New shed workshop

[colinb4987]

Hi all,

I'm brand new to this game, so I've spent a bit of time reading around to try and undeerstand what I'm getting into, and what the "best" approach for me is going to be. Unfortunately, I feel somewhat like I've been blindfolded, spun around repeated times, and am now attempting to pin the tail on the donkey. I've been through the Table vs. Bandsaw debate, and came out on the side of tablesaw. Then I started looking at options, costing things up, and considering where my workshop is going to be, and I'm back at square one. So I thought I'd start a thread looking for some advice.

Basically, I've a new house with garden and shed. The shed plus garden will constitute my first ever workshop. No garage or permanent inside cover is available. which means all tools have to be stored in the shed, and most likely used outside in the garden under cover of a tarpaulin, gazebo, or somesuch. There is some space in the shed to work, but insufficient to handle sheet material. The goal right now is to be building furniture from plywood (possibly with facings or veneer) for this rented house, with a view to making it nicer to live in and maximising storage space, while also building the skills and confidence to let me slowly move into more complicated furniture, or start working in solid wood rather than ply. Essentially, a stepping stone.

My overall budget with which to get started is approx. £500. I've got right now a jigsaw and drill/screwdriver (both Bosch cordless), but that's about it. Given the plan initially to be working primarily with sheet material, I was thinking a circular saw would be a sensible first acquisition, potentially followed by a router. Does this seem a good idea? If so, does anyone have any suggestions for either, considering a desire to future-proof as far as possible.

So in short, does this seem a sensible starting point for £500:

• Circular saw (make/model unknown)
  Router (make/model unknown)
  Spring clamps
  Quick clamps
  Marker gauge
  Mallet
  straight edge
  calipers
  combination square set
  Random orbital sander (make/model unknown)

Thanks for reading this far, any input is greatly appreciated!

 

[cusimar9]

You definitely need a circular saw of some kind to work with sheet goods. The cheaper ones can be had for around £60 and, when combined with a good blade and a home made saw guide, the results can be excellent.

A mitre saw is also a very handy shop piece (particularly if you don't have a table saw / sled combo) and these can be had cheaply. In fact I've got one you can have if you're ever by Sheffield.

Personally I couldn't live without my impact driver but that's a personal choice. For around £70 you can pick up a Ryobi one which is excellent.

You definitely need a good set of clamps and I highly recommend the Irwin Quickgrip types, the smaller ones can be had very cheaply and you just need a few bigger ones depending on your needs.

But don't be fooled into thinking you can't do ANYTHING without a major investment. I've built whole cabinets with nothing but a jigsaw and a screwdriver. It comes down to how you want to work and what you find yourself doing/making.

Good luck!

 

[Roughcut]

If you only have a small space to work with you might consider being more hand tool biased?
Workbench, sawhorse, couple of decent hand saws and some second hand Stanley planes and a selection of clamps.
Also maybe a biscuit jointer and/or a pocket hole jig?

 

[Mike.S]

I'd consider adding a block plane (Stanley or Record readily available second hand) to shave edges etc and a couple of chisels to trim routed edges, clean out rebates/remove glue etc. That would mean you'll need some means to sharpen them.

I use a track saw for sheet goods but endorse cusimar's suggestion of a circ saw with home made guide - cheaper and effective.

 

[DiscoStu]

I'm also new to this and I've gone a little mad. However it does seem that you do need to think about what you want to make. However my thoughts on what you list:

Circular saw (make/model unknown) - pretty much essential.


Router (make/model unknown) - very useful, I bought a triton TRA001 which is fab.


Spring clamps - I bought a mixed bag for about £8 not used much.

Quick clamps - I had some of these before but barely used


Marker gauge - not bought one.

Mallet - I bought a white rubber one for knocking wood together.


straight edge - I bought a 1400mm guide clamp to use for cutting the width of full size boards.


calipers - I've bought vernier calipers which I use daily.


combination square set - I bought an engineers square and again use daily.


Random orbital sander (make/model unknown) - I bought a Bosch one but not used much and I'm sure to start with a standard cheap £20 sander would do.

Other things that I've bought and found useful:

A small steel rule
Stop for the steel rule
I too have a Ryobi impact driver which is fantastic value, not sure you need that for wood work. A decent drill driver (nothing too heavy and powerful) is useful.

A set of chisels

I bought a pillar drill on a bit of a whim and I use it loads.

I also bought a bandsaw and a table saw. I find the table saw a pain to use due to the space it requires, yet the bandsaw is used constantly. I wish I'd spent the money from the table saw and bought a track saw and a better bandsaw.

 

[colinb4987]

Thanks all for the input so far - very helpful indeed. Taking the recommendations into consideration, here's where I'm at now:

• Circular saw - Hitachi C7ST 185mm (30mm bore) £80
  Sliding Compound Mitre saw - Scheppach MSS10 254mm £150
  Router - Triton JOF001 1000W 1/2" £130
  Quick clamps - 4xIrwin QuickGrip 12" £20
  Random orbital sander - Rhyas 450W £35
  Spring clamps - £10
  Mallet - £7
  calipers - £13
  combination square set - £10
  feeler gauge - £15
  Chisel set
  Block plane

£460ish so far

I steered away from the Evolution Rage CS ans MS as it seems they have weird bores, making getting replacement blades tricky. If this isn't the case, I might drop down to their CS at least.

I picked the baby Triton as it seems to be the cheapest router with a 1/2" collet, and I can always get a bigger/better one in the future if I have space and desire a router table. For now I'm expecting to use a lot of jigs!

Open questions therefore are around the chisels and block plane(s). I took a look around and it seems there's an inordinate amount of choice in this space. With regards block planes first, what are the differences between the different models? Can anyone recommend a good all-rounder as a starter? Onto the chisels then. Clearly I don't need woodturning chisels. Is there a good set I can get as a starter? Or are there a couple of types of chisel I can reasonably expect to be using frequently and it's worth buying nicer tools from the beginning then adding later as required.

Sharpening hand tools won't be an issue, I've some excellent sharpening blocks used with my Japanese kitchen knives at the moment.

 

[RobinBHM]

I actually bought 3 sets of the Aldi chisels last year (1 set for home, one for my site box and one for the workshop!) They can be sharpened well and very useable, although chip quite easily. Only about £9.00 for 4 chisels and with nice wooden handles. I seem to remember somebody did a review on here. Only disadvantage is they are only available for a short while at a time.

For a plane, I would consider 2nd hand.

 

[Petey83]

smaller blade diamater but have a look at the Metabo KGS216M. Just picked one up and its a great bit of kit and can be had for the same value as the Scheppach

also dropped you a PM as i have an unused set of 6 Irwin Marples M444 going spare

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Watch sales, evilbay and car boots for good cheap hand tools. (strange how spellchecker picked up"carboots" and "handtools" but not "evilbay" :lol: ) Get some idea of the direction you're heading project wise before spending loads on power tools - beware of statements like "You definitely need a circular saw of some kind to work with sheet goods." If you are to use sheet stuff daily, a track saw is brilliant, but on a domestic scale you can cut sheets easily with a jigsaw. A circular is useful, but not essential - weigh up your demands before parting with money. I loathe circular saws so my my opinions are biased - but so are other people's likely to be.

 

[colinb4987]

Argh, now I'm getting tied up in knots. Phil.P you're entirely correct to highlight the question of how often I'll be using the kit. The short answer is, a lot in the next few months, then it'll likely lie fallow except for use in hobby projects. Right now the projects I need to execute are three built-in wardrobes/bookcases (painted finish), and some simple shelves. Thereafter two chest of drawers, and some storage boxes (no time pressure on those). And in between some picture frames. Before all of those comes a workbench though!

Writing this down makes me wonder - since I already have a jigsaw, with a good blade and straight-edge jig, I can break down and sheet material I need to, so I could scrap the CS. The SCMS probably still makes sense, although I could do the same using a bench mitre saw plus additional handsaws. Is the router still worth it? Probably, given how straightforward it makes cutting rebates and dadoes, plus perhaps box joints or dovetails. With those in mind though, would stepping up to a more powerful version and building a router table straight off the bat make sense?

 

[DiscoStu]

Well I'm still pretty new to wood working as a hobby but I've done enough DIY including making wardrobes and shelves etc to suggest that a Circular saw is pretty essential. Personally I believe that a cheap circular saw will do a better job of cutting sheets than even an expensive jigsaw. For what you've described if I had to choose between a CS and a CSMS I'd definitely have a CS. Ripping a board with a jigsaw is no fun and is a slow process.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

A circular might be "better" - my point was that only the OP can decide whether it's "definitely needed".

 

[colinb4987]

Unfortunately the OP is new to the game so can't decide, and had to rely on the advice of others in order to make a "good enough" decision...

 

[Mike.S]

On block planes, I use a Stanley 60 1/2 - bought 2nd hand and fettled/sharpened. Works well. There's also the 9 1/2. Look here for some details of the differences (e.g. blade angles) and here for the Record equivalents.

There's different brands, including new ones like Qangsheng and Woodriver.

I've only used the Stanley so can't comment meaningfully but by reputation I don't think you'd go far wrong with any of them.

 

[colinb4987]

Thanks Mike.S, those sites are really handy. There go the next hour or few browsing...

 

[Wizard9999]

A circular might be "better" - my point was that only the OP can decide whether it's "definitely needed".

Having just read the thread from start to finish I believe the OP said he was going to be making furniture and storage from ply, and maybe move to solid wood later. That would suggest a lot of sheet material relatively, so I would have thought a circular saw is definitely worth considering.

 

[colinb4987]

@Petey83 any reason you'd recommend the Metabo vs. the Scheppach? Have sent you a PM r.e. chisels

 

[Petey83]

@Petey83 any reason you'd recommend the Metabo vs. the Scheppach? Have sent you a PM r.e. chisels

i was a very biased opinion as i have the Metabo. I did a lot of research before ordering it and it seemed to be very highly regarded. I already had a Metabo jigsaw and it was a solid piece of kit for the money and thus far the mitre saw is proven to be of the same ilk

 

[colinb4987]

Right, that's it. Trigger pulled. List is as proposed in post #6. Well, apart from the chisel set, about which I'm still in a quandary! Now to thrash out some workbench plans and material bill...

 

[DiscoStu]

I made a couple of benches. The first was overkill. I used 4x2 doubled up so 4x4 for the legs and some 2x2 for rails. I then put two sheets of 18mm MDF on as the top.

The second bench is similar but all 2x2 and 2 x 18mm MDF tops. Both of mine are attached to the wall for extra strength. Both are very strong and take my (not so tiny) weight. I also made my benches high. My work surface is 1050mm off the ground. I am 6'2" and hate bending at sinks, kitchen worktops etc. I am considering making a lower bench on the other side of the workshop so that I can cut down sheet material with a track saw. (It will be like the Festool MFT)