Basic set for woodworking?

It entirely depends what sort of woodwork you want to do. Some carpenters don't own a hand plane, some have twenty. Some haven't seen a workbench for years, some are obsessive about them.

What's the rubber mallet for by the way?

Tim W

There is no foolproof list. What you listed is a good start, but buy the tools as you need them for the project at hand.

Clamps come in sizes from a few inches to a few feet. I find the 18" to 30" are the most useful, but you may find otherwise. My favorite sander is a Random Orbital type. I like it far better than the smaller vibrating style. I also have stationary belt and spindle sander.

Bosch is a good brand of tool here, but Black & Decker is not nearly as good. Milwaukee, Porter Cable, DeWalt, Hitachi, Makita, Delta, Jet, are some of the better brands. My cordless drill is Panasonic. For hand tools and accessories, be sure to check out

For rubber nails. What else? Geesh.

My grandfather used it often to set in pieces of wood in the joints without denting the wood. pretty handy. I know that you can use a piece of scrap wood in between, but it's a pain.

RE: Subject

Take a look at Fred Bingham's book, Practical Yacht Joinery.

You won't be disappointed.

Lew

Sometimes I use a rawhide mallet. A dead blow is useful. I still use a scrap piece of wood on occasion, depending what I'm doing.

There are many intro to woodworking books that give decent enough lists and quality of tools for the person wanting to start woodworking. Go to your local public library and look at these books. Or go to the bookstore.

The old cliche is that you can never have enough clamps. Joe G

Sun, Apr 15, 2007, 2:47pm (EDT-3) snipped-for-privacy@despammed.org (BlueD) doth cme in and mumble: Hi eveyone, what's your advidces about a basic set to cover all the main needs of a woodworker?

Basic? Handsaw, pencil, square, hammer, nails, wood. Pocket knife to sharpe pencil. You want holes, add a hand drill, with drill bits. Basic.

JOAT I have anal glaucoma. I can't see my ass going to work today.

Fine, back in the day. Now, with urethane-faced deadblow mallets, IMHO rubber is very much a second choice for assembly-smacks.

HTH, J

If you don't already have a project in mind, pick one and start with the tools you need for that project. This will also allow the folks here to give you much more focused and useful suggestions.

Best of luck, Tom

This reminds me of the good advice my father gave me: Any project worth starting will surely need a new tool for the job. It's another way of saying, "Any excuse to buy another tool," but a little classier. ;-)

Jim Stuyck

You sure your rectal nerves haven't crossed with your optic nerves and just happen to have a s***ty outlook on life...AKA Optical Rectitis

Philski

That's an easy problem to fix ... just make an appointment with the Rectal Opthalmologist ;-)

I have a standing appointment. ;-)

Tue, Apr 17, 2007, 7:48pm (EDT-3) snipped-for-privacy@msn.com (Philski) doth come up with: You sure your rectal nerves haven't crossed with your optic nerves and just happen to have a s***ty outlook on life...AKA Optical Rectitis

You been having somone read the dictionary to you again, eh?

JOAT I have anal glaucoma. I can't see my ass going to work today.