I have really been wanting to get into Wood working. What tools would y’all recommend getting to start? I want to make an onion and potato storage cabinet as my first project. I recently planted a ton of onions.
My second project is a nice wall to wall book shelf. Preferably with a sliding ladder like in Beauty and the Beast lol What Wood looks good but isn’t crazy expensive?
You're gonna wanna start with a table saw. A Dewalt or Bosch jobsite one would be okay. As you work on bigger things, you can build a worktable to give your saw more space. I recommend watching Woodworking for Mere Mortals on YouTube. Steve Ramsey has very beginner friendly videos. I'd suggest red oak for a hardwood with good figured grain and cheap price. You can go cheaper with pine, but softwoods are poor quality.
I am going with trees to cut down. If he was already in that type of business, I would have expected him to have hinted at in some way over the years. My parents used a wood stove for heat and had a pasture with trees to cut down. They also sold a few cords each year if we were far enough ahead with the wood pile. I did enough time with a chain saw and a log splitter to know that type of work needs to have some type of end goal and not something done just for fun.
I agree on starting with a table saw ..... I disagree on any "job site" saw ..... they lack the precision required to make furniture grade cuts. You need a 45 degree cut , you'll end up with cuts out 2-3 degrees one way or another .... you need a tolerance of 0.001 you'll get 0.011. and those things matter a great deal in your end product. My recommendation , if you are serious and have the space get a quality cabinet saw , they start at ~$800 and go up to several thousand $. My table saw is a Laguna F2 , its their mid priced saw and worth every cent. Laguna F2 Fusion 1.75HP Table Saw, 36'' Rip Fence - Rockler There's lots of other options like Powermatic , Jet , Grizzly & SawStop .... do your research. You can stick your finger in the SawStop and not lose a finger , it shuts the machine down instantly. The second tool I'd buy is a jointer / planer combo or individual jointer / planer if you have the space. You don't have flat , square wood without a jointer. One other thing on power tools - Don't buy what you can afford "right now" , save your nickels and dimes and buy a quality machine. Stay away from the "Home depot & Lowes" brands like Ryobi , Dewalt , Milwaukee , Rigid & even Craftsman.
Cabinet saws are if he really really gets into it. Plenty of people make good functional home furniture with jobsite saws. I wouldn't recommend someone dropping $2k on a cabinet saw before knowing if they really need to commit. He's not making fine furniture as a beginner where tolerances are tight in dimensions and angles. If you think this'll be a hobby for the future, find a used contractor saw on Facebook marketplace or Craigslist. It'll have a stronger motor, better table and fence. If you eventually upgrade, you'll be able to sell it for roughly what you paid. As for the power tools comment, for the most part, that's true for tools that you'll plug into the wall. DeWalt makes great planers. Ridgid has decent woodworking tools like their hybrid table saw and jointer. For battery tools, any of them are honestly fine for woodworking.
My father in law is a retired master carpenter. I’ve been trying to talk him into making longboard decks as a hobby. I had a friend make me one out of oak 10 years ago and the board is still in fantastic shape. Obligatory SP > SSPU @Xerobull
I didn't recommend dropping $2k on a saw .... I said they start at ~$800 and go up from there. I just linked my saw. And I went the route you are talking about .... started with a POS Ryobi saw and upgraded not once , but twice as I started doing more complex projects , I'd rather have started with the saw I have now than gone thru all the frustration of poor quality tools causing me issues as time went on. @*&# why isn't this working ? .... its my saw or a flexing or otherwise untrue saw blade. IF you can afford it ,don't cut corners on tools. I do a lot of segmented turnings , these are made up of rings made up of from 8-96 pieces per ring & several thousand pieces in total. Each piece must fit with not only its neighbor in the same ring but its neighbors in adjoining rings flawlessly or the piece is a failure. If your table saw is out square half a degree which doesn't seem like much , on 8 segments its a total of 4 degrees off , on 96 pieces its 48 degrees of fail making those projects all but impossible. My current saw is dialed in to less than 1 ten thousandth of a degree from square between the blade & miter slot thanks to an A-Line-it. Most of those "contractor saws" are factory set and un-adjustable. The Ryobi saw I started on was 19thousandths off from square , that's about 1/64th of an inch. Try making something so simple as a 4 sided picture frame with that .... @*$# why wont this damn thing line up ? No wonder , 1/64x4=1/16th or 0.063. And that's just the fraction its out between blade & miter slot , there are other factors too , like the squareness of the fence & the arbor being out of round so the blade doesn't run true. Those are al things I wish I had known going in .... I'd have done things differently. Yes , Dewalt makes a pretty solid planer , particularly if you take out the straight knives and put in a helical cutter head - then its absolutely amazing for a benchtop model - I have one. But I wouldn't recommend much else made by them other than maybe a cordless drill. Their routers are horrible. You couldn't pay me to work with Ryobi tools .... Stuff like this just isn't possible on "contractor grade equipment" .....
Two other things I'd recommend for the beginner - a high quality machinists square and a set of Incra T Rules.
@Corrosion I agree that you need to pay for quality tools. I bought a used Ridgid R4512 as my starter. After getting hooked, I got myself a SawStop 3HP PCS and sold my R4512 for more than what I paid on it (also included more accessories). As a novice, he's not working in 0.1" tolerances to need that precision tool. The stuff you and your son make are beautiful and definitely require that type of precision. There are tools that are more affordable for a beginner that'll match his skill level before he learns how seriously he wants to get into woodworking. I also agree that spend well on layout tools. These are tools that you'll prefer to buy once, cry once. Incra or iGaging are great quality for their price. You don't need to spend hundreds on Starrett or Woodpeckers.
@Corrosion @Duncan McDonuts couple questions: is a jointer planer combo just as good as two separate machines or is it better to have them separate? I think I have the room as I have only one car and I really only park in garage when it’s stormy. do you ever buy wood online or only in person? Found a site called “advantagelumber” but I can’t figure out how much wood actually comes per order (it’s like $5, so it must not be much). Is it okay to get one table saw and use that for non precise projects too or is it better to only use it for projects? I build a lot of raised garden beds, and occasionally other basic stuff that is simple 90 degree cuts, maybe 45 sometimes. im going to start watching that YouTube series you suggested this weekend. I can’t see myself spending 800 dollars on any tools right now. But I definitely need a table saw as the only saw I have right now is a circular, corded craftsman that is literally 22+ years old. Any recs for table saws? and again, can it be used for simple cuts too? i want one of those saws that resembles a sowing machine. where you can drill a hole and then do an interior cut. any recs on those? i want to make a hollow square to slip through my big grill tongs so theyll better fit in the drawer.
@Kevooooo I see those jointer/planer combos offloaded second hand often. It's usually recommended to get separate machines. I have a Makita 12" benchtop planer that's easy to stow away, no space for a jointer yet. I've only bought cheap offcuts online to create accents in cutting boards. I've never bought wood for a project online. My lumberyard is 15 min away and I can go in, be picky and select which pieces I want. Table saw can do everything. Not the most convenient to cut long dimensional lumber or flooring. That's where a miter saw is better. Miter saws are better for home improvement projects. Table saws are better for furniture making. Recs depend on budget, commitment, and space. Ridgid's R4512 or Delta's 36-725 are decent big box store contractor saws. $700'ish new, $400 used. Jobsite saws to stow away can be $400 new, $500 with a mobile cart. The sewing machine is a scroll saw. I can't speak much on that. What do you have in mind for the tong holder? What you'll learn in woodworking is that there are many tools and methods to do a project. You're trading time, convenience, and accuracy between the different tools/methods. Depends on your tolerance level.
At the consumer level it is better to get a separate jointer and planer. For a cabinet saw don’t forget you can scour used markets. Something like a Delta Unisaw is a wonderful beast and can be bought for $500. Of course, if you really want to spend money wisely you can invest in quality hand tools and make any piece of furniture you want (aside from anything with turning in it). A good set of bench chisels, a mallet, a dovetail saw/carcass saw/Japanese saw, a #4 jack plane, a marking gauge, and a couple of squares and you are good to go.
I don't know if they are as good as their individual parts , never used a combo. Have heard good reviews and bad about most of the combo's. I use a Dewalt 735 planer with a helical cutter & a Wahuda 10 inch benchtop jointer with a helical cutter. The Dewalt 735 with the helical cutter is probably the best tool Dewalt makes. I took a gamble on the jointer being an off brand as a free standing 8 inch jointer with the helical cutter is well over $3000 ... I paid $800 for the 10 inch Wahuda. Its good enough for up to about 4-5ft pieces but much more than that & the fence becomes an issue. It works for what I do .... I don't buy wood site unseen .... there's a several places here in Houston you can get good prices on all kinds of hardwoods & exotics. I usually go to Brazos Forestry Supply because its close , there's also Clarks & Houston Hardwoods. Brazos FP Houston Hardwoods Clark's Hardwood Lumber Co. You don't have to baby it .... Just dont go cutting thru nails. Check Craigs list & facebook markets for a used one .... You might luck into a good saw for cheap. $800 is the entry point for a decent saw new. This link is the one @Duncan McDonuts mentioned having had above (an updated version) - its not a bad saw & its trunnion is adjustable , that's important. Its actually made by Ryobi for Emerson Electric via Techtronic Industries. (one of the reasons I really don't like Ridgid , they are manufactured by Ryobi) RIDGID 13 Amp 10 in. Professional Cast Iron Table Saw-R4520 - The Home Depot His SawStop was likely $3500 minimum , my Laguna F2 was $1800 .... Its called a scroll saw .... They are fairly cheap , couple hundred bucks but also very limited in what they can do. I haven't used mine in years .... but I do have a full sized band saw tho it wont do those interior cuts. The bandsaw is probably more useful overall than a table saw , just lacks the precision.
