10 Must-Have Tools For Beginner Woodworkers

hello yinz and welcome back to the shop before i get into literally anything in this video i just wanted to tell you all that i freaking love you and thank you so much for all of the support and all of our recent ridiculousness myself and the whole team greatly appreciate you so because we appreciate you so much i'm actually listening to your comments your emails your dm's and all of the interactions you guys give me and what i know is a lot of you are beginners and that you're looking to get in to more of the shop work or woodworking or making of anything and so we decided to make you this video now to begin with we're going to assume a few things here one is that you have a tape measure a square some sort of straight edge pencils glue basically a lot of those like regular ass things those are not included in like these 10 tools for beginners and then from there we're going to break this down into my first five tools and then the level up from there so it's like five and five and that's and with math that equals ten so let's get into it all right yen so the first tool that i suggest for pretty much any workshop wood shop or homeowner is gonna be a drill now i have a drill and impact driver here because i do believe they go hand in hand so to start what is the difference in a drill and impact driver you got a drill has a chuck this is called a chuck it allows you to put pretty much any bits you want in it because it tightens over has a collet in there and it tightens over whatever that bit might be also has variable speeds and variable options for drilling and this one also has an option like hammer drilling an impact driver is is for power and speed and can only use impact ready bits um you can find a lot of these in combo kits you see us using the impact driver a ton here because they are very fast but they do take a little bit of time to get used to so you'll see a lot of beginners using a drill this is an extremely affordable set from ryobi ryobi makes extremely affordable tools if you're looking to get into cordless tools definitely want to check them out 18 volt if you can afford it and i would definitely suggest your first set of drills being in 18 volts because more power the better right you never want to not have enough power when you can have more but there are options out there for less we've got these 12 volts here we love these we use them a ton since they showed up they're compact they pack plenty of punch for small things but we can't do any of the we can't fasten into walls we can't set studs we can't do any of that bigger stuff with them because they just don't have the beef there's tons of brands out there tons of options out there we love any of them pretty much we use you know dewalt daily makita daily milwaukee daily and you've seen a lot of these in our content because they're all really really good but if you're looking to get into them yourself consider the battery platform you want to be on long term and buy that first drill and impact driver the first thing you should buy whether you're in the wood shop workshop or a homeowner it might be all right so the number two tool you're gonna want as a beginner uh workshop or the home in my suggestion is a circular saw there's tons of options out there you've got uh the you know seven and a quarter standard sidewinder saw which is going to look like this this is not a seven and a quarter but you get the look you're gonna have your rear handled worm driven saws that look like this corded and battery powered tons of options out there get whatever you can afford i suggest a seven and a quarter inch saw that plugs in the wall i've got a dewalt one ironically i left it at the house that i've had for about 10 years now it just stays at the house because it's always there to use and it works phenomenally you can use it with a straight edge you can do some really precise stuff and they are like one of the most versatile tools to have in a shop whether you're framing whether you're building furniture whether you're going over to your buddy's house to chop up firewood circular saw gets it done and they're great to have now a couple things you're going to want to consider are the battery platform you own because you just bought a drone impact because you're listening to me if you're going cordless is it in the same battery platform that's important also the size of the saw if you're going to be cutting table tops and stuff go with the seven and a quarter inch skill saw here makes a 10 inch they also make this 16 inch beam saw they've got monsters when you get used to using this in your workflow the next evolution is going to be the track saw a bunch of brands have them you guys have seen them in my content and they also work amazingly the last thing is going smaller if you're doing stuff that say you're on a ladder or your need to be really mobile they've got five and three quarter inch they've got six and a half inches out there tons of options but we recommend the seven and a quarter inch regular sidewinder plug in the wall circular saw gonna be the number two tool that you should have alright gins the number three tool that i suggest for all beginners is going to be the clamp hence why we're in clampy corner these are literally the first two clamps i ever purchased this is called an f style clamp as you can see i don't know which way it comes up on camera but it looks like the letter f highly versatile very very very popular and very affordable these basically get the job done now are they the best no but if you're getting into it you definitely want to look into them now there's a ton of options out there to go with these and you see them in my content a lot one of the most popular is going to be what's called a parallel clamp these are going to be the most expensive option most likely in most cases but they are very specific to woodworking and they also do a very very good job they give what's called parallel clamping pressure and help panel glue ups a ton they were one of the first upgrades that i chose to get into when i bought more clamps after the first clamp these are kind of a newer innovation and these are a step up from what's called a pipe clamp and these are an i-beam clamp made by bessie as you guys know bessie is a sponsor of ours and that's why you see a lot of red clamps for me but any of the brands are pretty decent bessie makes the best and then everything else after but you can get the job done with pretty much anything these are going to be able to apply a lot more clamping pressure as is a pipe clamp the third most common clamp you're going to see in my shop is going to be the squeeze clamp and this is a squeeze clamp pretty much use it with one hand we use them for a lot of things mostly just quick kind of clamp up so we do not glue up panels with these because even though they do have great clamping pressure they don't work as well but once you start to get a bunch of clamps they're really nice to have and then bessie also makes these single-handed geared clamps that you only need to use one hand to adjust and to tighten also another phenomenal option but as you get up there inconvenience you get up there in price and not all of them are a necessity so number two option for all of yin's in my opinion in a wood shop at least is going to be the clamps all right gins the number four tool that i suggest for a beginner wood shop or workshop or whatever is a table saw here is my table saw but this wasn't the first saw i owned what i worked on first was it's called a job site saw and you guys have probably seen this in some of my home remodeling projects this is our cordless job site saw this runs with it's a i think it's a 10 inch saw it's got a little blade in there and just this one just happens to be cordless i have a corded dewalt one as well brand doesn't really matter the concept is it's small it's lightweight it's portable and it's easy to use and also pretty affordable to get into i suggest getting into the table saw because i think the table saw for woodworking is the most versatile tool in the shop and i think a lot of woodworkers feel the same so getting into one as quickly as you can in your woodworking is going to help you there's a lot of phenomenal woodworkers out there who work on literally just job site saws my favorite is going to be tamara from 3x3 custom she's had a job site saw forever and she does incredible work so you don't need this big old beefy guy down here to be good with that though there's a lot of options out there so you've got like i said your job sites are the next level is called a hybrid saw i used to have one of those in my first shop if you guys remember that dewalt saw that i had that was what you call a hybrid saw and then you have your cabinet saw which is what this guy is this is a five horsepower saw this is pretty much the last style probably ever owned going bigger than this after this is for mostly industrial applications so you don't need to get into a crazy big saw it is nice to have and it does help it's going to be the biggest purchase but also the most versatile thing in your wood shop and something that i highly highly suggest getting into as fast as possible you're gonna save up for anything make sure that it's this it doesn't need to be a miter saw it doesn't need to be a joiner this guy table saw first big purchase and if you can't go big first go with the job site you heard the number five tool that i'm going to suggest for the beginner wood shop is going to be the planer the planer is the tool that makes your stuff your wood parallel it doesn't make it flat makes it parallel you need to understand that the most important reason for having a planer is because you can thickness materials to your desired thickness it's incredible i've had this lunch box planar this is a 12 inch for seven or eight years now it's like it's the first one i bought i bought it as absolutely soon as i could in order to basically use materials that were larger and make them smaller and these things work great a lot of people get started with them you can also take them to the job site they do weigh like 80 pounds but they get the job done they do have their limitations as far as cut capacity horsepower and i i used to pop the the limit on the amount of i guess electricity going to this thing all the time when i was using it and i hated that so other options out there are just going to be literal a few other brands dewalt also makes a 13 and a half inches is really nice this one has the planer head moves up and down the 13 and a half i believe is the same except the whole unit is basically the head they're both really really common you'll see them a lot throughout a lot of people's stuff this is what is called an electric hand plane it can do planing but it's not a planer and this is also your traditional hand plane this is a jointer plane because it's for joining but it can make sides flat it's just a long way of going about it in a more traditional sense uh than you know just just running it through a machine i do preface that to use this you need to buy your lumber with at least one flat side in order to make sure that you're getting things parallel and then once you want to upgrade from this little lunch box here you can come over to what you're used to seeing in my content which is the 20-inch helical head planer that you guys have been seeing in my stuff for years this besides the table saw was the first major upgrade i made to my shop because it increases capacity a ton the helical head in this thing is amazing a lot of people will argue that you know besides the saw stop the helical head for joiners and planers is the biggest advancement woodworking technology that's been like the last like 50 years a big beefy planer is phenomenal to have but not a necessity you can still buy your lumber s4s but you can get much more affordable stuff that isn't like that and then thickness it with your planer so number five get yourself a planer before we dive into the rest of the tools i want to thank our sponsor on this video woodcraft woodcraft is a huge supporter of my channel and the woodworking community if you guys are looking to get into woodworking it's the best place to start they're going to have almost everything you need especially the tools we've got listed here i've got links down below to everything if you want to check those out as well but i would suggest finding a local woodcraft store getting in there making friends with whoever's running it and being awesome we love our store and we know you guys will love yours check out woodcraft down below and get into the goodness that is woodcraft now thank you guys for sponsoring this one and let's get back to the video all right the number six tool that you're going to purchase after you have those first five you gotta get those first five first then you can get into these that tool is going to be the joiner myself this is my third jointer and what the jointer does is it creates a flat surface the reason i have the planer before the jointer is because you can use a hand plane to flatten a surface which is much cheaper and affordable to get into and then plane things you can also purchase wood with a flat surface or have one surface jointed at your lumber yard to save you money and save you time the joiner ends up becoming a convenience thing for buying rough lumber for the most part like i said creates a flat surface and then you run it through your planer to you know make the parallel surface and this also gives you your square edge like i said this is my third one my first one was a six inch joiner that i bought on craigslist so for all of you out there my suggestion is to find the best quality cheapest six inch joiner you can on whatever repurposed market there is out there for you the joyner's a machine that's pretty basic and you can pretty much get a decent quality one on the used marketplace uh when you're getting started second joiner i had was an eight inch uh powermatic that you guys probably saw a few years ago if you've been watching my stuff um and then this is a 12 inch jointer planer combo we have it for the the width to be able to plane our joint wider boards and i highly suggest helical head if you can afford it straight knives are not bad they just you got to replace them more often but the jointer does allow you to square lumber quickly and allows you to buy lumber cheaper and if that is the route you're trying to go with your woodworking is to get your most affordable raw materials a joiner is definitely going to be next but like i said i prefer getting a planer first because i already talked about it so i don't need to repeat myself but yes joiner number six so the number seven tool that i'm going to suggest for the beginner woodworker is going to be the pocket hole jig and for all of you out there that think i hate the pocket hole jig i do and it's because a lot of people misuse it with that the pocket hole jig is mostly intended to be used with three quarter inch material for carcass building and learning to build cabinets is an extremely important and versatile skill set for the woodworker as much as people use this thing to bang two by fours together to make stuff i got started doing that i'm not gonna say i'm not haven't been there it's just not what this joinery method was intended to do i highly advocate for using this tool properly there's multiple options out there the easiest to get into is going to be this little guy it's just called the r3 i think are used to be i have like three or four of these and we use them all the time for our carcass building and stuff armor tools has this really cool jig for pocket holes there's a couple companies that make them similar to this now craig is like the king of pocket holes and they also have something similar i think it's their k5 or 4 or whatever and then craig also makes this incredibly amazing foreman which we use for pretty much all of our carcass building but the reason i suggest getting into the pocket hole jig is one because you can learn to use hidden fasteners and two you can pretty much learn to make cabinets just don't abuse it like you should not be building farmhouse or trestle style tables with pocket holes trust me i get enough dms and comments on things exploding apart and people not understanding why and it's because they used pocket hole joinery and not like real joinery just take the time to learn how to do any type of other joinery for woodworking besides pocket holes and you'll see and you'll understand why i love them but i love them being used correctly number seven the pocket hole jig all right real quick just to remind you remember these are in clusters of five they're not in a specific order so by saying that this is the number eight it could actually be six it doesn't matter just buy these after you buy the first five in my in my opinion the number eight tool we've got here is the miter saw the miter saw is an extremely common saw in pretty much every shop and garage across the country here in america at least and it's because it's a great tool we love our miter saw we use it for rough sawing i've had a couple of them we have a 12-inch dewalt miter saw this is a 12-inch makita miter side the 12-inch bosch miter saw you guys want me to do a review with this in the bosch if you are watching this and you want that review it's not going to happen buy this one don't buy the bosch this has better dust collection and i'm in a workshop where dust collection matters there's your answer all of them cut pretty comparably in the same for my applications trim carpenters would rip my head off if i said that out loud so with it you want to be thinking about cut capacity and uh the i guess the versatility of the miter itself here we have a sliding saw and this is kind of what i'm talking about versatility how much distance can you get away from the fence a fixed saw isn't going to have as much distance here i think we can cut up to 13 and a half inches almost which lets me cut wider boards on a rough saw them here instead of having to do it on table saw which saves me time also i can think i can do about five inches on the vertical cut with the 12 inch saw a 10 inch saw you're only going to get about i think three or three and a half or something like that um so that goes into the equation as well also is the miter this saw specifically miters left and right and we also have a beveling on the back side we never use it in the shop but i'm not going to mess with it because we have this thing square but that lets you tilt left and right all that stuff matters for some people for our shop we're cutting things square or at miters we don't really need to use the bevel so a 12 inch saw sliding or gliding works really well for us and in most wood shops i would assume the same and it's going to be my suggestion for your number eight tool because it's going to help you with cutting things down quickly and if you set it up properly you can actually cut things to final length on it as well i know a bunch of guys that do that and it works really great for them so look into them tons of options out there i'm not going to dive into but the miter saw number eight all right tool number nine and i'm going to get a lot of pushback on this one from woodworkers is the router the reason i have the router kind of this low on the list is because it's a terrifying tool it really is there's a cutter head spinning at thousands of rpms in your hand and it can be scary it's the reason i have it down the list is because i i advocate for becoming comfortable within the woodshop before getting into a router but that being said the router is probably the most versatile tool in your shop you could do the most with one of these compared to what you can do with everything else besides maybe the table saw that's arguable but um we have a ton of routers here we've got what is that six seven i can't count seven seven routers and i think i have four more throughout the shop and we use them for a ton of different things you know we have big beefy ones for flattening we have just general uh you know regular i think that's a three-quarter horsepower routers that we have dedicated heads in them whether it's a chamfering bit whether it's a flush cutting bit i keep a dedicated bit for templating in this guy for cutting dovetails we keep a dedicated bit in the cnc shop in a cordless palm router for cutting tabs on things out of cnc so you can easily see how having a bunch of them can become in handy but with that it's because they're so versatile you can cut almost almost literally anything you want whether it's joinery whether you're doing flattening whether you're trying to cut straight edges and that's because there's so many different bits out there the router is definitely a tool you need to have in your shop you just want to make sure that you are being safe and you're being careful the last thing i'm going to suggest if you're getting into buying one is keep your eye open for sales because you can typically snag up guys like this in pairs during the holidays sometimes or in bundles with other tools they become super affordable and my last suggestion is going to be for woodworking try and get a plunge router base and a fixed router base you have the plunge and you've got a fixed this is a palm router this is kind of a standard router and the handles and everything get into it but i would suggest these routers like here for standard three-quarter horsepower this is a fixed paste this is your plunge base get er done all right and the last tool i think you should have in a beginner wood shop is a drill press reason being is similar to the joiner you can find them very affordable in the used marketplace and they do have a lot of versatility a drill press is going to give you an opportunity to create nice clean straight holes which if you're using like exposed fasteners in any type of your woodworking you can at least make them look clean and you can make sure the holes are perfectly perpendicular to whatever you're cutting but it also is it's just one of those staples that when you need it you're glad you have it in one of those things when you don't have one you drastically miss it i upgraded to this floor model a few years ago and this thing's a monster i'll probably never have anything bigger than this and we use it a ton for a lot of stuff mostly in our shop is going to be cutting holes specifically in places that we want them because you can use a fence on a table and you can set up stops and guides for repeatable plunging action with the cutter as well as we have a plug cutter bits that we use to fill holes and stuff in a lot of the furniture if we're using like a face screw or something that we want to look pretty you're definitely going to use the drill press in order to do that bench top or floor you're in a good place if you have a drill press in your shop you've got a lot of things that you're going to find use for it with i've had one since since the minute i found a good price on one i used to have a bench top model and after i upgraded to this i doubt i'll ever get rid of it so number 10 the drill press and that's going to be a wrap on this one i understand it can be intimidating to get into woodworking and confusing but hopefully this cleared some things up for you guys i have links down below to all kinds of tools that i suggest and i use if you're interested also if you want to support the channel buy some damn merch we're working hard on it and we know you guys are loving it and lastly i genuinely do really appreciate each and every one of you for tuning in and if you want to see another tips video i've got it linked up for you right here and i'll catch you over there

Channel: John Malecki

Views: 614,986

Rating: 4.909091 out of 5

Keywords: John Malecki, John Malecki Builds, Woodworking, How To, woodworking tools, woodworking tools for beginners, woodworking tools you must have, basic woodworking tools, getting started in woodworking, tools for the beginner, top 10 woodworking tools, gifts for woodworkers, woodworking tools 2020, woodworking tools diy

Id: 2eFeB2fTiQY

Length: 22min 25sec (1345 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 01 2020