8 TOOLS I should have bought sooner \\ Beginner WOODWORKING tips

I love buying tools and recently I did a deep clean of this shed and I took out some of the old tools that I had at the very start of getting into Woodworking and then you look at it and you think how much did I spend on these in the first place and then replaced them could I not have just gone to the better tool to start with so I thought it would be interesting to put together a video titled things I wish I had right at the very start and I'm also going to show you a cheaper alternative with a lot of them and a few different options let's talk sanding I'm just going to simplify it for someone starting out to try and avoid some of the hurdles that I did three different types of sandpaper that you can buy give or take the cheaper the cheap no holes solid bit of sandpaper Middle Ground still quite cheap but with holes for dust extraction or top end very expensive incredibly good dust extraction it's a net but which one did you get when you're a beginner first things first you got hand sanding or you've got a machine random orbital sander is the one that I use now that's really simple if you've taken the time and spent the money and got yourself dust extraction which you get with one of these then honestly spend more money get the best dust extraction sandpaper to go with it to me that's a no-brainer because at the end of the day your lungs are important and this is offering to help you why not help it help you don't hold it back easy however is it the most cost effective way again take my word for it I'm going to say yes let me quickly run through the maths on this these are the two bits of sandpaper that offer any kind of dust extraction because it's got the holes to suck it through this 15-pier sheet this approximately 30 to 40 pair sheet so does this cut twice as fast as this and does it last twice as long in my experience on a machine 100 yes so that takes the money out of it it's at least as good value then you've got your time this Cuts quicker than this does so it's going to save you time who wants to sand for longer than they have to and then on top of that it does a better job again in my experience so again to reiterate if you have one of these any brand go with this this is the 3M extract it's worth the extra money feels a big outlay to start with but it won't work out over time it's costing you more however these these do not have dust extraction and this is where it gets a little bit tricky if you don't have one of these you do not need one of these so if all you're going to be using is this I would say go with the cheapest stuff it'll do a job for you and yeah sure it won't last quite as long as the expensive stuff but money for money over time if all you're doing is hand sanding which is hard work that's fine it'll do a job for you I still say if you are doing a mixture of both which again if you've got one of these you will still find time to use one of these if you're doing a mixture of both so you are the everyday woodworker in my mind I think you should have both and I know these can stick on the mouses as much as they can stick on the machines but I cannot remove any extra wood by hand with this than I can with this so suddenly the price point is important and that's why I don't waste my money and my expensive sheets when I'm hand sanding generally speaking these will go on these but I will spend the extra 1p a disk because these come in about a penny cheaper I'll spend the extra one pencil disc to make sure that I do have the holes because I will run out of these I'm not that organized and instead of putting one of these on and losing all my dust extraction I'll put these on and still get some back and they'll still do a fairly decent job and last but not least if you are just rolling up a piece of sandpaper to get into hard to reach places and doing it without either of these two pieces of equipment this actually I find better than this because it's more sturdy so you fold it in half and you get a decent amount of sturdiness this as soon as some of the abrasive purple bits rub off it turns into a very floppy piece of material and I find that a real struggle to sand with by hand so I hope that clears it up this next tool is more than capable of winning the best tool I've bought this year it is the center finding drill bit but this isn't the stage of the journey I started at the first set I bought was this and it wasn't particularly expensive each thing does a similar job this is the pricier this is the cheaper you can feel it in the weight you can feel it in the build what you use these for is really simple if you need to find the center point in anything you're drilling through a hole hinges being the best example then this will work so you place the drill bit into your drill pop it in the hinge and when you start drilling and pressing the bit comes out and goes straight through in a center point when you put the screw into the hinge and through into the wood these screws you've got I've got little tapers on the top on the head it's going to pull the hinge Central to the hole so if you haven't got the whole Central to start with the hinge is going to move if the hinge moves then the top of your box or the door that you're fitting or whatever you're doing isn't going to go in the place that you wanted it in the first place so that's why you have these Center Point drill bits I use a lot of these smaller hinges I make a lot of little jewelry boxes and the hinges I use sit in the lid and in the base now if they don't go in perfectly my lid's not going to line up it's just not going to work it's just not going to look good the grain's not going to line up how I want it and the box at a stage where I've already put a huge amount of work into it could be ruined that led me to get these and I have to say the biggest problem with the cheap set is the build quality I could still get it to work just about I could get the drill bit to come out but then the head fell off and that to me is now utterly useless this has a very flat very small hole but a lot of play and the drill bit wasn't finding it and it was working only half the time the other problem is there's no taper on them these more expensive bits have got a really nice bevel around the top so this is important because when you seat it into a beveled hole that's fine it's going to seat itself and you're going to come out centrally on both but not all hinges have got beveled holes some have got flat holes and this flat piece is not going to seat itself if you are only going to do hinges once in a blue moon that will probably work for you as a set you can have in a draw and you just pull them out whenever you need them if you make boxes a lot spend the money spend the extra bit and use them because they are absolutely Flawless let me show you the difference it can make to the positioning of your hinge drilling correctly and drilling incorrectly I've just taken a pencil and shaded around the area that we're going to fit the hinge all I'm going to do is drill a self-centered hole do a couple if you like then I'm going to show you you can see they are absolutely perfectly centered any screw that finds the center and as you can see there is no bare wood to be seen around the hinge so it hasn't pulled it anywhere out of square so let's say you get it wrong as you can see I've missed my mark completely on that and I've gone right at the edge foreign the first big difference is you've got at least a mil of bare wood showing through right at the end so it's pulled it this way might not miss the center by quite that much but you won't ever if you use this properly worth the money in my book boxes caused me a little bit of an issue draws particularly and it when it comes to putting the hardware on the front of a potentially narrow draw you can't get in there with a straight drill not to get it parallel to the base anyway because well the drill's too big so you have to use something that's going to work on an angle something you can put in the drill like this that then you can get into the box and your drill bit is now parallel to the base this is the first bit that I got to help me with the job and I thought it was brilliant you attach it to the drill hold it in place and the power is transmitted around the power is transmitted the power is driven transformed the power goes in here and out there this was the cheapest one I could find when I first started and yes it will do a job for you but this is move enough to right the drill is the the screw is not potentially seating in the right place and before you know it you've got not only frustration but you've got mistakes happening and although you can only pay a couple of quid for this so it's not going to break the bank it is going to cause you a lot of stress so I picked up one of these not a cheap option all of these tools have got links in the description you want to check out the price it's down there it's not cheap but it is incredibly well built you can pop your screw on because it's got a magnet to hold into place you've got a lot of options for holding here and you can start drilling it into place every part of it is better than its cheap alternative and don't get me started on the snakes that you can buy that you can put into all sorts and shapes and sizes that get into Corners they cannot hold a candle to this now I confess I've added this bit in after reading some posts on Facebook these are two pocket hole Jigs and this is the first one I ever got this is a Kreg Jig Craig is one of the top three or four Brands within the pocket hole marketing the reason I've added this in late is because I saw a question on a beginner's Facebook group about pocket hole joinery somebody was asking why their pocket hole had come out and the bit that they cut was all frayed and the first thing that came to my mind is well I think you're using one of these handheld jigs possibly a cheap one like this and so when the hole is being bored it's coming out really frayed around the edges because these just for me haven't done a very good job what really inspired me to come on video and actually talk to people about this is that most of the answers within that video were not suggesting how they could improve the cut they got because I would be saying I think you could need to go down with a reputable brand and I've had no issues with this Kreg Jig admittedly I'm comparing something that is five times the cost and yes if I'm going to cut a lot of pocket holes which I do this is absolutely worth the money because you can snap it in snap it out and you can do pocket holes 10 to the time that you do one on this so for Speed alone not to mention the quality of the cut you get with that that is a no-brainer but what I'm really wanting to say is that I was a little bit dismayed when I read the comments because what the majority of the comments on that post said were well learn how to do proper joinery and then you don't need to do pocket holes or just don't do pocket holes or pocket holes aren't for good Woodworkers I found that a little bit sad because in all the time I've been doing woodworking I think pocket holes have saved me a huge amount of learning and mistakes and have given me confidence to build bigger items quickly pocket hole joinery when used in the right application is absolutely fine if you're a beginner watching this video and you're thinking should I get something to do pocket holes with I would ask yourself one question two or three are you making draws are you making cabinets are you looking at ways to hook plywood together easily without learning very complicated joinery methods to do the same job if any of those are yes then absolutely you should be going down the route of pocket holes and then the only question you should be asking yourself is do you go cheap or do you go expensive I cannot say every beginner should be buying an expensive jig for this but what I will say is I got terrible results with this although it did a job the applications that you should be using pocket holes in or could be using them in is any way you can hide a pocket hole if you can't see it use it I guess the answer to the question should you get a cheap one is if you're happy hiding it and knowing that it is looking still a little bit nasty and has taken you a bit longer then don't blow your budget buy something cheap but if you want them to look great and be quick and easy get something expensive but do not let people tell you that what you're doing is not woodworking because when I read those comments and there were hundreds of them on one post I was a little bit sad because woodworking is whatever you are capable of doing with wood it is whatever you want to make out of wood and how you want to make it there shouldn't be Gatekeepers in this business there shouldn't be people who know more who stop others watch any YouTube channel where you've got a woodworker sat in front of the camera and if they're not offering you positive guidance and positivity about this hobby don't let them put you off don't let anybody tell you're doing it wrong because at the end of the day that's how new and amazing things get made by someone thinking outside the box and doing something that is not necessarily the same as everyone's been doing it for years I get told I don't ask this enough so I'm going to just point at this and ask very kindly if you're enjoying this video consider it maybe all the links the tools that you're seeing are in the description if I haven't said that enough and you want to see how much things cost and you want to see where you can get them have a little look any questions you've got for me about any of the things that I've talked about during this video throw a question in the comments anyway let's move on to the next one no connected to the last one if you do go down the route of big plywood projects obviously this is just an example of the plywood you might use this three-quarter inch or 18 mil plywood you're going to find very quickly that the edges unless you're getting Baltic Birch and want to make a feature of them the edges aren't exactly the most attractive feature of some of the more middle-end plywood so what you're gonna have to do is cover them this is a really simple process you can get this iron-on Edge banding as you can see it has glue on the back because you iron it while it is flushed with the sides and it sticks on and what you're left with because the banding is wider than the size of the plywood generally speaking you're going to need to trim the edges when I first started that I had two methods at this one a file you can round off the edges and as long as you don't mind cleaning the glue out the file quite a lot it will get the job done two is the Chisel now the Chisel works really well as well you lay it flush with the plywood and songs are sharp enough you get through the strip very very easily however if you catch one of the grains and it draws you across the front of the strip that is going to cause your problem because you're going to get tear out across the front and that's really hard to hide so what I wish I had from the start is this a special contraption that has just been put together to do the very job that we're asking for with this Edge banding like this one because it is super super simple all you need to do is clamp it on the edge run it along and then you're left with your Edge banding flush and you're off Cuts it's quicker it's more accurate and you get a much better finish than any of the other options that I've just talked about one other tip to consider with this and again you'd think it was obvious but it wasn't to me Edge bands before you put the pieces together so cut your wood to dimension Edge Bandit then hook it all together whether you're gluing doweling or pocket holding that order will mean that you've got the easiest run at it this next tool is a really really quick one a lot of these videos that I've watched tend to focus on replacement this was the tool I got and this is the better option for me with this one this is in addition I started off doing everything with a western miter saw Tenon saw whichever one you want to call it um the name doesn't really matter at this stage this is a cross-cut saw it does a very good job cutting across the grain just because of the way the teeth are aligned I used to see everybody on their YouTube channels with their Japanese pulsaws and I thought they're Pros I am not ready for that yet and I was wrong there's a big difference between these saws they have almost entirely separate jobs there's a little crossover but not much I still use this and I use it in every single project but the difference in a nutshell these Western saws they cut on the push stroke and the Japanese sauce cut on the pull stroke and that doesn't make a huge amount of difference it's just a different technique where the big difference is is the kerf this saw has a much wider curve than this one and that just means that when you're making a cut in the wood it pulls out more wood than this one would so it's a lot of woods the Gap you leave behind is wider than it is with this so if you're removing box lids and you don't want to lose a lot of the grain a lot of the stock these are brilliant for that but in a nutshell this one does cross cut and rip cut this one is for flush cutting so if you put it down in a piece of wood glue it in cover a screw head anything like that that's really the only job I'm using that for this one I'm using it for cross cutting rip cutting all sorts anything I need a smaller kerf however for my everyday DIY Cuts this does a good job these are inexpensive and they will supplement your saws in your Workshop brilliantly get yourself a couple big one little one absolutely all you're going to need to start with they do the dovetail one but if you're not cutting dovetails I don't see why you'd need it and as a bonus they look pretty good on your wall too Woodworkers come in all shapes and sizes and this next one will affect you more depending on what sort of tools you use and who you are I use a lot of hand tools you can see all of the hand planes behind me chisels up on the wall and they all go blunt quicker than I'd like them to and they need to be sharpened so there are tools that will help you and there are tools that will help you and each one comes at a different price point the first ever honing guide that I got and I still use it I put the iron into my guide and I would set the distance dependent on what angle I want to get because it creates an angle between the stone and the iron this is the set angle that I want and I've measured this distance so I know that's accurate if you're starting out woodworking today and it's the first video you ever watch this will do an okay job for you but it does have two big flaws one this wheel is approximately I don't know 10 millimeters wide so when you put it onto your stone and putting quite a bit of pressure on the iron there is a risk of you getting a rocking action the other problem is you need to link it together with some sort of a guide that will regiment how you get this Angle now I use a block attached to another piece of wood and it is the same length every time I nudge this up against it and I crimp it off and I do get a good amount of repeatability with that but I'd like not to have to have that separate system and that's where the upgrade to this and something I would recommend for beginner Woodworkers to get comes in I'm not saying that every beginner woodworker should be spending an arm and a leg to get the best tools however if you want to go down any amount of hand tool woodworking more than just the absolute basics everything you can do to make your sharpening process better will make that Journey significantly easier and quicker this is the Veritas honing guide I believe it's an MK2 you get the honing guide which to all intents and purposes does exactly what this does it's got the clamp to hold the blade in and it's got the wheel to run it now that's where the first difference comes in as you can see the wheel on this is significantly wider than the wheel on the cheaper honing guide what it means is you cannot easily Rock to the side on it when you're pressing pressure down the second bit you get with it is a simple guide you put in the angle you want then you move the arrow across this guide moves so when you put this back onto its dovetail you then run it up against the guide that you've just set and then crimp it off detach the front section and the iron should be in the middle I've just not set it up right just to show you quickly then you can go about sharpening and it is an absolutely accurate and repeatable way of getting the same angle on each of these plane blades if you want to do chisels easily on it especially the thinner ones you will have to get an extra attachment for it and that's more cost but for plain blades this has been faultless first one this quite obviously is a pencil and when you get started you're going to need lots of these because you're going to lose them and I'm not going to tell you that this is something that you don't need but what I am going to say is don't stock up on a huge amount of them because there are better options and when you find them you'll kick yourself for not getting them from the start there's a few different price points so you don't have to go for the most expensive but let me tell you why you might want to this is the Pika dry automatic pencil the pika for the pen itself cost me 14 pounds but it's no good without the leads and they cost a tenor so all in all we spent 24 pounds on it which is an expensive pencil however for that you get the 2B graphite you get the red and you get the yellow but you have to Interchange them if you want to change color this is the most expensive out of all of the ones we're looking at a couple of other features you've got the Bell clip you've got the sharpener and that is in the tip of the holster this is the first Super feature of this The holster this on its own will get lost but if you've got this clipped on your pocket or your belt you can slot the pencil in and it's not falling out and you're not losing it it writes beautifully and with a fresh point you get a nice Thin Line even though you have a fat graphite which means that it's not going to break as easily it does have one big downside that I'm going to show you after I show you this alternatives and it might be a reason not to get it there is the slightly cheaper version here comes in at 15.99 but for that you get the same as the peaky you get the holster and that has the built-in pencil sharpener and you get the pencil you get the nice long thin tip on all of these so it is called the deep hole pencil you can get into tighter areas than you can with a fatter bodied pencil but there's more you haven't had to buy the lids and you get a fancy marker pen version what you don't get which I like with the Pika is you don't get red because there are times in woodworking where you make so many mistakes that the only way you can punish yourself is forcing yourself to Mark in red the last one we've got here I can't even pronounce the name I found it as a cheap alternative on Amazon and at 17.99 yes it is more expensive to start out with but look what you get you get one two three four different pencils all for that price a graphite and a separate yellow they write nicely they've got the same features and if you unscrew the bottom they've got the sharpener in there as well and you don't get a holster with this so you have to find a place to put this where you're not going to lose it handily it's a very bright color you get a graphite and a red in a thinner pencil and it's important to note here the ledge you get for them are non-interchangeable they are smaller so what you've got here in effect is they've covered all the bases of the other pencils but they've put them in single items that's what I mean by the cheaper option because if you could have got one of these on its own chances are it would have been about five or six pounds and then you could have added the rest to it if you wanted to we talk about the holster Priceless this doesn't have a holster the length of it try fitting it in your shirt pocket and try clipping that clip on it does not fit and that is going to mark up anything that you have inside same goes for your pocket so the Picker and the Tracer win out hands down on that you can tell this has the engineering above the Tracer because that is a smooth grab action for when you put it in and if you get it halfway in it still well held you also have to have enough strength of clip to not pull the whole thing out when you're trying to get the pencil out and that's another way another area that Tracer has not kept up with Pica because Peak comes out before the actual holster but not so much with the Tracer one unfortunately there is one major issue a major issue that I really don't like that frustrates the heck out of me and that is when I pull it out of my pocket unless I grab the perfect spot and when you're reaching down obviously you might not hit that you can pull off the end where you refill it everything else about it is perfect I'm going to take this above all of the rest and there we are I really hope that's going to help you guys get a good start and for some of the more experienced people out there hopefully there's something in there that might speed up some of the processes you've got in place one thing that I haven't touched on Within These videos is do as much research as you can just buying something on Amazon looking at a picture has led me down the wrong route many many times if you can get to a shop and you can actually hold the tool that you're looking at and you can feel the quality of it that will lead you towards getting a better purchase if like me you have to do a lot of purchasing online the links are down below everything that I have put in those links is tried and tested by myself and hopefully won't lead you in the wrong direction I hope you've enjoyed the video If you're not subscribed please consider joining us if you like this video and you want to see some of the other tools that I think you should have right from the start head over to that one I'll see you over there

Channel: Start Making (Woodworking)

Views: 363,096

Keywords: #woodworking, #woodworker, #tools, #HowTo, #stanley, #beginner tools, #tool recommendations, #start better, #tools I wish I had, #tool reviews, #beginner woodworking, #3m extract, #veritas honing guide, #dewalt right angle attachment, #start making

Id: kufY50ftatM

Length: 27min 52sec (1672 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 03 2023