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What tools do I NOT need?

4K views 40 replies 37 participants last post by  joebloe 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
#5 · (Edited by Moderator)
Personally I need every tool I can get my hands on! I'm a tool guy, I probably have 8 or 9 tools I use on almost every project, and 3 or 4 I occasionally use. I like knowing that whatever the project/job/renovation/landscape/cement, etc etc I have to do, I have the tool for it. Where to put them all? Now that's the question that needs to be asked, and answered :)
 
#9 ·
Actually, I did think of something. Mortising attachments for a drill press. Haven't used one myself, but I've been doing my homework for a while now, and it's tough to find anyone with something positive to say about them.

Oh, and another. Polyshades. Avoid like the plague.
 
#13 · (Edited by Moderator)
In fine work I have found shoulder planes superior to
rabbet planes in refining joints. That said, a very sharp
chisel can work just as well and is faster if you have
the skill to use it well.

The irons don't shift in my side rabbet planes. Perhaps
the author only had experience with snipe bill planes and
not the machined metal ones. They are useful tools when
you need them… but pretty much a professional's tool
as the need doesn't come up much and the planes are
an expedient to getting the work assembled and out the door.

I agree with him on the block planes and low-angle planes.
I've found them not that useful. In carpentry a block
plane comes in handy in an apron pocket though.
 
#16 ·
If I knew what I could refurbish, sharpen, and what a properly set up tool felt like when I started, I would have considerably fewer newly manufactured tools. So if you can acquire that knowledge without buying new tools, you could save a bundle by sticking with vintage tools that you refurbish. Oh, also learn about vintage tool manufacturers. Last week I picked up a few Witherby socket chisels for $3 each . . .

I prefer what Ron Herman said at a lecture of his I was at recently, "The more tools you have, the more problems you can solve."
 
#18 ·
I agree with Don W above. I disagree with basically the entire list; but really the problem is the question. A person that makes furniture will use a mortiser a lot, where someone making small jewlery boxes will never use one. Every tool has its purpose.

Also some tools make others useless. I bought a small bullnose plane for cleaning up lots of little things. it was cheap. Now i have graduated and use a Lie Nielsen Shoulder Plane. Now that I have that, I almost never use my small bullnose plane now. I used my jigsaw a lot until i got a bandsaw. Now i almost never use my jigsaw. I used my belt sander alot until i got a drum sander.

The question should instead be. Which tool do you use the least in your shop? Its still flawed by the projects you do, but at least is a better overall question.

Of all the tools i have so far, I use my Combo Sander(Disc and belt), Drill Press, My router that isnt attached to my router table the least. And the the other ones i listed above, but those are because they got trumped
 
#21 ·
I have to agree with lumberdog.

Like in most things, in woodworking there are usually many ways to skin a cat, so to speak. Every woodworker develops his own favorite methods as he learns the craft. and the list of tools you will or won't need all depends on how you like to work.
 
#24 ·
It isn't what you don't need it's what you need most. Most people can't get along without a drill but a drill press in pretty nice. I have a pocket hole jig and a biscuit joiner. I could make due with one or the other or even just tenons but sometimes one of them seem to make a project go easier. I use my scroll saw rarely but when I need it, it beats hours of using a coping saw or just not adding any scroll work. The list goes on.

Then again there's compensation. I have an old Rockwell/delta contractors saw. It rips great. I'd hate to have to rely on it for super accurate crosscuts. My 12" sliding miter saw makes up for most of that. If one had a really nice table saw you might not have to bother with a miter saw. Some people will say, " I hardly ever use my miter saw". They probably have a good table saw with incra fence. I can see why they'd say that. I use mine a lot.
 
#26 ·
I find that every tool in my shop, probably hundreds now that I have been into wood for over 40 years, I use sooner or later. And I am always finding new ways to use old tools. Like the other day, I was trying to learn a better way to level frets on my guitars, and StewMac had a video with a crazy expensive straight edge that allows you to tell if you have a high fret. "Precision machined", they said. Well, so are my $9 a hundred razor blades, and they cover three frets, as Stewmac recommends, and I can tell if I have a high "rocker" fret, as they call them, by simply lightly setting the blade on three at a time and rocking it back and forth. Their $32.00 crowning file? I took a piece of walnut stock, found a straight router bit with a roundover contour just slightly larger than my frets, and routed a .030" round groove in the walnut. Cut it to size, tape on 400 grit, crowns frets like a champ after the initial filing with the Harbor Freight mini files I bought for $5.00. Their metal polish? Won't even talk about it. I use the German metal polish I found at a flea market three years ago for $7.00 a tube and I still got half the tube. Shees… OK, I'm done ranting now.

I do favor the new smaller line of li-ion battery drills out now. I like them so much I retired my honkin' Milwaukee and Porter Cable battery drills and bought two of the Rigids with 3/8" chucks. Turns out I only need that 1/2" chuck maybe once a month. My old artheritic arms thank me everyday. If I need to hog out a 1" hole in oak I bring out the Milwaukee. But that is maybe once every few months.
 
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