My next purchase should be...?

[Jim Koepke]

My vote is with the consensus, decent clamps and material to build something.

Your post doesn't mention having a square or bevel gauge. Those are both inexpensive must have tools.

Before that, you might want to consider including your location in your profile information. You may live close to one of us who would be happy to let you test drive some of the tools we have accumulated. It would be a good experience for yourself to test drive someone's old Bailey, new LV or LN plane for comparison to know where you are with your plane tuning.

My other suggestion comes from your comment about being a tinkerer and tuning your own planes. If you are good and confident about fixing up the oldies that is a great way to increase the population of tools while saving money. If done carefully, you could actually make a few dollars on the tools you decide are not needed.

There are also a lot of good books on joinery and general woodworking. They are like tools, imagine what direction you want to travel and then look for the book that will help you arrive at that destination.

An LA Jack is a good plane, but it isn't something one absolutely needs. If my shoulder wasn't totally buggered from an accident, it may have never been considered for use in my shop. It is a great plane for use on a shooting board IMO.

It is always fun to spend other folks money.

jtk

[Hovey Moore]

Money to build stuff is nice but I know my family would never give me just money and with my luck I would get just a cherry board and have the wife wondering why I didn't build a bench out of it. A set of parallel clamps and a nice vice for a bench would be my recommendations.

[Mike Cogswell]

I'm with the "go build something" camp.

You already have far more tools than I did to start. And you have one of the more important things - a wife that's encouraging and willing to give you tools.
Just remember the most basic rule: Every good project deserves a new tool! As you make things you will accumulate more tools. Some you will need, some you will merely want, but your work and projects will guide you far better than we can.

[Carl Beckett]

Money to build stuff is nice but I know my family would never give me just money and with my luck I would get just a cherry board and have the wife wondering why I didn't build a bench out of it. A set of parallel clamps and a nice vice for a bench would be my recommendations.

If you don't have a vice, this would be my #1 suggestion. (I worked for a while without a vice. Madness. And now couldn't imagine doing anything without one). Clamps yes, but to start you don't need as many or as fancy as everyone seems to imply.... (yes I have collected a lot of clamps over the years, but got by with 4 aluminum ones, and a couple bar type, for quite a long time when I was starting out)

Picking a project first, then letting that determine what tools are needed, is a great approach and one I practice to this day. (this can be taken to any extreme.... Honey, want a new bookcase? Well then, I need a xyz.... Oh, and a pdq.... )

[Jim Matthews]

4 hours, each week, without interruptions.

Read Gary Rogowski on dovetail practice.
Make something SMALL the first time.

Make it with something CHEAP the first time.

Use domestic species, readily available in your area.
If you like the stuff (which I feel the core of woodworking - the wood itself), you can get more.

If you build your first project from some exotic South American unobtanium wood, you'll waste your time searching for more.

May I recommend watching some of the videos posted by makers that don't concentrate on hardware?

I like Bob Rozaieski's Logan Cabinet Shoppe for an alternative take on work holding.
I like Paul Sellers approach to sharpening and tool choices, as with Bob - it focuses on hand tools.

I don't own a table saw, and my Jointer/Planer are rarely used.

Milling is a chore, and drilling is a bore - these are steps that machines handle well.
I purchase my lumber as near to the final thickness I hope to use.

S2S lumber costs a little more, but saves on shop time.

Lastly, while benches are the essential workholding apparatus, they are tools.
Every hour spent working on a bench or other tool cannot be spent
on building furniture, boxes or carvings.

PS - hand tool use means dust collection is less of a concern, and storage is compact.
I can still park two cars in my garage.

Jim
WPT, MA

[Harold Burrell]

This is not meant to be a smug comment; ...my advice, buy some wood and build something using the tools you have.

I personally read too many tool reviews and purchased too many tools. My body of work does not justify the tools I own. Having too many tools has taken my time and resources (money, set-up, maintenance, storage) that could have been better spent designing and building "stuff". I had to ask myself what is my goal? Do I want to be a expert? Do I want to collect? Am I investing? Etc.. Bottom line for me, I want to build stuff. And I don't want to have a two stall garage so full of tools I can't find space to work.

Start building! Your need for tools will become apparent as you build.

Man...that is a good post...

I need to print it out and read it everyday.

[Jim Koepke]

Lastly, while benches are the essential workholding apparatus, they are tools.
Every hour spent working on a bench or other tool cannot be spent
on building furniture, boxes or carvings.

As with so many things the time one spends on building a bench is time spent learning about working with wood.

My knowledge and skill has improved with almost everything built in my shop. A lot has been learned by building sawhorses/benches/tables. Pieces of junk that sort of look like a sawhorse can be bought at the borgs for about $20. The ones of my making will out last anyone of those by many years. They will also be better fitted to my way of working.

Of course, everyone has different needs. Some do not have much spare time. Some do not have spare money. Some are fortunate in having both.

My hours spent fettling old planes gave me pleasure at the time. Each time one of them is used is still a great joy in knowing something manufactured more than a century ago is creating a surface just as well as some of the top manufacturers planes of today.

When using a mallet my store bought mallet doesn't get as much use as ones made by me. That is not the store bought mallet's fault. It is a great mallet. It is just that now with many to pick from, one of ideal weight and size for the task at hand can be chosen. There was also learning involved in making mallets.

Buying old socket chisels improved my lathe skills making handles. Here is where the economy really shines. For much less money and less time than it would take me to earn the money some very fine chisels now reside in my shop. Not only that, the handles are custom fit to my hand.

My point being that if my shop was put together buying only tools ready to go out of the box, there would not only be a lot of experience missed, there would be many tools not at hand. Financial considerations would not have been the only limiting factor on the tools available for my use. Some of the tools, like a Stanley 55 or #113 are no longer produced.

For me, there is a bit of envy of those who can purchase a bench, a chisel or a new plane as needed. Then again, it wouldn't surprise me to find that others are envious of my availability of time to enjoy cleaning the dust off of an old plane and putting it back to work after it has sat on a shelf or in a box for 50 some years.

Life is a balancing act. Find your balance and enjoy what you do.

jtk

[Jim Matthews]

That's a reasonable approach, JK.

I'm glad I spent a few hours building my Moxxon and Leg vise.
Having done so, they're really useful. Now that there are production models
available for what amounts the cost of my materials, I would just buy them outright.

I'm suggesting that if you can exchange money for time, always value time more.
You'll not get more of that. Time spent on tools is not time spent on building furniture.

I know one too many beginning woodworkers that slaved over their benches and lost interest shortly after completion.

I'm most definitely in the tool-user as oppose to tool-maker camp.

For beginners, it makes more sense to go to a class and make something you and your family can use.
That's my suggestion - get to the building of something for another person straight away.

[Dale Cruea]

I am with the build something group.
I bought tools and bought tools and found out I didn't need a lot of what I had purchased nearly as much as I thought I did.
I now buy tools as I need them. Old or new. I am not a good tool fiddler but I can get some things to work.
Buy some nice local wood and build something for your with. Great satisfaction.

Tools are only a part of woodworking. Planning, design, wood selection and finishing are just a few of the things that make up woodworking.

[Jim Koepke]

I know one too many beginning woodworkers that slaved over their benches and lost interest shortly after completion.

That is a sad ending.

My story was just the other way around. Many book shelves, desks, chairs and other items were built on saw horses or a Workmate before my first bench came along. The bug had already bitten me.

My first bench was purchased. At the time it was about $250. Now the same bench is twice as much. It has shown me a few things to incorporate or change when my next bench is built.

jtk

[John Piwaron]

Build things. Start small, buy what you need to make it. Build another more "complicated" project. Which may require something you don't have. And so on.

One of the funny (amusing) things to me is that nowadays it seems that every tool I've bought along the way plays a role in whatever my current project is. Even though in most cases I could make it without using everything I have.

The advise on clamps - be careful. There's lots of different types, some kinds are more helpful to a particular project than others. Generally, you can't have too many clamps. For the number I have I always wish I had more.