Reply by bobblack

You are getting on a slippery slope – but it can be grand fun. When analyzing advice keep in mind that most woodworkers have a power tool mindset. Also keep in mind that all of the “good” furniture was made well before power tools were available. My definition of “good” is a piece that sold for over a million dollars, thus probably being an antique.

I think that to do good work requires a mix of hand and power tools, while keeping in mind that power tools are inventions to duplicate what was done with hand tools. A good beginning would be to obtain the three Tage Frid books on hand work. Try abe.com or ebay.

First tool should be a good bench with the flattest top you can produce. There are many plans out there but if you can’t hold steady it’s hard to do good work.

Pick up measuring tools as you need them. The bench can be made with a circular saw and hand tools for a start. Many plans are available in old magazines.

I’m of the opinion that if you put counters on every start switch on the power tools in a well equipped professional shop you would find that the table saw is by far the most used piece of equipment.

All you need to get a board or a table top flat and square is a bench, a hand plane, a hand saw, a couple of winding sticks and a square. I think this is one of the most labor intensive jobs in a shop. For my money, this makes a planer and a jointer the next items on the power tool list. The jointer gives you a flat plane on the large face and then a square edge that is also flat. You then you have reference surface to feed into the planer, and then a ripping pass through the cabinet saw to get the second edge parallel and square to the jointed edge.

If you are thinking of a hobby version of a trim shop forget all of the above. Typically a trim shop will have moulders, routers, and shapers with no workbenches or hand tools.

I’m an old tool nut with the idea that to keep costs down you have to go used and probably rebuild what you buy. That will have you wire brushing a lot of rust so if you can find working used tools and can afford them then by all means go that route. Example – my jointer. I paid $750 plus $50 loading, made a one day trip to pick it up. Cleaned it up, painted it for show and love it. I’d guess a new replacement would run $15,000 -$18,000, and for the record, financially, I could never consider spending that kind of money on a jointer.