Thread: cost of these tools

Enjoy you time there, its precious.

BUT It will be over before you know it.

DONT get caught up in politics... Will happen.

Its OK to get ARTY FARTY, its the only time in your woodworking/design life that it will happen and is ok. You will have a hoot, and a massive one at that. Design for design sake, what could be more delicious.

So go CRAZY and explore to the max.

But remenber - When you leave, you need to make a living. The general public dont want arty/student furniture. Survey ex-students - The overwhelming majority will agree 100%. Bloody hard.

Thumbsucker, enjoy.
Ryhs, i really hope you get in




As an ex-graduating student (not Tassie) This was my student homage to the great JK,

Its part of your rite of passage as a student to make a Krenov copy. After all, he is the Man

Very Nice.

thanks all very much, and no not sick design yet.lol.

those peices are nice.

thanks a milion.
Rhys

i would like to say a big THANK You to all who have sent me pms regarding tools for sae and the like. once money becomes available then i can really start looking (and purchasing if price is right), but for know it is time to work and study for school.

honestly, thanks a bunch to all it is appreciated, i am relitivewly new to this forum, not to woodwork, and not one has discouraged me from wanting to do this course.

thank you.
Rhys

Rhys, good luck with it all. I started a part-time (three hours a week) course at Sturt over 2 years ago, as a complete novice with no tools. Since then on a very limited budget I have accumulated a surprising amount of stuff. My planes are all old (as in pre-1950) Stanleys and Falcons that I was given or picked up very cheaply. The most I've paid for a plane is about $50. My favourite user I picked up at a garage sale for $5. I've cleaned them up and tuned them myself, using information that I got from this site mostly. There are a couple of excellent threads in the best-of-the-best section on restoring and fettling planes. My planes are doubtless not as good as new Veritas or LN planes, but I fear that my skills are not yet up to testing the difference (you will learn much faster than I do!).

Part of the process of restoring old planes is that you also start to understand how they work and why some ways of doing things work better than others.

Most of the full time students at Sturt seem to use old Stanleys, although there are a couple of lucky ones that have the money to spend on the more expensive brands. I've seen a few LNs and Veritas planes, and also some HNT Gordons. All nice stuff, and if I had lots of money doubtless I'd have some too, but most seem to make do perfectly fine with old restored planes.

I've also picked up an old scraper at a garage sale which is perfect. Lee Valley (Veritas) has a scaper set including a holder, burnisher and jointing jig, and 4 scrapers for sale - I bought it and it is good. I find the burnisher doesn't do as good a job as a hard old screwdriver handle though...

For chisels, I picked up a few old Titans at a market, and they are great, but the best edge-holders that I have are Bergs. I tend to pick Bergs up at markets for about $15 each (got one for $2 once but that doesn't happen too often!), whereas on eBay they tend to go for about $25, or even more (which I won't pay).

Since you have the rest of this year to compile some tools (and that is plenty of time), go to your local markets, do some garage sales, talk to relatives about what might have been in grandpa's shed (the nicest tools you'll ever use). And definitely go the the tool sales that happen around the traps. You can even start to accumulate timber. Everytime you see a house being knocked down, have a polite nosey at what timber is being pulled out of it, and ask the blokes doing the work if it is already being taken away by someone. I got to pick through the remains of an 80+ year old house about a year ago and found some gems. Get to know the blokes that run the nearest timber salvage yard, and get them to let you know when bargains come in. I've seen lots of timber thrown away in skips - some of it ends up in my workshop. I've even picked up old fence posts washed up on the beach (not sure if that's allowed??? ).

I needed an awl, and found an old ice-pick in my FIL's workshop that he hadn't looked at for 30 years. Bit of rubbing back and it looks great and sharpened up it will do the job nicely.

And I reckon Japanese saws are the way to go. Sturt provides traditional saws, but most of the students seem to go for Japanese, and I find mine (just a cheapy from Carbatec) really good to use. But as I say, my skills are not yet at the level where I could test the difference.

On a limited budget, second hand is your friend, and having the skills to restore them yourself to good user level will save you lots of money.

well i may have more time to prepare.

i am still goign to apply for a position, and if successful i will more then likely defer it for a year, as i basically wont have enough money to survive down there. by all means i want to do this course and i will.

by putting it off for a year i can:
1. purchase second hand tools and repair them.
2. save the money required so if i dont get a job for a while i can still survive.
3. i will be a bit older and my parentsd wont worry so much.
4. i can organise permanent accomodation so i wont be living in a car.
5. it will give me the extra time to suss everything out and where i would be located.

as much as want to it next year, it is not very smart to rush into this with not enough funds and nothing really planned out.

i WILL be applying and if accepted i wil take it form there, whether i go next year defer for 2010. but i want to do this, so i will get there eventually.

thansk for all the ehlp everyone.

Rhys

before your last post I was going to suggest that you might want to see the world for a year before you join the drudgery.

In my paid work we employ a number of graduates straight out of uni. I've found over the years that those whom took a year or so off and had the break between high school and uni are well, better. They have some life experience and a little capital behind them and are settled within themselves

A years work will well and truly set you up and give you a chance to obtain the tools discussed by others above. It will also give you the capital to survive in sunny downtown tassie!

And damn, I wish such had existed when I was your age and who knows life might have been different. sigh. shrug

yeah i agree, it will be better as i can go to tassie a few times have a look aroudn and get to know the place, plus i will not have near enough funds to survive. and it gives me a chance to organise thenecessary tools, accomodation and what forms of transport, etc.

thansk again
Rhys

I think I'm going to get pilloried for this, what's with all the hand tools, a nice table saw, planer, bandsaw, tenon jig, chisel mortiser, Bob's your uncle, everything you need for fine furniture. Sorry about that could not resist it

^^ i dont get it:
are you saying why do this course when i could buy those tools and teach myself??

if so:
i think it would be in my best interest to do this course as i wuold learn the correct way, and it would be more enjoyable, then trying to teach myself.

if not:
i dont get it?

thanks anyway

its a joke...

y dont they get ya to buy a heap of machines. instead of handtools. youd gt it done a lot quicker.

One defining characteristic of fine furniture is hand cut dovetails.....I dont know of any completely mechanised way of producing the same results as hand cut dovetails

Yeah machines get the monkey work done quick....but IMO its not fine furniture until hand tools weilded by someone who knows how to use them have made it that way.

cheers
BD

^^^i agree