# What tools do I NOT need?



## 12strings (Nov 15, 2011)

Adam Cherubini once had a post listing the tools that you DON'T NEED.
See here: http://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/arts-mysteries-blogs/tools-you-dont-need

Do you guys have any other to add to the list?


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## Sawkerf (Dec 31, 2009)

I don't buy glue brushes - old toothbrushes work just fine.


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## FatherHooligan (Mar 27, 2008)

Battery powered anything (except maybe a flashlight);-)


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## krisrimes (Jun 17, 2011)

I have to agree with Mark. After my last set of Dewalt batteries died on my, I decided that I was done with battery tools.


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## Martyroc (Feb 1, 2012)

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


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## BTimmons (Aug 6, 2011)

Clamps! Who needs 'em?

Kidding. I know that basically amounts to blasphemy around here.


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## enurdat1 (Apr 1, 2012)

There are many tools I don't consider a need. Do you really need every size chisel available? How about every different scroll saw blade? That being said, I've never met a tool I wouldn't take home, or at least try out.


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## AnttiN (May 2, 2012)

Hi,

For many years I believed with each additional tool I acquired, fewer were then still needed. After a long life I at last understand the truth is exactly the opposite.

Have a nice day,
Antti


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## BTimmons (Aug 6, 2011)

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.


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## 12strings (Nov 15, 2011)

On Polyshades…agreed…not really a tool though.


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## North40 (Oct 17, 2007)

I can say with certainty that you do not need a Slickplane.


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## davidmicraig (Nov 21, 2009)

Not sure I can answer this question since the tools that I could use are often tools that I decided I didn't need a few weeks prior


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

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.


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## rockindavan (Mar 8, 2011)

Belt sander


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## bluekingfisher (Mar 30, 2010)

No belt sander…really…...a cure for all ails…or a least a good many!


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## NJWiliam (May 16, 2011)

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."


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

appearantly I woodwork differently than the author. Really, who doesn't use a block plane? I disagree with most of his list.

http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/what-planes-do-i-need/


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## laanguiano (Jun 15, 2010)

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


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## lumberjoe (Mar 30, 2012)

The adjustable wrench. There is no tool more frustrating (to me) than an adjustable wrench.


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## lumberdog (Jun 15, 2009)

What i don't need is someone telling me what i need and what i don't need.


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## CharlieM1958 (Nov 7, 2006)

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.


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## greg48 (Nov 7, 2010)

I have to throw my vote into the hand held belt sander camp unless you convert it to a racer


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## ArlinEastman (May 22, 2011)

Musturd or Catsup on my wood.

Arlin


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## craftsman on the lake (Dec 27, 2008)

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.


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## TroutStalker (Mar 6, 2009)

I've always thought that a power hand planer is the most useless tool ever invented. A properly tuned and sharpened hand plane is a much better option.


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## Tennessee (Jul 8, 2011)

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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## trz (Aug 5, 2011)

Appears the author has an aversion to planes and chisels. Has nothing to do with an actual list of tools other than those two. Can't really give that list any amount of usefulness as everyone has there own preferences for tools.


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## bodymanbob (Jan 4, 2010)

ONLY THE ONE'S i HAVE NOT BOUGHT YAT..LOL… I HAVE OVER $60,000 OF HAND TOOLS. i WONT TELL YA WHAT i HAVE IN POWER TOOLS AND SHOP EQUM. WHAT CAN I SAY, I LOVE TOOLS. THERE BETTER FOR YOU THEN DRUGS.


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## teejk (Jan 19, 2011)

As I see the problem, many people are too quick in buying decisions (the marketing guys love you!).

I developed a rule years ago (the hard-way) to look at a particular task and decide how it could be done.

From there I look to what I already have (might take a little more time but if it's a "one-timer", I make do). If I don't have something already to do it efficiently (and I should probably stress "safely"), I then check around to see what it costs to have somebody else do it.

Pretty simple system I think. I may be somewhat fortunate in that I went through corporate moves every few years and got to clean-out my junk.


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## lunn (Jan 30, 2012)

I've got a crash axe from a C141 aircraft. No use for it at all in woodworking or anything else. But it's a tool and i got one !


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## davidroberts (Nov 8, 2008)

I was hoping the list would have variety, like a graduated ruler down to 256th (love those Incra's though), or a set of 6 machinist squares, or most of those brightly colored $20 do-dads filling up shelf space in a Rocklers or Woodcraft store, or my favorite, a 20,000 grit waterstone, even an 8000 for that matter. But like others have said, it's mostly planes and chisels making the top 10 list. I have 5 planes and about 3 full sets of chisels. Since I don't make violins or wooden aircraft carriers, I could get by with 3 planes and a good set of bench chisels plus a couple of three specialty chisels off ebay. I use my setup bars quite a bit, my folding rule less, but would not part with either. I built an alter for my 12v Bosch drill/driver set and light a candle daily ( well no, but kinda). I use both most every day, but many folk could just as easily do without. My miter lock bit, sure why not through it on ebay or deep in the rathole, but will think of 17 good reasons to use it the next day. I guess I don't need that fourth old deWalt RAS I bought. Hold on just a minute. Yes I do. Of course I do. Excuse me, I just had a momentary lapse. I'm ok now.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

Once you understand how to build stuff the need for tools
diminishes. Investing our time in acquiring understanding
and knowledge is the best investment.

When you cut wood for cash, it's a matter of trimming the 
fat in your process so you can turn out more work. That's
where the nice machines and specialized hand tools help…
but if you know how you can build a Queen Anne highboy
with only a dozen or so hand tools and do it with reasonable
efficiency if you are fit and able.


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## DaveHuber (Nov 12, 2009)

This thread should be killed immediately!

Someone's wife might find it and print it out. Then where would we all be?

"need" is in the eye of the beholder.

Who ever said that "need" was any kind of criteria for buying tools, anyway?

OP should be forever branded a heretic and shunned lest he repent!


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## RussellAP (Feb 21, 2012)

Tools are good. If they had boobs, they'd be even better. I use them all at least once. Plus they look good hanging there.


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

*What i don't need is someone telling me what i need and what i don't need.*
.
^Totally agree
.
I own every tool on that list. You don't need a block plane or a shoulder plane? You can replace them with a woodbodied smoother? C'mon, man. 
.
You guys don't need Harleys or Fords either; Scooters and go-karts will get you there


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## ShipWreck (Feb 16, 2008)

I agree DaveHuber.

LMAO


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## knotscott (Feb 27, 2009)

- Biscuit cutter (don't usually need biscuits, and router works well for the times I do want them)
- blade stabilizers (never noticed a difference with or without)
- brand name specialized blade cleaners (there are a ton of good alternatives in your house)
- digital fence readout (pretty neat gadget, but I rarely use it, and never really need it)
- specialized table saw alignment instruments (a decent combo square and a cheap HF digital caliper work well)

Boy do I disagree with Pop WWing's view that a block plane isn't needed….I use mine a lot….it's the first (and often cheapest) plane you should get IMO.


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## JJohnston (May 22, 2009)

Well, since the article referenced is Adam Cherubini, my answer to the question is….silly Ben Franklin costumes.


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## craftsman on the lake (Dec 27, 2008)

knotscott, I agree with you mostly but in my previous post when I said that you don't need them but sometimes they are handy.

I recently picked up a new (used) dewalt biscuit joiner for $50 on craigslist. I make a lot of slab stuff, table tops, benches, etc. I have a 6" jointer so all my stuff is glued together. Now I can do it without the biscuit jointer but it saves a lot of time getting those edges alligned. It can be done without but it sure is convenient with it.

Cleaners…. evaporust beats hours of sanding any day on rusted stuff. and Simple green cleans all my saw blades without making a mess, doing eco harm, or making me pass out from the fumes. Sure oven cleaner will work but this has advantages.

The point being, sometimes you can do without but it depends on the person and what they make and how much convenience you want.


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## waho6o9 (May 6, 2011)

"1) Block plane- I've had several of these over the years. The only new plane I ever bought was a jewel-like LV LA block plane. It's a lovely tool I never use. I bought it for planing end grain, but never use it for that. I use my humble wood bodied smoother, typically the sharpest plane in my shop. The high angle of the smoother seems to matter not at all. More about that later. I even prefer the cambered iron for this operation as it works just like a try plane. Center the plane on the high spot, holding the tool flat against the end grain. The cambered iron takes a heavier shaving there and less or none on the low side. Works like a charm."

Bats in the belfry. Must have block planes.


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## joebloe (Feb 13, 2012)

You can never have to many tools,plane and simple.I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Plus I like TOOLS.


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