for his own projects. A couple of months ago he mentioned he was running over budget on his tool buying. He's a meticulous record keeper, and keeps a list of everything he owns, what he wants, and how much it all costs. I was absolutely floored at just how much money he was spending. No wonder he works two jobs alongside his college training!
Here's his hand tool list,
Quangsheng 5 1/2 with spare iron 173.00
Record 04 (S/H) 17.00
Quangsheng Block Plane 67.50
Quangsheng 1" Shoulder Plane 111.00
Record Router Plane (S/H) 112.00
Stanley 50 Plough (S/H) 43.00
Bench Grinder (S/H) wheel, dresser, etc 68.00
Veritas Tool Rest 56.50
Misc sharpening items (saw set, files, slips, etc) 71.50
Panel, Tenon, D/Tail saws, (S/H) 36.00
Fret saw & blades 70.50
Card scrapers, files, burnisher 23.00
Set 6 Narex Chisels 66.00
Misc chisels and gouges (S/H) 52.00
Starrett 300mm Combi square 78.50
Starrett 150mm " " (S/H) 31.00
Mitutoyo 600mm ruler (S/H) 28.00
M&W 300mm ruler (S/H) 31.00
Layout & marking tools 65.00
Bosch cordless drill and spare battery 75.00
Drill bits 46.00
Spokeshaves (S/H) 14.00
Cramps 194.00
Hammers, mallets, misc hand tools 100.00
Bench with vice (S/H) 155.00
Materials for jigs & workshop accessories 180.00
Personal safety equipment 112.00
That totals just over £2,000. Two thousand pounds, blimey!
You might run down that list and say he could have economised here or there, I'm sure you're right. But bear this in mind, his purchases also included some great bargains (he found six Record 48" sash cramps in virtually unused condition for £110, and yet he still doesn't have nearly enough cramps), he found a fantastic barely used hardwood bench with a quick release vice that would have cost a lot more to make. Also he wasted a lot of money on purchases (don't we all) which I've excluded from the list, he bought quite a few used tools for example that proved unsalvageable, and he saved up for months to get a totally unnecessary shooting board plane that I've not included either. In addition, he's still missing some things. He hasn't nearly enough cramps or drill bits, he wants a longer bench plane, he could do with a smaller spokeshave, etc, etc. So taken in the round this doesn't look like a particularly extravagant or unrepresentative list to me. Furthermore, he was using college tools while he assembled his own toolkit. Most people don't have that luxury, they want a reasonably complete woodworking kit from the very beginning in order to tackle projects.
Then there's his machinery. He works in a single garage sized space and this is what he's got,
Axminster Trade planer/thicknesser 1170.00
Jet DC 1100 Extractor 240.00
Record BS300 bandsaw (S/H) 340.00
Trend T11 router (S/H) 190.00
Shop made router table (materials) 160.00
DeWalt 625 router (S/H) 145.00
Router bits 90.00
That totals over £2300. What's frightening is how much power equipment he's still missing. He doesn't have extraction for power tools, so spends a lot of time sweeping up. He built some clever router morticing jigs, but they struggle with deeper mortices, so he's cutting them by hand (or using my morticer). He'd like to get into veneering and lamination work, but he doesn't think his current bandsaw is up to that. He has to buy-in all his drawer pulls because he doesn't have a lathe and feels this sometimes lets his work down. Hand sanding is getting a bit tedious, so he'd like some power sanders. He really could do with a pillar drill. Most significantly he can't handle sheet goods and is finding that very restrictive. He doesn't have the room or the budget for a sliding table tablesaw, so is looking for a tracksaw. And if he's really going to be set up for sheet goods then he'd also like a Domino and/or a biscuit jointer. Ouch!
In addition to these you'd really want a starting stock of materials. Workshop consumables like abrasives, finishes, fastenings, ironmongery, and adhesives. Plus a decent selection of ply, MDF, and timber for the constant jig making that's required. That's probably going to be a few hundred quid at least.
He's not aiming for a professional standard workshop, but he wants to be able to make his own projects reasonably efficiently in his own workshop as a side line to employed work as a woodworker. So in that respect he's not too far removed from many hobbyists.
Put that all together and it comes to over £2,000 for hand tools, and probably £3,000-5,000 for decent level machinery and power tools.
That's an order of magnitude more expensive than I would have predicted. I'd tended to think of woodworking as a pretty affordable pastime, but looking at the hard numbers I guess I was wrong. If you actually want to make stuff then woodworking is a costly hobby, and I now feel guilty about encouraging people to take it up when the true costs might be excessive for them. Maybe it's just more financially realistic for many people to think in terms of something like turning or carving instead, I don't know? I was going to add luthier work to that list, but looking at the Stumac catalogue I guess that could soon run out of control as well!
I'd be interested to know what people on this forum are actually spending on their woodwork, both in terms of the kit they've bought and how much they spend on an annual basis on tools and materials?
