Tools for a new guy

I think hand tools are a must with a limited space and budget.

-- Shooting down the walls of heartache. Bang bang. I am. The warrior.

Oh boy…..I would search for some resources on getting started. Just too much on a forum like this.

I’ll tell you what NOT to do: Don’t start buying a bunch of power machines.
Fridge’s advice is very good. Things like a TS & SCMS takes up a lot of real estate and the working space in your garage will disappear as quickly as your cash.

As for the tools, it depends on what brands they are. Could be good stuff, could be not so good stuff. Truthfully, most of my father’s ww’ing tools were junk – cheap Stanley beater chisels, horrible block plane, etc.

You are going to need hand tools anyway. I would get them first.

Check out Paul Sellers, Tom Fidgen, etal. You’ll be surprised what you can do with hand tools (and how fast)

-- Everything is a prototype thats why its one of a kind!!

I used this video as a guide to build my router planing jig for my workbench and it worked very well.

http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/videos/flattening-workbenches-and-wide-boards-with-a-router/

The hardest part for you will be getting flat rails to reference off of since you don’ have a jointer. I think Marc mentioned something like metal studs as a possibility but I’m not sure how flat they really are on edge.

Even after doing this I used a jack plane set to a very light cut and a card scrapper to remove the small ridges left behind. Not sure if my router collet isn’t perfectly 90 degrees to the base if the bit was a little off, it was the jig or just me but I ended up with very light ridges after I was done. Nothing a very light pass with a plane and card scrapper didn’t fix and in the case of my bench it left a little grip in the bench that prevents stuff from sliding around which was nice.

It doesn’t sound like you need a lot more to build things as you are already doing well from the projects you have built. There are a lot of tools that are time and back savers but minus maybe a jack plane for general purpose work and flattening small pieces and a smoothing plane for final cleanup I’m not sure you “need” much else to the job done and even a smoothing plane is probably optional if you like sandpaper well enough.

Hope this help,

Richard.