10 Must-Have Tools For Beginner Woodworkers

Hello Yinz and welcome back to the store before we get into literally anything in this video. I just wanted to tell you how much I love you and thank you so much for all the support and all of our recent ridiculousness, mine and the entire team. I thank you very much because we appreciate you very much. In fact, I am listening to your comments, your emails, your direct messages and all the interactions that you give me and what I know is that many of you are

beginner

s and are looking to get into more than shop work or carpentry or fabrication of any thing, that's why we decided to make this video for you now to start, we're going to assume a few things here, one is that you

have

a tape measure, a square, some kind of straight line. edge pencils basically stick a lot of those like normal things that aren't included like these 10

tools

for

beginner

s and then from there we're going to break this down into my first five

tools

and then we'll level up from there so it's like five and five and that's it, and with math that equals ten, so let's get into it, yen, so the first tool that I suggest for almost any wood shop or home owner is going to be a drill, now I

have

a drill and an impact driver here because I think they go hand in hand, so to start, what is the difference between a drill and an impact driver?

You have a drill that has a chuck. This is called a chuck and it allows you to put in pretty much any bit you want because it tightens. it has a collar on there and it tightens onto whatever that bit is, it also has variable speeds and variable options for drilling and this one also has an option as a hammer drill, an impact driver is for power and speed and you can only use bits ready for impact, um You can find a lot of these in combo kits. You see us using the impact driver a lot here because they are very fast, but they take a little time to get used to, which is why you will see a lot of beginners using a drill.

This is an extremely affordable set from Ryobi. Ryobi makes extremely affordable tools. If he is looking for cordless tools, he definitely wants to try 18 volt ones if he can afford them and I would definitely suggest making his first set of drills 18 volt. Because more power is better, it's true, you never want to not have enough power when you can have more, but there are options available for less. We have these 12 volts here, we love them, we use them a lot since they came out. Compact, they have a lot of strength for small things, but we can't do any of that.

We cannot fix them to the walls. We cannot put up studs. We can't do any of that bigger stuff with them because they just don't have it. Beef, there are tons of brands out there, tons of options, we love any of them, we use them, you know, Dewalt Daily, Makita Daily, Milwaukee, Daily and you've seen a lot of these in our content because they're all really hello good. but if you're looking to access them yourself, consider the battery platform you want to be on long term and buy that first drill and impact driver, the first thing you should buy, whether you're in the woodworking shop or homeowner.

Okay, so the number two tool that you're going to want as a beginner workshop or at home, in my suggestion, is a circular saw. There are tons of options available. You have the standard seven and a quarter side saw that will look like this, it's not a seven and a quarter, but you will get the look that you will have your rear handle worm drive saws that look like this, corded and battery powered, tons of options available, get what you can afford, I suggest a seven and a quarter inch saw that plugs into the wall, I have a dewalt, ironically I left it in the house I've had for about 10 years and now it just stays in the house because it's always there to use and it works phenomenal, you can use it with a ruler, you can do really precise things and they're like one of the most versatile tools you can have in a workshop, whether you're framing, or building furniture, whether you go to your friend's house to chop firewood, the circular saw does that and it's great to have now a couple of things that you'll want to consider: the battery rig that you own because you just bought a drone impact because you're listening Yo, yeah you are going to use the wireless system, is it on the same battery platform?

The size of the saw is also important if you are going to cut tables and so on, with the specialized seven and a quarter inch saw, here is a 10 inch one. Also make this 16 inch beam saw, they have monsters when you get used to using this in your workflow, the next evolution will be the track saw, a lot of brands have them, you guys have seen them in my content and they work too . Surprisingly the last one gets smaller if you're doing things that say you're on a ladder or you need to be really mobile, they're five and three quarter inches, they're six and a half inches, tons of options, but we recommend the circular wall saw with regular seven and a quarter inch side socket, which will be the number two tool you should have.

Well, the number three tool that I suggest for all beginners is going to be the clamp, which is why we recommend on the clamp corner, these are literally the first two clamps that I bought. This is called an f style clamp, as you can see, I don't know which way it appears on camera, but it looks like the letter f is very versatile, very, very popular and very affordable, they basically do the job now, they are the best, no , but if you're just starting out, you'll definitely want to look into them now. There are a ton of options available for using them and you see them a lot in my content.

One of the most popular will be the so-called parallel clamp. This will probably be the most expensive option in most cases, but they are very specific to woodworking and also do a very, very good job. They offer what is called parallel clamping. The pressure and help to glue the panel increases a ton. They were one of the first upgrades I chose to make when I purchased more clamps after the first clamp. These are kind of a newer innovation and they are a step up from what is called a pipe clamp and These are an i-beam clamp made by bessie, as you know, bessie is a sponsor of ours and that is why you see a lot of clamps red for me, but either brand is pretty decent.

Bessie does the best and then everything else, but you can do the job with almost anything, these will be able to apply a lot more clamping pressure, such as a pipe clamp. The third most common clamp you will see in my shop will be the compression clamp and This is a compression clamp, it is pretty much used with one hand, we use them for a lot of things, mainly just for quick clamping, so we don't glue panels together with these because, although they have great clamping pressure, they do not work. too, but once you start having a bunch of clamps, they're really nice to have and then bessie also makes these clamps with one hand gears that you only need to use one hand to adjust and tighten, it's also another phenomenal option, but to As the inconvenience goes up, the price goes up and not all of them are a necessity, so in my opinion the number two option for all the yin in a woodworking shop at least will be the clamps, again, the number four tool that I suggest for a beginner wood shop or workshop or whatever a table saw is, here is my table saw, but this was not the first saw I had, what I worked on first is called a job saw and You guys have probably seen this on some of my home remodeling projects, this is our wireless job site.

I saw that it works with a 10 inch saw, I think it has a small blade and it turns out this one is cordless. I also have a corded Dewalt. The brand does not. It doesn't really matter the concept is that it is small, lightweight, portable, easy to use and also quite affordable. I suggest using the table saw because I think the woodworking table saw is the most versatile tool in the shop and I think a lot of

woodworkers

feel the same way, so getting started on one as quickly as possible will help you. There are many phenomenal carpenters who work literally only with construction saws.

My favorite will be Tamara from 3x3 Custom. She's had a saw on the job site forever and it does amazing work, so you don't need this big, beefy guy here to be good with it, although there are plenty of options available, so you have, like I said, your Job sites are the next level called hybrid saw. I used to have one of those in my first store, if you remember the Dewalt saw I had, that was what's called a hybrid saw and then they have their cabinet saw, which is what this guy is. This is a five horsepower saw.

This is pretty much the last style you'll probably ever have. It's bigger than this one. After this, it is for mainly industrial applications, so there is no need to use a crazy big saw. It's good to have and helps. It will be the most important purchase, but also the most versatile thing in your woodworking shop and something I highly recommend you do as quickly as possible. You will save for anything. Make sure it is this. You don't have to be a miter saw you don't need to be a carpenter this table saw is the first big purchase and if you can't do something big go to the job site first you heard tool number five I'm going to suggest for the shop carpentry for beginners. is going to be the planer the planer is the tool that makes your things parallel to your wood, it doesn't make it flat, it makes it parallel, you

must

understand that the most important reason to have a planer is because you can thicken the materials to your liking . thickness is incredible.

I've had this flat lunch box, this one is 12 inches for seven or eight years, it's like it was the first one I bought. I bought it as soon as I could to basically use materials that were larger and make They are smaller and these things work very well. Many people start using them. You can also take them to the workplace. They weigh about 80 pounds, but they get the job done. They have their limitations in terms of horsepower reduction capacity and I used to. to push the limit on how much electricity goes to this thing all the time when i was using it and i hated it so other options will be literal some other dewalt brands also make a 13 and a half inch its really nice this one it has the brush head that moves up and down, 13 and a half, I think it's the same thing, except the entire unit is basically the head.

Both are very, very common, you will see them a lot in many places. of people's stuff this is what is called an electric hand brush you can brush but it is not a brush and this is also your traditional hand brush this is a bonding brush because it is for bonding but it can flatten the sides it is just a long way from doing it in a more traditional sense, uh, than you know, just running it through a machine, preface that to use this you need to buy the wood with at least one flat side to make sure things are parallel. and then once you want to upgrade this little lunchbox here, you can move on to what you're used to seeing in my content, which is the 20-inch helical head planer that you guys have been seeing in my stuff for years.

The table saw was the first major upgrade I made to my shop because it increases capacity by a ton. The helical head on this thing is amazing. Many people will argue that, other than the saw stop, the helical head for joiners and planers is the largest. Advanced woodworking technology that has been around for the last 50 years is phenomenal to have a big, sturdy planer, but it is not a necessity. You can still buy your s4 wood, but you can get much more affordable things that aren't like that and then thicken them with your planer, so number five, get a planer before we dive into the rest of the tools.

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Now, thank you all for sponsoring this one and let's get back to the video, okay, tool number six that you're going to buy after you get those first five, you first have to get those first five and then you can access these. That tool will be the assembler. This is my third assembler and what? What the jointer does is create a flat surface. The reason I have the planer before the jointer is because you can use a hand planer to flatten a surface, which is much moreeconomical and affordable and then brush things. You can also purchase lumber with a flat surface or have a jointed surface at your lumber yard to save you money and time.

The carpenter ends up becoming a convenient thing to buy raw wood for the most part, like I said, he creates a flat surface and then runs it through his planer. you know, make the surface parallel and this will also give you your square edge, like I said, this is the third one. The first was a six inch joiner that I bought on Craigslist, so to all of you, my suggestion is to find the best one. The cheapest, quality six inch joiner you can find in any repurposed market that exists for you. The Joyner is a machine that is fairly basic and you can get a decent quality one on the used market.

When I'm starting out, the second carpenter I had. It was an eight-inch Powermatic, uh, which you guys probably saw a few years ago if you've been watching my stuff, and then this is a 12-inch jointer planer combo, we have it for the width so we can plan our wider joint boards and I. I highly recommend the helical head if you can afford it. Straight knives aren't bad, you just have to replace them more frequently, but the jointer allows you to square the wood quickly and allows you to buy cheaper wood, and if that's the route you're trying. go with your carpentry is to get the most affordable raw materials, a carpenter will definitely be next, but like I said, I prefer to buy a planer first because I already talked about it, so I don't need to repeat myself, but yes, carpenter number. six so tool number seven that I'm going to suggest for the beginning woodworker is going to be the pocket hole jig and for everyone who thinks I hate the pocket hole jig that I make and it's because a lot of people use it wrong.

Additionally, the pocket hole jig is primarily intended to be used with three-quarter inch material for case construction and learning how to build cabinets is an extremely important and versatile skill set for the woodworker, as much as people use this thing to hit in twos at a time. together to do things that I started doing and I'm not going to say I haven't been there it's just not what this method of woodworking was intended. I highly recommend proper use of this tool. There are multiple options. Out there, the easiest one to access will be this little one that's just called r3, I think it used to be.

I have about three or four of these and we use them all the time for case building and armor tools. It has this. really cool jig for pocket holes there are a couple of companies that make them similar to this now Craig is like the king of pocket holes and they also have something similar I think it's their k5 or 4 or whatever and then Craig also makes this incredibly amazing foreman that we use it for almost all of our case building, but the reason I suggest using the pocket hole jig is because you can learn how to use hidden fasteners and two because you can learn how to make cabinets, but not abuse them as you should. not building farmhouse or trestle style tables with pocket holes, believe me I get enough texts and comments about things exploding and people don't understand why and it's because they used pocket hole joinery and not like real joinery, just take it the time to learn how to do it. any other type of woodworking joinery besides pocket holes and you will see and understand why I love them, but I love that they are used correctly number seven, the pocket hole jig, real quick, just to remind you, remember that They are in groups. of five are not in a specific order so by saying this is number eight it could actually be six it doesn't matter just buy them after you buy the first five, in my opinion the number eight tool we have.

Here is the miter saw. The miter saw is an extremely common saw in almost every shop and garage in the country, at least here in the United States, and that's because it's a great tool. We love our miter saw, we use it for rough sawing. I've had a couple of them. We have a Dewalt 12 inch miter saw. This is a Makita 12-inch miter saw. The Bosch 12-inch miter saw. Do you want me to do a review with this at Bosch if you are seeing this? you want that review its not going to happen buy this one dont buy the bosch this one has better dust collection and im in a shop where dust collection is important theres your answer they all have a pretty similar cut for my Applications.

Woodworkers would rip my head off if I said that out loud, so with this you have to think about the cutting capacity and, uh, I guess the versatility of the miter itself, here we have a sliding saw and this is what I'm talking. About versatility, how far can you get away from the fence? A stationary saw won't have as much distance here. I think we can cut up to 13 and a half inches, which allows me to cut wider boards with a rough saw. Instead of having to do it with a table saw which saves me time, I also think I can do about five inches on the vertical cut with a 12 inch saw, a 10 inch saw you'll only get I think three or three and half or something like that, um, that also comes into the equation is also the miter, this saw specifically miters left and right and we also have a bevel on the back, we never use it in the shop, but I'm not going to to do.

Mess with that because we have this square thing but that allows you to tilt left and right, that's all important to some people in our shop, we're cutting things square or mitered, we don't really need to use the bevel, so which is 12 inches. The sliding or sliding saw works great for us and in most woodworking shops I would assume the same and it will be my suggestion for your number eight tool because it will help you cut things quickly and if you set it up correctly, In fact, I can also cut things to final length. I know a bunch of people who do this and it works very well for them, so look them up.

There are tons of options that I'm not going to go into but the miter saw number. eight, okay, tool number nine and I'm going to get a lot of rejection from carpenters with this one. It's the router. The reason I have the router so low on the list is because it is a terrifying tool. There really is a cutter. The head spins at thousands of rpm in your hand and can be scary. The reason I have it on the list is because I recommend getting comfortable in the woodworking shop before using a router, but that being said, the router is probably the most versatile tool. in your shop you could do more with one of these compared to what you can do with everything else besides maybe the table saw, that's debatable, but we have a ton of routers, here we have what that six seven is, I can't count seven seven routers and I think I have four more in the whole store and we use them for a lot of different things, you know, we have big sturdy ones for flattening, we just have general, you know, regular ones, I think they're three quarters of horsepower. routers we have dedicated heads, whether it's a chamfering bit, whether it's a flush cutting bit, I keep a dedicated jig bit on this type for cutting dovetails.

We keep a dedicated bit in the CNC shop on a cordless palm router for cutting lugs. things made with CNC, so you can easily see how having a bunch of them can be useful, but that's because they're so versatile that you can cut almost literally anything you want, whether it's woodworking, whether it's planing. You're trying to cut straight edges and that's because there are so many different bits, the router is definitely a tool that you should have in your shop, you just want to make sure that you're being safe and being careful, the last thing I do.

I'm going to suggest that if you're thinking about buying one, keep an eye out for deals because you can usually get guys like this in pairs during the holidays sometimes or in bundles with other tools, they get super affordable and my last suggestion is I'm going to Be for woodworking, try to get a plunge router base and a fixed router base. You have the plunge router and you have a fixed one. This is a palm router. This is a standard type of router and the handles and everything go into it, but I. I would suggest these routers like here for three-quarters of the standard horsepower.

This is a fixed paste. This is your immersion base. It's done well and the last tool I think you should have in a beginner woodworking shop is a drill press, so similar to As a woodworker, you can find them very affordable on the second hand market and they have a lot of versatility. A drill press will give you the opportunity to create nice, clean, straight holes which, if you use them as exposed fasteners in any type of your woodworking, you can at least make them look clean and you can make sure the holes are perfectly perpendicular to whatever you're cutting, but it's also one of those staples that, when you need it, you're glad to have it in one of those things, when you don't have one, you miss them drastically.

I upgraded to this floor model a few years ago and this thing is a monster. I'll probably never own anything bigger than this and we use it a ton for a lot of things mainly. In our shop we are going to cut holes specifically in the places where we want them because you can use a guide on a table and you can set up stops and guides for repeatable plunging action with the cutter, plus we have plug cutting bits that we use to fill holes and things on a lot of furniture, if we use like a face screw or something that we want to look nice, you will definitely use the drill to make that bench or floor.

You are in a good place, if you have a drill press in your workshop, you have a lot of things that you will be able to use. I've had one since I found a good price. I used to have a tabletop model and after upgrading to this one I doubt I'll ever get rid of it, so the number 10 drill and that'll be a wrap on this one, I understand it can be intimidating to get into woodworking. and confusing, but I hope this has clarified some things for you. Below I have links to all kinds of tools that I suggest and use if you are interested, also if you want to support the channel, buy some damn merch, we are working hard. on it and we know you guys love it and lastly, I really appreciate each and every one of you for tuning in and if you want to watch another tips video, I have it linked right here and I will.

I'll catch you there