If you have, or were to create, a good basic/starting hand-tool set/ kit that covered the majority of home repairs, maintenance and a little construction that went along with it (woodworking, etc.)-- something, say, to stock a reasonable little backyard toolshed/ workshop-- what would it consist of (including maybe what they might cost and look like)?
I'm swamped at the moment, but I'll give this some thought and work up a list and post it when I get some breathing space. You need to give some more specifics, and not be so over-reaching. You'll have to acquire tools over time. What sort of things do you think you'll need/ want to be doing first? What are your current skills like?
R
Certainly no rush, thanks. Good questions... My skills are next to none, save for some periodic college-related stuff ages ago, as well as some recently-acquired natural/timberframe housebuilding and even some formative wooden boatbuilding theory that're both growing slowly. I may be looking at some woodwork/wood-built/wood-based renovation/ restoration first, and therefore am interested more in those kinds of tools-- especially given their apparent versatility/flexibility with a view toward their possible 'adaptive reuse' for houses, wooden boats, and wood furniture, etc.. Perhaps even enough to attempt a rudimentary backyard-type shed, guest-cabin, treehouse, or even a wooden boat salvage-restoration, should I be so lucky. :)
...Am I to image things along the lines of saws, chisels, planers, hand-drills, clamps and tables/benches?
More or less. For a versatile set of general woodworking hand tools I'd start with the following.
block plane with adjustable mouth ~6" long Stanley #4 or equivalent ~10" long Stanley #5 or #6 or equivalent ~15" long combination plane with different irons (Google Stanley 45 to get an idea)
Japanese Ryoba pull saw - double sided with rip teeth on one side and crosscut on the other Japanese Dozuki pull saw - for more finished work Folding Japanese style gardening saw Bow saw for working with trees Jigsaw hacksaw
Speed square Framing square Fastcap tape measure (they're cheap enough with nice features) folding rule chalk line
4' level 2' level water level compassset of Marples blue handled bench chisels drawknife utility knife with retractable blade heavy duty scissors tin snips needlenose, linesmen and adjustable jaw pliers vise grips Sloyd type knife for whittling and other general purpose cutting edge needs (Mora makes a nice one with a sheath)
wooden mallet or deadblow hammer
16 oz claw hammer nail sets - finish and common 22 oz framing hammer with serrated face hatchet axe froe pry bars - 9", 14", 2' or 3' metal file half bastard file sharpening water stones, or look into the Scary Sharp method for sharpening card scraperratchet screwdriver with interchangeable bits cordless drill set with driver/drill with hammer drill function, and impact driver (these are hand tools (of a sort) and essential)
-if you want to go totally hand, then look into a Yankee screwdriver, eggbeater drill, and brace and bits. Small and large adjustable wrenches
Clamp assortment (you can't have too many, and better clamps are worth it - think garage sales)
There are things I've left out, and some things are not entirely essential, but in general that's a good starting list.
As far as benches, that's entirely dependent on where you are and what you'll be doing. A door on two sawhorses is a good start for a work surface and cheap enough to come by.
R
Thanks, Rico, it looks like a nice list. I will go over it later this evening and maybe acquaint myself with some prices and images online later. Good to know a couple of sawhorses and a door is a good start. I happen to be using, as a kitchen table, an old but very nice wood bathroom door (narrower than usual) a neighbour let me have in the process of his bathroom remodel.
Definitely familiarize yourself with the look of the tools and keep your eyes out for garage sales. Best place to get started for tool shopping. Most people already have the basics and you can pick up some decent tools at very good prices. Sometimes they might need a little work, but that's good too as it will familiarize you with the tool and how it functions. Hammers might not need familiarization. ;)
Solid core doors are heavy, but they let you pound on them a bit. A hollow core door is easy to move around, but it's only suitable as a big general work surface and for gluing up smaller projects. Make sure the door isn't warped.
R
Someone posted this on another newsgroup. I don't know why it escaped my mind. Good stuff and a very good place to start.
Good advice in your previous post and, really, practically an ingenious recommend here. Thanks!
The way the nation-state gov't/dictatorships/aristocratic systems seems to be faring these days, we might all be inevitably forced to become anarchists of a sort. No time like the present.
You have to be more task specific to get a reasonable feedback. Rico's list is pretty good but look at the costs of all that stuff. What good is a Dozuki saw if you're doing rough framing? (come in real handy though if you do some dovetails) How about a couple good shovels? A cats claw? Drywall tools? Painting stuff?
Next, how do you judge a good tool from a bad one, IOW, what do you look for? My dad taught me the basics, then curiosity and stupidity took over in adulthood. I've bought more than my share of junk.
As a rule, you can pretty much trust Craftsman brand (Sears) hand tools but on their power tools you're on your own. I have a Craftsman router thats been working hard since 1978 and a B&D circular saw bought at the same time is still gettin it, though I'm yearning for a Milwaukee worm drive. I also have a Craftsman 10" CMS with laser that is the best in the industry - I've run tons of wood through the thing and it jumps right in it. No safety switch either!
I'm an advocate of most Ryobi 18v cordless tools, especially their drill/drivers, standard and hammer.
How about an axe? I've managed to get by without one but only barely, I shopping right now.
Rico's suggestion about garage sales is good but if you don't know what you're doing you can't take the tool(s) back like you can a store. If you are doing any kind of finish woodwork clamps are imperative and I agree, you can never have enough. If you had 50 clamps you'd end up doing something that required 60. I have about 50 and all of them are in use almost all the time, and look it - covered in glue, tape, magic marker marks all over them, etc. My wife and son have a standard rule, for christmas, birthdays, etc., get me clamps and shop rags, lots of shop rags. (tomorrow is laundry day for my shop rags and my wife will be raising holy hell again HA)
Lighting, don't forget that. Seems like there's never enough of that stuff too unless you're working outside. I keep a AA cell LED in my right front pocket all the time and use it multiple times each day. I just rigged some old bathroom light fixtures up at my lathe for some deep bowls I've been turning. I did have my 300 watt shop light directed at it but the heat was unbearable.
If you have a friend that knows tools get him on board and use his experience as a guide of sorts. Tools can be very expensive so choose wisely and use the hell out of it real fast so you can find out if its junk and take it back. LOL
Someday I hope to be able to afford that stuff. I've received their newsletter and catalogs for years and all I can do is drool.....
Just get one of these and be done with it:
Forced? It should come natural, to a natural person. All thats required is a brain and a backbone. Only farm animals would tolerate anything else.
But yesterday would be even better.
Don't know why but my replies last night are not showing on my end.
That's why the Ryoba was on the list. A bow saw with different blades can pretty much do it all.
If WW wants to take the effort (he should), he should make his own bow saw from scrap wood and some bandsaw blade stock of various flavors.
R
More good advice, thanks, Don, including the clamps, rags and lighting. Clamps seem to be used especially extensively in wooden boatbuilding such as to bend the wood planks along the frame... And hereagain, to be specific, my project-thoughts run along the lines of classical hand-built wooden-boat boatbuilding (eventually a small-to- medium seaworthy sailing boat) and natural house structure, like maybe straw-bale, mud-stucco, cob, rammed-earth, thatch, natural adobe brick and mortar, post-and-beam timber-frame, stone-laying, etc..
Hows the heat over there by the way? We also feel it here in Ottawa.
Well, here's something to help get you and the rest cool if you might be so inclinded:
It's getting bad. To demonstrate the outright systemic contempt for nature and "farm" animals, such that people are subject to, to varying degrees of severity, I probably mentioned this before, but there's the documentary, Earthlings.
Here's a little something a little less "stimulating":
I can't utoobz or I'll get spanked by one of howard hughes flunky's.
I recently had an epiphany on something I have been wrangling with for a long time. I haven't sorted all the details yet but it goes something like this: (may be a cognitive dissonance) I like the flavor of most meats, within reason. I don't like the fact that an animal must suffer/die to satisfy that like. Yes I know man is the master of his domain and all that. And I also know that rights are only for those that can defend them and their representative(s). But there is a difference between say, a cabbage and a cow. What is that difference? Interaction. A cabbage cannot look at you. A cabbage cannot come when you call. A cabbage cannot respond to your touch. A cow can, and that makes it different than any other *living* thing. A cow is closer to (being) man than a cabbage will ever be. IOW, a cow is more similar, shares more traits with man, than a cabbage does. I am not saying that cows have rights, but rather they should receive consideration.
Now, the counter to that could be that if that cow wandered out onto the Serengheti the lion would have no consideration for the cow. That is true, but it has no bearing on how *I* conduct myself. Two wrongs do not make a right. IOW, just because a bad deed is done (lions) does not justify further bad deeds (slaughter houses). Just because the lion was not considerate of the cow does not mean I get a free pass and can make animals suffer or die. Does this make sense? Like I said, I am still sorting this out, but the whole notion of interaction between species or whatever seems, to me, to take precedence over the merely passive existence, as in plants. I don't see vegetarianism in my immediate future, because I like the taste of meat, but I have made other major changes in my life and I doubt I will ever stop. Just some food for thought. pun intended.....
Do this. Get a Buck 112 (look it up and check it out) lock blade knife and start carrying it in your left pant/shorts pocket all the time. (if you are right handed) Make sure that every single time you have britches on that knife is in that pocket, always. Then condition yourself to remember it is there and use it for stuff, even if to just clean a dirty fingernail. I got mine on amazon for about $35 but you can find knockoffs everywhere for as low as $5. Use it to open envelopes, cut tape, cut wire, cut rope, trim a small piece of wood, whittle, use it for anything you can think of. Do not be afraid of harming it, of scratching or denting the wood, or nicking the blade. It is a tool, nothing more, nothing less and it is meant to be used all day everyday. More importantly, it is conditioning your mind into a tool user mentality. With your mind and your hands and your knife you can do many, and amazing things, things you never dreamed of. But you have to have it on your person before you can do that.
Why the left pocket and not the right you may ask? Because in step 2, which happens 6 months from now, I'll tell you what happens in your right front pocket. In just a few months time I developed the habit of carrying 3 things in my pockets at all times that are the very basic means of survival and by having them accessible to myself at all times has given me the opportunity to exploit each far beyond their intended use.
As an experiment, I tried something I heard several times and found out it was true, at least in my experience. I heard that if you can force yourself into a function for 21 days in a row it will automatically become a habit. I wanted to eradicate sugar from my diet so I did not consume it for
21 days. The first couple days were OK but by about the 5th day the cravings started. By the 14th day I pretty much had it in control. I did 21 days without sugar and don't miss it at all. My next step, and its gargantuan, is to eradicate ALL sugar from my diet and seeing that it in just about ALL commercial food you can see what I'm up against. But I'll do it.
Its as hot as a half fukked fox around here. And I'm about halfway into a major outdoor project. Pressure washing 1000 sf of deck and 140' of railing, then painting the railing, then sealing the deck. Been at it for almost 2 weeks now. shwew.....and have lost about 20# in the process, mainly sweat.....my britches keep fallin clean off'n me. I'm gonna get arrested for indecent exposure. This isn't the backwoods of british columbia you know..........
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