Month: April 2012

Woodworking requires that you have the right skills but also a lot of tools. Although you can do everything with manual tools, power tools will save you a lot of time. Hand-held or portable power tools are cheap and easy to use. The basic power tools for woodworkers are the drill, the router and the sander. Stationary woodworking tools are generally associated with workshops but some stationary tools can also be used at home.

Stationary woodworking tools are more powerful than handheld tools, and they free up your hands. But stationary machines are often expensive and many of them take up a lot of space. The only handheld tool that does not have a more powerful stationary counterpart is the router. The wooden router is a very versatile tool.

For home use, you have a couple of interesting stationary woodworking tools. Here are the most important.

If you are doing a lot of sanding, a stationary disc sander or combined disc and belt sander can be a very good investment. Portable disc sanders have only a small disc, otherwise they will be difficult to control. That is not a problem with a stationary disc sander. Note that a combined disc and belt sander is a compromise. If you need really good sanders, you’d better buy one disc sander and one belt sander.

The lathe has been around for a long time. Simple lathes were used already in the ancient Egypt. It is the best tool for woodturning. Since woodturning allows you to create really beautiful wooden artifacts, it is a popular hobby. Lathes come in all possible shapes and forms, the small models are often reasonably priced.

Bench grinders are not really woodworking tools but they are very versatile. For woodworkers, a bench grinder is very useful. It is the best tool for sharpening bits. Drill and router bits must be kept sharp. Needless to say, a bench grinder can be used for much more than just sharpening bits. Most bench grinders are small and relatively inexpensive.

Jointers and planers are excellent tools for rough wood. They are used a lot in professional workshops but the smaller models are cheap enough to justify them for home use. Sometimes the terms jointer and planer are used for the same device. But a jointer is used to straighten edges while a planer is used to produce a flat surface. Just to complicate things, you also have combined jointers and planers. Jointers and planers are often expensive but they can save you a lot of time.

A drill is an indispensable tool for woodworkers. The stationary version of the drill is the drill press. A drill press lets you bore holes much more accurate than a portable drill. Of course, a drill press can be used for more than drilling.

Woodworking is a popular hobby. Working with wood not only requires that you have the right skills, you also need some tools. Professional woodworkers have a wide variety of tools, many of them are quite expensive. But the average woodworker doesn’t need many expensive tools. And a beginner can do a lot with just cheap tools.

The first thing a woodworker needs is a good workbench. It is possible to build your own workbench but that project is best to leave until later. You have a lot of workbenches to choose from. Make sure to select one that has tool trays. This helps you to keep your workspace clean. Since you are going to use the workbench for every project, it pays off to take your time and find a workbench that really suits you.

Woodworking is not without its dangers, so a few safety tools are highly recommended. To protect your eyes, use safety glasses. A face shield gives you even more protection. If you are sanding, a dust mask is recommended. If you are using noisy power tools use hearing protection. Also make sure that you have a first aid kit available, just in case something goes badly wrong.

You need some vises and clamps. The most popular are C clamps, bar clamps, hand-screw clamps and pipe clamps. Additionally, a bench vise for your workbench will free up your hands.

Woodworking requires good tools for measuring. The most basic measuring tools are the steel rule, the tape measure and the caliper. Many more measuring tools are available. Fortunately, most of them are cheap.

The saw is maybe the tool that is most often associated with woodworking. You have a large amount of different types of saws. The most important saws for woodworkers are the back saw, the crosscut saw, the coping saw and the rip saw.

A woodworker does not need as many hammers as one could believe. The most important hammer is the claw hammer. It is used not only to drive nails into the wood, it can also be used to extract nails from the wood. A finish hammer, or finishing hammer, is also good to have. To knock wooden pieces together, use a wooden mallet. It is also used to drive dowels and chisels.

Shaping tools are important in woodworking. The most important are the file, the knife and the plane. The most useful planes are the smooth plane and the low-angle block plane. You have a lot of files on the market. The two most important are the mill bastard file and the flat rasp. A good knife belongs in the basic woodworker tool kit. Woodworking requires sanding. Sanders are the best solution but you need to do some sanding manually as well.

You can use manual drills but an electric drill will be much more convenient. For most people, an electric drill is the first power tool they buy. For woodworking, a drill and a router are the two mostly used power tools.

The drill is the most common of all power tools. Almost every household has an electric drill. They are cheap and can be used for many tasks around the house. But you have two other types of drills that can be useful as well.

Simple drills have been used for thousands of years. The manual drill is quite useful for small jobs. Today, two types of manual drills are still used. The small hand drill is easy to use. Back in the 19th century the geared hand drill was developed and it quickly became popular. The hand drill is only suitable for small holes. Before the electric drill, larger holes were done using a hand brace, also called a chest brace or a carpenter’s brace. The brace has been around for a long time and was used to drill large holes. Of course, an electric drill is much more comfortable but the manual drills are still useful for some specific tasks.

The electric drill has been very popular for quite some time. It is the first power tool people generally buy. Nowadays, the cordless drill has become the first choice for most people. Thanks to improved batteries, cordless drills can be used for all drilling tasks. The modern cordless drill can also be used as a screwdriver. If your drill has a reverse switch, you can use it as a screwdriver. Note that you need to lower the speed as well.

If you are going to use the drill a lot, a corded version may be a better solution anyway. Modern lithium-ion batteries can be charged quickly, so it is possible to use such a drill, with two battery packs, non-stop. A hammer drill is needed if you are going to drill in hard materials. You have both corded and cordless hammer drills. Since the hammering action quickly drains the battery, a corded hammer drill is the best solution if you are going to use the hammering action a lot.

If you are going to do precision-drilling, a drill press is the right tool. Unlike the other drills, the drill press is a stationary tool. Drill presses are large and expensive so unless you really need one, don’t worry about them. Modern drill presses have lasers that make it very easy to drill accurately. You have a few fairly cheap drill presses on the market so if you want one, you don’t need to be a millionaire to be able to afford a drill press at home.

This drill overview would not be complete if we didn’t mention that an electric drill can also be used as a sander. Of course, it will not be as good as a real sander but for basic sanding tasks you can use an electric drill.