Thread: Starting of my woodworking shed

$2500, could go a fair way...but it wont buy you everything

The two stationary power tools I could not be without are a drill press and a bench grinder.

The drill press is impertiave for any accurate drilling and a number of other drilling related tasks.

While I have two bench grinders set up now......if I only had one it would have a fine wheel on the left and a soft wire wheel on the right.

The fine wheel is great for sharpening drills and all manner of other stuff & I am for ever at the wire wheel because it cleans so many things up and fast...like a lot of mechanics I use it a lot for cleaning up threds on bolts and all sorts of things.

If you do not know how to sharpen drills...learn....this is one of the most important things any tradesman or hobyist can learn.....learn this and you will have no reason to use a blunt drill.

I know battery power tools are very popular and convienient.....but I would have a good mains powered hammer drill, a mains powered angle grinder and a mains powered 7/14 inch circular saw first.

I do not own any other battery powered power tool but battery drills.

A man must have a good power drill.....my mother knew that and she baught both my brother and I a good drill for our 21st birthday...I still have mine.

These days a battery drill is more or less derigour......don't be tempted into the big heavy ones.....you will have a mains powered dill for the heavy stuff...a fairly decent light battery drill will be in your hand a hell of a lot for screwing and light drilling.

I own 3 older 7.2 volt makita drills with the metal gears..they have served me well......but these days I have a pair of Taurus 10 volt lithium ion battery drills that I baught from Aldi for $60 each....great little drills and all over my old makitas like a rash.....what happens when the batteries die?...hmmm

Do not be obsessed with brands....many of the top name brands are selling some entry level crap these days.......and some of the generic items are pretty good.....( remember some are realy crappy)

A couple of good quality builders extension cords are imperitive...a 5, a 15 and a 30 meter will get you out of trouble most of the time.
While you are at it get a good industrial power board with earth leakage protection.

now the next thing you need to learn is..where to buy stuff.
The single biggest step is not buying everything at a big name hardware store.......they harp on about having the best prices ( they don't) and beeing where the tradies shop ( not the smart ones).

find the local discount power tool specilist.....near me that is QLD trade tools.
and find out about you local woodworking specilaist like timbecon or carbatc.

For your materials, learn the diffreence between a builders hardware or timber yard and a retail hardware.

more power to ya.

cheers

With carpentry stuff around the house then soundman has it covered but when it comes to furniture making and hobby wood working investigate both the power tool and hand tool routes before commiting to expensive purchases of items like table saws etc.

Hi Lumnock,

The tools themselves will depend a lot on what projects you are going to do. You mentioned a deck so a circular saw is a given. some saw horses or similar work supports. Milk crates get tedious after a short while.

For the furniture you might find a tablesaw very useful. A jointer and a thicknesser would be essential unless you are buying DAR timber. The projects and materials used will dictate what tools you need. THere are too many what if's to really answer that one here.

From the start, you should consider health and safety and make sure you get dust extraction sorted out early as well as lighting.

Cheers

Doug

Depending on the size of the deck, and the method of construction, you could consider a compressor and nail gun.

I did a very large deck a few years ago, and got myself a belt driven compressor and a paslode framing gun.

For skew nailing joists, and making laminated bearers it was the ducks nuts.

Once you have a compressor, then other nailers may follow. I recently purchased a spear and Jackson cheap version brad gun ... About 80 bucks !! And I love it !

If you have chisels, better have a way to sharpen them. So agree with bench grinder and perhaps some oil stones.

You could probably stretch your $$ a lot further by attending garage sales, looking at the local auction house and looking on Gumtree for good quality old and/or second hand tools. A lot of the enjoyment I get is sourcing second hand items that some old-timer has used and cared for, and which have proven the test of time and durability. Most of my best tools have come from garage sales or Estate sales /auctions. Cutting tools might just need a basic touch up ad others some maintenance or fine tuning to get them going, which again is part of the enjoyment.

Hi Robbie

What Soundman said is pretty solid advice and to build you deck I suggest you get a very good 1/2" chuck hammer drill that will last you a life time (my choice is Makita but any of the better brands are OK), a lithium-ion drill for screwing down the decking (don't use nails) and a good quality smaller circular saw (larger and heavier ones become a pain for everyday use if larger capacity is not required). For the cordless drill, I'd go a good quality one that has high-low speeds and the faster the higher speed the better for smaller bits drilling into metal. That is about all you will probably need for the deck.

The following are essential power tools going forward (any 1/2 decent brands will probably do if you want to get bang for your buck): 4" angle grinder; drill press; and bench grinder.

Nice to have is a second lithium-ion drill (a cheapy will do for general purpose work to leave in the house), an orbital sander (a good brand) and a reasonable router (a cheapy will do if only used ocasionally but I'd go mid-range).

There are plenty of other non-essential tools that are good to have like a jigsaw, a belt sander to rip into it and a thicknesser and tablesaw (this may actually be an essential going forward).

Plenty of people will insist that it is only worthwhile buying good-quality (expensive) power tools but sometimes cheaper tools do the job OK (e.g. angle grinder and bench grinder).

Regarding a free-standing table saw Vs a Triton, I had a Triton for 10+ years and it served me well but now I have a table saw, I wish I'd got it earlier because it's much quieter, more accurate, has better dust collection, is easier to adjust the height, is more powerful, cuts deeper and easier to adjust for bevel cutting.

I agree with Jimmy that second hand can be a good path a get better bang for buck if they are a decent brand or even much older tools that are of high quality (e.g. drill press, bench grinder, table saw). Good luck with the deck!

Think carefully about which cordless tools you really need; remember that all battery packs have limited lifespans, and with replacement packs at 50% or more of the cost of a new drill, they can be an expensive toy if you don't get regular use out of them. New battery chemistry is always coming out meaning there's always a new shiny on the horizon.

So yea, don't splash out on cordless for anything more than a drill unless you've got a proper business case for it (ie the "I wanna cordless biscuit jointer" argument doesn't hold water unless you build carcasses in a farm paddock).

I've still got an old Makita 9.6 volt nicad which is up to its second third battery repack and still does stalwart house duties, and a Metabo nicad which is also coming up for a repack.

A cheap compressor and a few nail guns would be high on my list; but then, I like to spraypaint so a source of compressed air is a necessity.

I'd also suggest a good random orbit sander.