Sean-
you've just blown his budget for what, the next 5 years?
Originally Posted by Sean Hughto
Member
Sean-
you've just blown his budget for what, the next 5 years?
Moderator
I would second the recommendation for the Philadelphia Furniture Workshop run by Alan Turner and Mario Rodriguez. They run an operation with first rate instruction no matter what your type of woodworking orientation.
Dave Anderson
Chester, NH
Member
Check your local public libraries for the WW books.
Since you are in PA, chances are, you can pick up old (WWII or earlier) tools at yard sales, or flea mkts (I hope), at least, you can get some decent chisels to start
practicing sharpening and using them.
Member
Sure. The more the merrier. Anyone that's in the area is welcome.Maybe Paul will let us both come visit him out in Delaware.
There's some second hand shops in New Castle County (northern De) that I've gotten quite a few good tools from. The New Castle farmer's market also has a flea market on the weekends that I've found a lot of good deals at. Good stuff a short drive from Philly.
Paul
Member
Full shop? that depends on what you consider a full shop. I have no large stationary power tools and do almost everything by hand. What I do have is a great set of hand tools and sharpening stones and what i will have, for the first time, is a dedicated shop space in the basement (no basement in NOLA). We are renting a house so I guess thats a yes, I will have space for a full shop. You can come by and play in my shop and then you and I will head out to Delaware and raid Pauls shop.... It'll be fun!
Member
I thought this was where we foisted off our gimcracks that we bought as "shortcuts" before we settled on the list Shaun posted.
I read Jim Tolpin's book on the same kind of choices and it has made for utility, and an (unfortunately) large supply of "extras" in my kit.
Jim actually makes furniture for a living, rather than primarily as a writer - his tool choices are weighed as production costs.
<http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Tradit.../dp/1440304289>
One thing I would warn newbies of is the trap in buying things you would like to use - and then settling on your project list.
Let the projects chosen determine the tool set - not the other way 'round.
Jim
WPT, M
(where it's hot, like Africa-hot)
Member
"I'm in the process of building a bench, so this thread has made me prioritize a nice bench vice as well"
Ari you mentioned a blacksmith friend in one of the earlier posts. If you can't find a good vice cheap you can have him make you some holdfasts. Nice and simple way to hold your work. A search here will show a ton of nice bench builds for ideas too. Welcome to the forum )
Member
Just let me know when. I'm looking forward to it!
Paul
[OP]
Member
Pirate hats at the ready!
Contributor
For your picture frame project, I'd give a lot of thought to making a mitering sled for your table saw. If you put your effort into making this accurate (getting the reference fences at 90 degrees), then you should be able to get a good result (use splines to reinforce the joint).
If you want to move towards a predominately hand-tool workflow, take the shop visits (actually, do these anyways) and spend some time watching Bob R's podcasts ( http://www.logancabinetshoppe.com/ ) and/or checking out Paul Sellers' blog ( http://paulsellers.com/woodworking-b...-sellers-blog/ ). Both work with a pretty minimal set of hand tools, and both have bench build discussions.
If you're looking for more of a blended workshop, I'd suggest:
- reliable square
- reliable straight edge
- sharpening method
- a few chisels (something ~1/4" and a wider one to start with)
- a bench plane
- (saw(s) if you want to cut joinery by hand)
The square and straight edge are universally useful.
Sharpening will be needed for pretty much everything else.
Chisels serve a variety of uses (a sharp, wide chisel is a reasonable way to trim something flush; or if you want to square something up that came off the router)
The hole I see in your list of power tools is the jointer/planer combination. Even if you buy surfaced lumber, as you noted, it may not be perfectly straight/square, or it may not stay that way. Good technique and plane(s) can clean this up, although most blended shops seem to use a planer for thicknessing. On the high end, something like a LV low-angle jack would be an excellent choice here as it can serve a variety of roles (hogging material to flattening to surfacing to shooting). But, pretty much anything in the #4-7 size range can do a lot of these things. Usually just a bit of tradeoffs between how easily a given size works for a task.
I didn't put a panel saw on the short list, as your power tools should be able to do these tasks for now.
If you get interested in hand-cut joinery, then getting joinery saws are useful. I liked the "Z" dozuki saw from Woodcraft, although it won't do really long tenons. For western saws, the Veritas offerings are pretty well-regarded and economical.
But, the most important thing is to have fun!
Matt
[OP]
Member
Finally got around to taking a picture of my shop. It's 6.5' wide by 3.5' deep by maybe 5' tall. Then I can spread out a bit, but it all needs to go back in this space by the end of the day in order to access the laundry room. The stuff in front of the old coffee table that serves as a bench is not normally there; this was taken in the middle of cleaning.
Have a waterstone and diamond plate that my brother recommended on the way. I'll let y'all know how sharpening goes.
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