Useful things a beginner can make or buy cheaply

[Reggie]

There is apparently a set of 8 chisels that should be winging their way to me, along with a record no 4 plane to borrow, plane has been sharpened, the chisels range from 1/4" to 1" bevelled and a couple of straight mortice chisels, just need a bit of sharpen apparently.

 

[Graham Orm]

http://www.chainsawspecialists.co.uk/acatalog/Celox.html :mrgreen:

PS...I have a chain saw for sale :lol:

 

[Jelly]

Here's a couple of ideas.

Shooting board.
http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/Setting Up and Using a Shooting Board4.html

Having read the writeup there, where the shooting board is described (correctly) as a precision instrument, made me wince, scratch my head, then giggle...
Mine is made out of some redwood salvaged from the works reject pile and about two dozen annular ring shank nails. Whilst it functions just as desired, the construction of that particular precision instrument shares a lot more in common with a pallet than it does Derek's rather more elegant design. :roll:

 

[Reggie]

That's because the beauty of a shooting board is in the function, not the form, as long as your significant angles are correct I'm starting to notice that with quite a few things, it's like the powder coating finish of telescopes, who cares, you're looking through it, not at it.

My bench hook is made from a small piece of 9mm ply and a couple of bits of batten, it's a bit on the short side to be made into a shooting board but I will make one at the weekend out of scrap I expect, I probably won't use as many nails as you though jelly :-D

 

[Jelly]

I probably won't use as many nails as you though jelly :-D

Whilst that many nails might seem excessive; I was keenly aware that just nailing it perpendicular to the long grain was going to allow a little movement, so I made some fine adjustments by the application of a large mallet then clamped it firmly and added more (and then more again) nails inclined against the direction of force from the plane, until i was satisfied it wouldn't go out of whack... It has proved a very good quick and dirty solution to "I could do with a shooting board right about now". It's double sided too, one side with the stop at 45 degrees and the other at 90... whichever stop is unused sits neatly in the well of my bench.

 

[Reggie]

Paul sellers does a neat video tutorial on doing a single sided shooting board with 90, 45, 135 angles, I like the hand router plane he uses to dig out the channels for his guide blocks.

I was going to glue and screw my shooting board but now I understand why you put so many nails in yours.