Starting out.

[woodyone]

I have only recently found this forum by reading through one of my old woodworking magazines, and i just have to say that its a great website and im glad i have come across it.

But back to the point, i have been into woodworking for over a year now and am doing my resistant materials GCSE at the moment i have been reading up on woodworking, buying woodworking magazines, looking at tools i wish i could buy and a bit of turning but its hard to do with no space to work. But in about 2 weeks time i will be moving to a bigger house with a whole garage to myself so finally i will be able to start to put a workshop together, i have quite a small budget so my plan is to buy the things i need when i have the money to get them. My first buy is to buy a bandsaw spending about £300 and probably a drill press but im not really sure so this thread is open to ANY sugestions at all and advise for putting together my first workshop

thanks alot
Woody.

 

[Chems]

Someone put in a post the other day and it actually said in what order to buy things, Im pretty sure Band Saw was first, P/T was on there table saw router (my first power tool was a router.) Depends what your going to be doing thou I suppose.

Welcome!

 

[woodbloke]

Woody - £300 and your first 'shop.... Wow ...you'll probably have to share it though with all sorts of household crap . Here's my 2 euros worth:
Bench - spend quite a lot of your budget on making a good bench from softwood with a really thick mdf top, plus a couple of vices. The Dudster's making a cracking good one at the moment...have a dip into that thread. Whatever you try and do in this game, you won't do anything without a solid worksurface
Marking out tools - 150mm engineers square, 300mm steel rule, couple of cheap marking gauges, marking knife
Cutting tools - No5 Jack plane, (second hand) tenon saw, again second hand, block plane if you can run to it.
Sharpening tools - cheap diamond stone and leather strop, plus an Eclipse style honing gauge. Leather strop if you can get hold of one.
That's blown your budget now but others will have much better ideas on stuff that I've forgotten
Edit - where are you in the UK? - Rob

 

[woodyone]

I meant £300 for the bandsaw not the whole workshop. For the basic machines and tools i cant really spend more than £1000

 

[woodyone]

I'm based in East sussex at the moment, hopeing to get into chichester when i leave school.

 

[woodbloke]

I meant £300 for the bandsaw not the whole workshop. For the basic machines and tools i cant really spend more than £1000

That's a gloat of Wakaesque proportions and even more impressive it's from someone still at school :lol: :lol:...if you don't know who Waka is, then come along to West Dean at Chichester on Saturday and meet him and me and loads of other nutters from UKW. Jesting aside, the event at the college is a hand tools event sponsored by Classic Hand Tools and there will be lots of really good tools and information to absorb. You'll get umpteen different opinions on what to spend your wonga on but the day out will give you a whole different perspective on the sort of stuff you should be aiming at...food for thought!
Only when you do meet Waka, make sure there's a padlock on your wallet :lol: :lol: - Rob

 

[woodyone]

when does the show start? or is there a website for the show? as i think i have pursaded my dad to take me

 

[woodbloke]

A look the the CHT site will give you all the information that's needed. If will be a fantastic day out if you can make it - Rob

 

[Shultzy]

Woodyone, I agree with Woodbloke, start off with hand tools and learn woodworking techniques. Buy machines when you have decided what types of woodwork you want to make. Toys, boxes and other small projects don't require the machinery that furniture projects need. The old adage of "buying the best you can afford" will mean your tools will outlast you.

 

[OPJ]

For £300 you should be able to get a pretty good Bandsaw then. Best place to look would be in the Axminster and Record Power catalogues then. Unless you fancy grabbing yourself a real, old cast-iron bargain on eBay, perhaps? You may have to do some work to it first though.

A bandsaw is a great first choice for all kinds of work. Before you even think of going for a planer-thicknesser, I think you should get some hand tools and a decnt router, as the other suggested.

 

[woodyone]

With any luck i will find some tools to buy this saturday at the show

 

[compo]

Hey woody

I can imagine how excited you must be at the mo. I remember buying my first tools with proper earned cash, only hand tools to start, but then a big proper router... ahh!

Anyway, enough of that. Just to say, try not to get caught in the 'got to buy' trap. I just got a 352 bandsaw for £230... bar - gain! Tho I have been looking for a couple of months.

The point I'm trying to make is, there are good deals out there, just don't be too eager to buy the first thing you see.

All the best...

 

[woodyone]

thanks i'll try to have a look around and did you buy a router and a table or just a router to start with

Woody.

 

[compo]

I just bought the router, 1/2" at that.

I figured that would do all I wanted and a 1/4" could come later. Tho at this stage, don't buy a table - you should make one. Lots of ideas around here and you will make a better one than you could buy for the money.

Exciting stuff - I bet you want it all, so you can start doing it all, huh?

 

[Anonymous]

_____

 

[woodyone]

sounds about right 2 weeks untill i can get started i would imagine that for the first week i will be building storage spaces and shelves .

Woody.

 

[Benchwayze]

Welcome to the crazy world of woodwork Woody.

I use machines, a lot, but that's because some hand tool operations hurt me old bones.

I can only advise you not to buy stuff for the sake of buying, and the best way I found, to build up my kit, was to design features in new projects that required the purchase of a new tool.

Don't ignore hand tool skills. You need them even if you do most of the work by machine. Just enjoy and don't share your workshop with a car, or any other household items! Oh, the advice about a good bench is good advice.

All the best
regards
John.

 

[woodbloke]

Welcome to the crazy world of woodwork Woody.

I use machines, a lot, but that's because some hand tool operations hurt me old bones.

I can only advise you not to buy stuff for the sake of buying, and the best way I found, to build up my kit, was to design features in new projects that required the purchase of a new tool.

Don't ignore hand tool skills. You need them even if you do most of the work by machine. Just enjoy and don't share your workshop with a car, or any other household items! Oh, the advice about a good bench is good advice.

All the best
regards
John.

Some excellent advice thus far. Most of us use machinery to one extent or another and I'm no exception and I tend to do what John does in that I plan out what new tooling may be needed for each job that I do. As John says, it's very easy to buy stuff, and particularly gadgets, 'cos they're new and shiny...chances are you won't use it and it will gather dust under the bench, just like some of my plane collection - Rob

 

[RogerM]

I wouldn't disagree with any of the advice already given. You'll need to recognise the difference early on between buying a tool because you need it and buying it because you want it! DAMHIKT. A band saw will be nice, but I still don't have one. I only got my first table saw and router when I needed to make a kitchen. Until then everything was done with hand tools. For instance I now cut sheet materials with a B&D hand held circular saw and use a plywood guide that I ran up myself (rail systems are too pricey for what they are IMHO), but you can do almost as well with a Stanley Jetcut panel saw for about £7 depending on where you buy it. And at that price you can afford to bin it and buy another if you find that you've cut thru' some screws. It'll teach you how to saw a straight line as well.

The only power tools I would include in the initial line up would be a small router with a few straight cutters, and a cordless electric drill. Then I would concentrate on getting a selection of hand tools - panel saw, tenon saw, chisels, mallet, hammers (claw hammer and a pin hammer), screwdrivers, smoothing plane, cramps ( you can never have too many )1m steel straight edge, tape measure, small steel ruler ( for accurate small measurements), and a workmate. Then make a couple of trestles the same height as the workmate so that you have a large area of support for sheet materials or long pieces. This will enable you to work outside on a nice day (better light and alround feeling of well being!), and it will also give you more room when you have a garage full of c*** in addition to your tools.

So much great stuff has been made without powertools. Learn how to cut joints, straight lines, square up stock with a hand plane etc by hand before going down the machinery route. An added advantage is that you get to keep all your fingers . Don't be obsessed with buying everything new - there are some great bargains to be had from car boots, house clearances, general auctions etc.

In practice you will find that you can make anything you like with whatever you have - you just have to be inventive in your methods - and that is more than half the pleasure to be had from this pastime. Just my opinion of course!

HTH

 

[woodyone]

Roger i do have quite alot of the things you included in your list but the things i have at the moment arn't the best of quality like i have a set of 3 chisels which i think i bought for under a tenner so really its as if im starting afresh with "quality counts" as my frame of mind