Woodwright & Lumber Company
Woodworking Tips
What Tools Do I Need?
There is a direct collation between the size
of your pocket book the amount of tools you think you need. I
was talking to a friend and fellow woodworker the other day and
we were both saying that a new car or house dose not mean a lot
to us any more, but having a new woodworking tool still gets us
excited. (I know, pretty dull life) Now back to the task at hand.
For many years I was able to get by very nice with only a; hand
circular saw, router, a small table saw, handsaw, hammers, bench
planes and my trusty framing squares. You will be surprise what
you can build with these tools.
THE CIRCULAR SAW
I believe that most people miss the importance
of a good circular saw in the shop. I hear people all the time
tell me that they need a piece cut up because they can not handle
it with their table saw. (do not get me wrong I am not complaining,
this is a big part of our business cutting up material for people
and we enjoy doing it) But, with a circular saw you can straight
line rip rough material, dado, rabbet and cut most materials that
you use for cabinets and furniture. Many time's it is more efficient
than the table saw. You will need to put together some straight
edges and jigs but I do feel that a good circular saw is needed
in the shop.
THE ROUTER
This is one of my favorite tools. There are
so many thing that you can do with the router, from jointing wood
to making some of the fanciest molding you have ever seen.
What kind of router do you need. I have over
the years have had hundreds of routers, from 1/2hp to the largest
that were on the market at the time, but for my money a good all
around router is Porter-Cable's 690 with plunge base. Dewalt has
a good 1 1/2hp also.
We will talk about router bits next time,
Terry