5 Tools Under $30 Every Woodworker Needs

hey man today i'm gonna show you five small tools under thirty dollars that i think you need in your workshop these tools will make your woodworking life easier safer and just all around more awesome let's do it number one on the list is the dfm small square this thing is very small but it packs a ton of features into a tiny little package let me show you and if you're not a fan of purple like i am then you can actually get this in blue black gray or even tie-dye colors so multiple colors to choose from i'll put a link in the description below to all the tools you see in the video today one of the main uses for such a small square is using it to square up the blade on your table saw and the reason a small square works in this situation is it's under the teeth of the blade so you raise your blade up and then you can put this on there and then move it to square and the teeth don't affect it on a lot of times on say a speed square or any other type of right angle square that is taller than say two or three inches the teeth start affecting it because you have to make sure that the blade of the square isn't touching one of the teeth on your saw blade because if it does it'll throw it off if you squared your table saw blade up with a longer square before you know what i'm talking about also if you have a small bench top bandsaw like i have it's really great for that because there's not many squares that can fit in this tiny little space to check the square of the blade to the table this is perfect for that you can also use this at the drill press to check the square of your drill bits to the table all the way around another really cool feature of this little square is it comes with these little metal pins that drop in these holes it's going to help you find the center of any board up to this wide drop those pins in then twist it and then wherever it lands right there is going to be center there's a hole in the middle that's four pencils it has a small hole down in the bottom for pencil lead to go through you just twist that and then you just mark the board that's going to be your center mark it also works on thinner stock as well that's going to be center every time of course a square is a square for a reason and you can use it to check the square of your cuts if you're using smaller pieces like this or like this you can also use it to check the face to the edge of a square of thin stock like this and of course you can use it on chisels to check uh oh that one's out of square you can check the blade of your chisel to see if they're square which mine are not you'll find a ton of uses for this tiny little square in your shop it's just it's durable it's made out of solid aluminum so even if you chunk it like i just did it's not gonna hurt it and you can stick it in your pocket and keep it with you at all times just in case you're at walmart need to know if the shelf is square [Music] number two on the list this is the fulton thin rip jig you can use this on your table saw your router table or your band saw let me show you if you've ever had to make several thin strips on your table saw this thing is going to be your next best friend if you see on the router table or the workbench where i've ripped those half or three-quarter inch wide walnut strips to cover the edge of that plywood to make it look a little better or various other reasons you need to rip thin strips this thing will make everything much easier let me show you so it runs in a miter slot fits most table saw miter slots put it behind the blade never put it at or on the other side of the blade because that could cause kickback so the way this works is it has a knob on top you loosen that off and you set the fence where you want it for the first cut move this over until it touches your work or the wood you're cutting and then tighten this knob down once you snug this knob down it's going to snug up in the t-track or in your miter slot as well that way it doesn't move and then there's a roller right here on the end that rolls helps guide the wood through the cut and i'm going to make several cuts to show you how it works but once you make the first cut then you can move your fence over with the stock between the fence and the jig and then when it bumps lock your fence down to make your next cut it's going to be the same every single time so as you can see i was able to make seven strips that are quarter inch wide exactly the same just by moving the fence if you've ever tried to make that quarter inch rip by setting the fence at a quarter inch and then ripping with the quarter inch between the blade and the fence you know at the end of that cut it gets kind of hairy because there's only a quarter inch space so you can't get a push stick in there to finish the cut and it makes it just it's just too dangerous this makes it a lot safer and it's a really cool little jig that you can use in multiple places this is one of those tools you'll be glad you got it when you need it and they're so inexpensive it's well worth having it in the shop it's extremely well made all aluminum except for this top handle which is plastic but other than that everything is metal so you're really it's going to last you a very long time i like that it has the scale on there and i like how easy it fits or works on the table saw i said it'll work on a router table or bandsaw that's if you have a proper miter slot in there and not t-track just keep that in mind speaking of things under thirty dollars go check out 731boobworks.com we have a lot of build plans available for you under 30 and several bundle packages will save you even more money bundling them together versus buying them individually easy to follow step-by-step build plans to help you make awesome projects go check us out number three on the list the dfm setup block now i bought all of these tools dfm doesn't even know my name i just saw these on amazon and thought they were fantastic so i'll pick both the square and this up check this out so we got our blade square earlier remember with the little setup square now we can use the setup block to actually get the height set correctly what i love about this little block is it's really simple to use it stands on its own and has clearly marked measurements this is one eight three eight five eighths the other side is quarter half three quarter all the way up to two inches you can use this to set the height of your blade and the blade itself is precisely a quarter inch thick so you could also use it that way to set up one quarter inch deep quarter quarter and of course you can also use it here at the router table to set the depth of your bits as needed all the way from again eight to two inches you can also use it on a fixed base router to set the depth but it does take a little extra oomph because it'll fall off the edge and not hold square it's not really the best for this but it will work in a pinch dfm tools are made in the usa if you like to support usa owned and operating companies so go check them out i'll put a link to this in the description number four on the list spring clamps this is a six inch spring clamp from tay tools you can get a 10 pack of these for less than 15 at the time of this recording so you get a ton of these for a low low price they actually come in several different sizes two three four six and nine i believe these are the six inch models what's really great about these is they actually have a really strong spring get a good clamping pressure and then also pivoting non-marring jaws on the tips and then in the jaw of them there's little teeth so if you had to clamp around something round like a dial this would work for that as well most of us work alone in the shop and having an extra set of hands is always needed in a lot of situations anyway so for instance if i was trying to hang these drawer slides a lot of times i like to make my mark where they're going to go and then trying to get those in place without some type of jig or help is can be difficult these little clamps will help you get those in place and then you can set your drawer slide in place and then attach it to the frame that you're going to be putting the drawers in so that's going to give you a little support and extra hand in that situation also on small glue ups where you don't want to break out the big clamps or you just don't need them you can just use these to hold your pieces in place while they dry these are super handy for that because you can put multiples on there they have plenty of clamping pressure for small parts like that if i was gluing those two pieces up and needed just to hold those while the glue dried perfect perfect for that you can also use them like a face clamp similar to a pocket hole when you're pocking hole in pieces together because these two pieces pivot you'll be able to you'll be able to put those pieces together it'll hold them flush while you drive your pocket holes and i'm telling you there's just so many uses for these things i can just we can just keep going i keep mine here on the end of the workbench so that they're always handy within arm's reach but you can also clamp them on the shelf as you see here just anywhere that this thing will clamp to a 10 pack of these for under dollars like that's a no-brainer in my opinion just to have these in the shop when you need them they're very well made this is a good quality plastic it doesn't feel cheap at all and the spring i don't know how to explain how much pressure is there i i couldn't hold this for an extended length of time just sitting here like this my hand would get really tired because that's a it's a really strong spring even putting your finger in it is uncomfortable it doesn't like crush you but it's uncomfortable this is a really good set of hand clamps or spring clamps that you need to pick up the shop last but certainly not least clamping assembly squares if you have ever tried to put two pieces of plywood together making the cabinet like on the router table or even this workbench or building cabinets minor stations anything like that and you need those two pieces to stay 90 degrees while you're working on them and it won't fall over on you constantly like you see here or you're trying to pocket all things together you just need them to hold at 90 degrees free up your hands because you're by yourself as we stated before you just need an extra set of hands this is what you need and of course they come in a variety of sizes the eight inch the biggest ones are under fifteen dollars under twenty dollars at the time of this filming and that's the most expensive set you're gonna get four in the set of course you can pick up the six inch the four inch or the three inch as well of course as they get smaller the price goes down on the sets so how do they work well they're actually really simple they're a perfect 90 degree angle doesn't matter which size you get if we were joining these two pieces together then you would need to hold that somehow if you listened to me and you picked up these of course this is the easiest fastest way you're going to clamp that in place it's going to be there or you can use f-style clamps like these but as you can see that took a little bit longer because i'm having to rinse that down on by myself and all that but it works so you can use f's clamps you can use these clamps now this is at a perfect 90 degree i've got pocket holes drilled on the back and i can attach these two pieces if i need to when i need to and if i want to go take a lunch break this is going to be there it's not going to move on me while not on the list these little f clamps are also 130 and they're really handy to have for applications just like this if you want to pick some of those up i'll drop a link to these even though just kind of bonus these are great if you're just trying to lay your piece out make sure everything's going to fit right kind of dry fit or mark for mortise and tenon mark for dials mark for dominoes anything like that where you just need everything to kind of stay in place these little clamping squares are awesome also you can use them on either side and just clamp them in place like that as inexpensive these are and solidly made it says glass reinforced nylon i'm not sure what that means other than probably the material it's made out of they're not they're not going to break they're really solid they're perfect 90s i also like the fact that on the back there's a like a little 45 chamfer there so you can get it all the way in that corner without anything getting in the way and then of course it has a little scale here on the side 45 and all of them are perfect 90 to each other so if you want to mix and match them you could do that as well this is one of those tools you know when you see it you're like i got to have me some of those so go get them if you like these five tools you're gonna love these five under thirty dollars click that box get you the big old virtual fist bump also five more tools that are a little more expensive you can click that box right there thanks for watching

Channel: 731 Woodworks

Views: 1,006,409

Keywords: woodworking tips, woodworking tools, woodworking tools under $50, woodworking tools under $30, Woodworking tools on a budget, budget tools, thin rip jig, table saw jig, best spring clamps, dfm tools, dfm tiny square, clamping squares, must have woodworking tools, best woodworking tools, amazing woodworking tools, small f clamps for woodworking

Id: FsXpbFMmeU4

Length: 12min 14sec (734 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 07 2022