So I’ve been thinking about which tools really changed my woodworking. Although I have used many different tools, both power and hand, only a few have had a dramatic effect on my woodworking. I’ve used tablesaws of all sorts and brands, for example, but none really changed my woodworking. There have been two, however, that started a revolution.
My first bench was a revelation. Because it had a good homemade twin screw vise I was able to hold workpieces. That really made it possible for me work more accurately and efficiently. I improved greatly after I began using it. I was able to do fine woodworking and not just slapped together junk.
Then there is the two bandsaws here in our shop at Fine Woodworking. One is a 14″ and the other is an 18″ or 20″. I had always designed furniture with curves, book matched or slip matched panels, and a ton of other things I had not reasonable way of doing. Then I came here and had to well-tuned bandsaws at my disposal. Now I can build all the crazy designs I dream up.
So what are the one or two tools that really opened up woodworking to you? Which ones really changed the way you work or let you work the way you always wanted to?This is my personal signature.
Edited 7/25/2008 1:45 pm ET by MKenney
Replies
my two would have to be the hand plane and card scraper. Once I learned how to properly tune and use them, I threw away my 80 grit sandpaper. My lungs and my wife thank me.
Edited 7/25/2008 1:57 pm ET by mvflaim
Woodrat
Electricity!
Router table !!!!!!!!
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
My Dremel lathe. I was about 13 when I got it. I walked from my Grandma's store through what is known the San Francisco Tenderloin (not a safe area in the 70's) to a hardware store and bought it. I was bout to leave when the store owner asked me how I got there. I told him I walked. He had his wife drive me back to my Grandma's. I got in so much trouble for going there by myself, my parents took the lathe from me. When I was given it back. I spent days, turning stuff. I learned to lessons, never disobey your parents and I love turning. I still have it and use it.
My planer. For the first time I could make things that weren't 3/4 of inch thick. My bandsaw(s) as well.
While not a tool. The biggest watershed moment was when my father and godfather began to teach me and encourage me in my woodworking.
Len
"You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time. " J. S. Knox
the first is more of a general category, good quality hand tools. Not only is a high quality hand plane or measuring/layout tool a pleasure to use, but also really productive.
The second is a toss up between a bandsaw and routers. The former is one that I use far more than I ever thought I would and I'd probably give up my tablesaw before letting go of my 20" bandsaw. The latter is one of the first tools I purchased and to this day I have more of them than anything else and probably use them on a regular basis more frequently than any other tool.
Every tool I've ever bought has brought about a change in my work. Most of them were good, but a few turned out to be total wastes of money.
I suppose that cordless tools have brought about the most change. Back in the early '80's, I bought my first cordless drill (Skil or B&D?) and found it pretty useless. Low power, frequent recharges, and long (3 hr?) recharge times. I liked the concept, but decided that they were a long way from "ready for prime time".
A couple of years later, I helped a contractor friend on a job and really liked his 9.6v Makita. Plenty of power and quick recharges, but way out of my price range.
A few months after that, I got a job building display cabinets and shelving for a toy store. Since the schedule was short, I needed to speed up my production and - after a couple of days of agonizing - broke down and got a Makita 9.6v. Man, it was like someone turned on the lights in a dark room!! Using that Makita and a selection of drywall screws, I was able to beat the schedule by several days and have rarely used finish nails since then.
Over the years, I've gone thru several cordless drills and can't imagine working without them. I have five right now (two 14.4v NiCad's, one 18v Li-Ion, and two of those miniature Li-Ions for tight spaces. I often have 2-3 of them set up for different tasks while I'm assembling something.
Other revolutionary tools (for me, anyway) include brad nailers, pin nailers, my Kreg pocket screw system, and my Makita LS1013 SCMS. I could go on, but it would just be an inventory of my shop. Oh yeah, one last tool is my DC system. Life is so much better now that I don't have to sweep/vacuum up piles of sawdust every day. - lol
Edited 7/26/2008 10:28 am by Dave45
When I was a professional in another "creative" commercial arena (not art), I learned quickly that you don't get to produce the art you want, but the product "they" want. Tedious pedantic precision.
To me, in woodworking, although the power tools do most of the coarse work, the art is with the hands and is ever changing. You still have to produce what the buyer wants but there is a higher sense of satisfaction.
First, My father's #4 Stanley plane. It started me down the whole path of hand tool use. Less crudeness, more finesse. A closer understanding of wood.
The second would wither be my marking knives and gauges. They brought about precision and thinking. One gauge in particular, a fancy antique ebony/brass mortise gauge owned by at least 3 prior craftsman over the last 150 years. It gave me the sense of continuity of the labor and skills required and the interest in coming up to what I want to imagine their skills to have been.
1) Angle grinder with many accessories; like sanding flap disks, saber-tooth burr bits, arbor-tech (like a Lancelot in it's wood hogging ability, but a little more controllable)
2) Decent spokeshave and hand plane
3) A good article or book that gets me thinking in a new direction
4) Maybe I'll find another today...
.
I would have to say it was not a tool but my then fiancee "Crazy Ellen".
She kept hounding me to marry her, but I had a feeling deep down that there was something wrong. So, one day she said to me, "If you don't marry me I'm leaving." I replied, "I'll help you pack."
I took the money for the wedding and bought a shop full of tools. I'm sure I got the best end of the deal...
By the way, I'm married to a great woman now who supports my hobby, but thinks I'm more of a tool collector than woodworker. Go Figure...
You seem to be on the right track but short on getting good value. Wives are very underused tools in the shop, for instance they can hold things and pass you the instruments. They can test for live power with their free hand with no risk to yourself. Given desultory guidance they will pre-test finishes and solvents to determine whether they might harm your skin, although the test patterns may take some time to heal.
Their uses are limited only by your imagination, so go out there and widen your horizons.
PS I still have the original model who, aside from dependence on certain surgical appliances, still functions in a satisfactory manner.
Well Mufti, you are a lucky guy.
Remember that show on PBS where the man and woman built a bunch of stuff around the house? You know that was faked, right.
She never once said, "If you're going to holler at me I'm not going to help you..."
when i got rteplacement blades for my regular grade modern stanleys and some waterstones things changed.
So what are the one or two tools that really opened up woodworking to you?
MY MANY ROUTERS! NOW.. If only my routers had a Table saw attachement!
A grinder and my honing stones. It's absolutely amazing what one can do when their tools actually work.
There have been a bunch, not so much as they were "Aha!!!" moments, but because they opened up ways to do things quicker and/more accurately.
When I was nine, real carving tools, which my Dad gave me for Father's day. I made Mom a forest scene, for Mother's day, scraped and gouged out of a piece of heart redwood scrap, using nails I had beat into shape, and filed/honed an edge on.
When I was 14, a pair (rip and cross cut) of really nice Diston hand saws, and my own electric drill.
When I was 16, it was a tune-up meter, timing light, and Craftsman socket set. (Motor-Head days).
As for "real woodworking": Bill Hylton and Fred Matlak's "Woodworking With the Router", and the new router, router table, and skill/knowledge of how to use them that they brought into play.
My own table saw, so I didn't have to go out to Dad's shop to use his.
My woodrat. About the same time a Kreg pocket hole jig.
Hand planes and scrapers.
Finally, a dedicated shop to put everything into.
The one thing that changed my woodworking more than anything else was my first subscription to Fine Woodworking. The next was Knots.
Scotty
The one thing that changed my woodworking more than anything else was my first subscription to Fine Woodworking. The next was Knots.
Was it to the GOOD or BAD? DO not judge the nice folks in here by my comments!
Two tools? That's not enough, but that's an easy answer for me:
A sharp handplane with a tight mouth, and sharp, correctly set dovetail saw.
It was with these two tools that I learned that I knew very little about woodworking, despite a large collection of stationary and portable power tools, and building things for nearly 20 years.
I learned that woodworking is not about nano-scale accurate milling of wooden parts, and that the point is not to make 5 identically-sized shelves and the dados to fit them into - it's about learning to fit two surfaces together accurately (and so that they have to be marked to be assembled that way - they are not interchangeable with their mates).
If I'd picked up those two tools 30 years ago, I could have saved myself many thousands of dollars on manufactured jigs, blades, and machines and a heck of a lot of aggravation trying to solve the problem of cutting a shelf a hair too short so that the bookcase side is bowed when it's assembled and clamped.
Two things I can think of, not really tools, but they are. First my mother ran across a Fine Woodworking magazine (one of the early issues) and bought it for me. Been fooling around with wood since 1960, a real hacker. FWW opened up a new universe I didn't know existed. Now I have all the issues and an endless supply of ideals and goals.
Second was when I bought one of Krenov's books, can't remember which one, and I learned how to think about quality and craftsmanship. I have all his books now.
Gives me something to do the rest of my life trying to produce just one piece that comes close to what I see in print. I have a long way to go.
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