Thread: Just starting out — advice on basic tool set

If I was starting from zero, and trying not to spend tooooo much money, for both home repairs and woodwork, in order of purchase....

(power tools corded unless specified otherwise)

Cordless drill (lithium-ion battery) in the $2-300 range
1000mm spirit level...Stanley fatmax or similar
Earmuffs and safety glasses
Track saw w/ 2.4 meters of track (makita or bosch) and good blade (lotsa' teeth for cutting melamine faced material)
Aldi vacuum cleaner w/ power tool control
ROS (Metabo SXE450 as a poor mans rotex)
Chisel set and oilstone for sharpening and a polyurethane face hammer
Low end router (Ryobi or possibly even Ozito)
Ozito multitool and a swag of blades

That'd be my 'first $2,000' worth of tools, anyway.

I love my Ryobi one+ tools, the range is good and they have a good battery life.


Check me out:
www.facebook.com/steamjunkprops Or Steamjunkprops.deviantart.com

For the second $2,000, I'd blow it on an old PC, three NEMA 23 stepper motors, a geckodrive, a hefty power supply, linear bearings and acme threaded rod.

Your Ozito Circ Saw chip issue is the blade, it is probably only worth 10% of the saw price. Having said that there are tips and tricks around it to help reduce the chip out.
Tape over your cut, score the timber first, cut slower (the teeth will take less bite each time), use a hand saw if its a critical area where you need a perfect finish, join up to you local woodworking club or mens shed as they might have access to a better quality and bigger range of machines, plus the added bonus of potential help from those with much experience.

My 2 cents..

Shawn

Great, thanks guys. Splinter, I think you're onto a good idea about the track saw; I haven't used my circular without a straightedge anyway. I also like the way you think with the CNC angle; I haven't looked into that neck of the woods yet, but it's a big overlap with my otherwise geeky interests. Shawn, cheers for advice on circ. saw. I've looked into the local clubs and will no doubt head along to one of them to say hello once I get a bit more experience under my belt & confidence that I'm going to keep it up — don't want to waste anyone's time.

Thanks fellas!

Good Morning NoSignal

Firstly, welcome to the Forum. Wish I had done something like you when I first started - my biggest mistake was buying crap tools, repeatedly.

Whilst it is presently outside your budget, you might like to go along to a Festool agent and get a demonstration of a drill, sander and saw - this will give you a bench mark against which to compare other products. Festool just work smoother, better, nicer.

I like Master Splinters list of tools, but would make some minor changes:

• For tool sharpening, add a Veritas honing guide - free-hand sharpening is difficult to learn. Also, learn to sharpen via scary sharp - simpler than having to flatten oil/water stones. Graduate to oil/water or diamond stones.
• Add a good quality 60 or 80 tooth saw blade. Keep the courser blade for wood butchering. Finer blade => better finish, fewer and smaller chip outs.
• I used a second hand domestic vacuum.
• Inexpensive modern cutting tools - chisels, hand saws, hand planes, etc - almost always have crap steel in the blades. Think good quality secondhand and restore, or be prepared to pay more.

Veritas Tools - Sharpening - Mk.II Honing Guide

Joining a mens shed is a good idea. This will give you access to advice, encouragement, equipment, etc. For one-off jobs, you can always hire tools, especially expensive stuf that you may use only infrequently.

You might also like to start looking at videos to pick up tips on technique - I like Paul Sellars, but there are many others on the web.
Paul Sellers - YouTube



Fair Winds

Graeme

Originally Posted by Master Splinter

For the second $2,000, I'd blow it on an old PC, three NEMA 23 stepper motors, a geckodrive, a hefty power supply, linear bearings and acme threaded rod.

Good Morning MS

My first reation was ... "What the hell are you talking about??"

Then I realised that you had specified the ingredients for a CNC set-up.

Would you really guide someone down such a specialised channel so early in their career??



Fair Winds

Graeme

I don't think CNC is necessarily more specialised than many other areas of woodworking can get - just note the number and length of threads on the forum on sharpening, planes and plane restoration and old plane vs. new plane vs. plane blades, sharpening (again), hand saw restoration, quality (or lack thereof) of files for hand saw sharpening, threads on buying/fixing micrometers, surface plate measuring, extreme dust collection and so on.

Jumping into CNC means you gain functionality in a number of operations (planing, thicknessing, scrollwork, intarsia, jointing, dovetailing, carving....even pyrography if you get the feed speeds wrong!) in one go without having to invest considerable time in physically mastering each skill, as well as mastering each supporting skill set, such as sharpening for plane blades.

Point taken, MS.

I had simply never thought of CNC in terms of it being a very versatile multi-tool. Will need to do a lot more thinking, and to accumulate a lot more information. Will now read the CNC Forum!

Thanks



Fair inds

Graeme

Thanks for the advice gents, got a couple of vouchers for the green shed this weekend so I snagged a DeWalt impact driver & drill and a 60-tooth blade for the circular saw and am already a much happier camper. A track saw still seems like a good idea but I'll have to do some research & see how much panel work I end up doing before deciding about that.

Next step is definitely some kind of vacuum, it's getting dusty out there already!

Cheers.

makita tracksaw can be had pretty cheap, well, cheaper than the festool, and it works very very well.

makes life very easy when it comes to panels / and sitework with panels. I dont have a tablesaw, so i use the tracksaw, and a MDF faced table with holes on it similar to the MFT table from festool and
a series of plastic "dogs" to help me with 90° cuts in a hurry.

having done 15 years without a impact driver, then buying one a few years back, throwing together carcases with an impact driver is easy work. having a kit with both the drill & driver in it and tw batteries would be a good start.

i think, buy quality over qty. biggest mistake i made was to buy cheap tools, when, if you invest in quality, they will repay you in long service life. I still have a lot of quality tools i bought when i did my trade 19 years ago, and they are still going strong. unlike the cheap compressor i bought last month just to get me by. the DIY big Shed places although close by, dont always stock quality gear.

some decent clamps would also be on that list. Bessey brand as a minimum, cheap clamps with drive you insane when they move or slip.

Oh, and the Aldi shop vac is great, best $90 spent by far, i use it every day, and it keeps going, even when rained on sitting in the ute up here in sunny QLD. i run mine with ryobi 20ltr bags, otherwise the pleated filter blocks up quickly.
i have made dust adapters for my makita LXT planer and circular saw, and the tracksaw run off it fine too. even the makita beltsander has a moulded PVC adapter for it. i need to buy another one, just for a spare