Newbie Woorking Hobby

[sweols]

Good evening folks,

Mid aged chap from Norfolk. Looking to pick up a new hobby whilst I am hopeful to build some furniture for our home. Specifically I am looking at building cabinets like media, bedside, wardrobes etc. At the moment, I have very few tools - I have two sheds and a single small workbench. I think one of my first projects will be storage for the shed itself, not exactly sure what or how I’ll do it.

I don’t really have any recent experience working with wood in general but my paternal grandfather did! My brother is a carpenter so must be in the blood line surely. Anyway

At the moment, I have a dewalt 18v drill and impact driver, an orbital sander can’t remember brand and a circular saw but cheap . I’d like to stick with dewalt and wireless. Can I please get a comprehensive list of things I need to get started.

I have a max budget of £1000 as an initial outlay

 

[Trevanion]

Welcome.

That's a bit of a "how long is a ball of string" question, I think it really depends on the style of work that best suits you. A lot of people run into buying all the bells and whistles in regard to power tools and machines and never really end up making anything meaningful because tools and machines do not necessarily translate into automatic skill.

Despite being primarily a machine woodworker, I'm a big advocate of absolute beginners learning the craft with hand tools first to get an understanding of how wood actually works and behaves which is something that machine work can isolate you from. Great satisfaction can be ascertained from hand tool work and it can be quite efficient even if it is harder work than by machine, it is certainly much quieter and much less of a risk of injuring yourself severely.

Fortunately, hand tool woodwork is a relatively inexpensive hobby if you buy quality secondhand tools, you can get very well-equipped for most work for less than £100. Use the money you saved from not buying a few expensive powered machines and instead invest that into buying decent quality timber for your projects, nothing overly fancy but something like a few lengths of Scots Pine to practice joinery with to familiarise yourself with working wood and using the tools before diving into a full-blown project so that your chances of success are much higher.

Woodworking in general is primarily a craft based entirely around failures, as you learn more from your failings than from your successes. You cut a dovetail joint, it doesn't fit together snugly and it falls apart, you learn from the experience and try again and this time you change a small detail in how you produced it and then you create a well-fitted joint. You produce your piece of furniture, at the time you think you did a marvelous job and pat yourself on the back as you rightly should because it was a lot of effort, but then a year later as you've got more experience in your craft you start to look at your old project, realising the small mistakes you made and how far you've come since then, it's all part of the learning experience and it cannot be achieved overnight.

 

[Windows]

Having recently gone through this process, I’d recommend that you choose a project and then only buy the tools & supplies you need for that project (which is not what I did).

That being said, I wouldn’t start most projects without the following to hand in addition to the items you already have:

Chisels (3)
Hand saw (eg ryoba)
Block plane
Mallet
Knife

Small square (eg combination square)
Medium square (eg speed square)
Large square (eg framing square)
Long straight edge

Pencil

Clamps

Dust extractor (vacuum cleaner)
Dustpan & brush
Dust mask
Eye protection

Glue
Screws
Nails
Wood

Oil finish or paint

 

[duke]

Don't forget a tape measure. Not kidding!
And welcome to the forum!

 

[Cabinetman]

Hi and welcome, I agree entirely with Trevanion, and the list is good but I would add a tenon saw and a Nr 4 handplane, Stanley is perfectly good enough.
Good luck with your journey to a very rewarding hobby not just financially but also beneficial for your mental wellbeing.
Ian

 

[johnward]

Welcome.
Good luck with your new intended woodworking hobby. The advice from Trevanion above for starting with hand tools is good. I did the same and in fact have kept with them and just possessing a few machine tools eg a planer/thicknesser and bandsaw. With handtools I've managed to make some very presentable bits of furniture for my home and found the hobby a very happy one, so all the best to you.

 

[Dr.Al]

Welcome. I agree wholeheartedly with Trevanion's advice. I dove straight in to machine woodworking and ended up selling some of my machines and gaining a lot more enjoyment of the process by doing so. I still have some machinery (in particular I wouldn't be without my bandsaw) but learning the hand tool skills has been a thoroughly enjoyable (if rather challenging) journey.

 

[Mike G]

You've had some superb advice already, so I won't repeat it. All I will add is that the biggest investment you need to make is in time. Woodworking is a set of skills and techniques for removing wood, and the more often you do it, the cleaner and more accurate you'll become.

If you feel you might benefit from some time in the workshop with someone whose been doing this stuff for 40+ years, I'm not a million miles away. I'd be happy to start you off in the right direction.

 

[Blackswanwood]

Hello, I concur with the points already made.

Although he can be a bit “marmite” in terms of his style of presenting I’d recommend taking a look at Paul Sellers channel on YouTube.

Some things that you could make to start building skills and that will help you make other things are a bench hook, a shooting board and a couple of saw horses.

 

[sweols]

You've had some superb advice already, so I won't repeat it. All I will add is that the biggest investment you need to make is in time. Woodworking is a set of skills and techniques for removing wood, and the more often you do it, the cleaner and more accurate you'll become.

If you feel you might benefit from some time in the workshop with someone who’s been doing this stuff for 40+ years, I'm not a million miles away. I'd be happy to start you off in the right direction.

Hi Mike,

I’d very much like to take up your offer. Obviously happy to pay for the material needed and your time if needed. I did look at workshops but often expensive and I am not big on larger crowds.

 

[sweols]

Hi everyone.

Thanks for the warm welcome and genuinely great advice. I’ll start looking at some non power tools initially and see where it takes me!

 

[Alasdair]

Welcome and as a bench joiner of too many years i would agree with all the above advice and echo what @Mike G said re removing wood, the first time i made a rocking horse I asked a friend who carved for advice and he said "glue all your parts together and then remove anything that doesn't look like a horse". Learn the basics and learn how to sharpen your handtools (they don't need to be scary sharp but do need to work and don't ask advise on sharpening as that is opening a Pandoras Box ). You can sometimes pick up decent tools at tool fairs and on FB marketplace (as a joiner I dont buy used powertools unless I know where its came from (too much tool theft going on)).

 

[AndyP]

Some of what you need may depend on what raw materials you intend to start with and the construction methods you are happy to use.
No internet and youtube around when I started making sawdust so I bought a book, Collins Woodworking Manual. Easier to take a book into the workshop perhaps than to watch a video.
There is a very highly skilled craftsman around here that gave up prepping wood a long tIme ago and only buys dimensioned timber, PAR (planed all round).
Learning to measure, mark and cut accurately and repeatedly is probably the most important lesson and will pay dividends whether working with hand tools or powered.
Rather than spend money on tools, perhaps a few days on a “learn the basics” type course would be more beneficial. This would give a grounding on what you can do and what you need to get there. Quality secondhand tools are readily available.

 

[Lurker]

If your brother is a carpenter then I’d put money on it that he has serviceable hand tools that are surplus to his needs.

 

[Lurker]

Regarding your work space , an old kitchen work top will get you going for a bench.
Things I’d make for both practice and use are
A bench hook
A mallet
A saw horse.

 

[Mike G]

I’d very much like to take up your offer. Obviously happy to pay for the material needed and your time if needed. I did look at workshops but often expensive and I am not big on larger crowds.

OK, I'm happy to make a plan any time. It might be best if we have a chat about the sort of stuff we could cover. I'm fairly free time-wise at the moment. I'm just south of Sudbury.

 

[NickM]

Welcome. Not sure if it has been mentioned above, but you'll also need some sort of sharpening kit for chisels and planes. I'm not going to suggest anything specific (there are no right or wrong ways as long as the thing is sharp), but it doesn't need to be expensive/mechanised.

 

[Mike G]

Behind the scenes sweols and I are planning a visit to my workshop. Sharpening will be one of the topics we cover.

 

[sweols]

a very warm welcome! Mike has indeed invited me to his workshop, so planning on visiting early December! Should be a great experience learning the basics and wood working etiquette. Will let you know how it goes!

 

[AndyT]

You'll be off in the right direction with the advice so far and some practical pointers from Mike.

You might also like to look at a book or two. But there are too many! I've read and collected rather a lot, mostly from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But I won't give you a long reading list, as that wouldn't be much help and also because so many woodworking books are dreadful!

I'll recommend just one, which covers the basics of getting a piece of wood straight, square, flat and the size you need it, then joining it to another piece, then guides you through making some useful furniture. I was lucky enough to have had a little bit of woodwork teaching at school in the 70s, and the book I recommend is the closest I have found to a one volume revision guide to the things I did learn, the things I have forgotten, and things that there was no time to cover. It's written by someone who clearly understood how beginners can struggle, and includes the sort of details that inferior books leave out.

You might be lucky and find a second-hand original going cheap, but there's no need, as the good people at Lost Art Press have re-published it and you can get it from the excellent tool company Classic Hand Tools for £29 in well-printed hardback. It's "The Essential Woodworker" by Robert Wearing. Everything in the description here is true:

The Essential Woodworker

By Robert Wearing Robert Wearing's hand-tool masterwork. This book contains every skill you need to get into hand-tool woodworking. And it is explained with a minimum of fuss, using accepted traditional practice and with the assistance of more...

www.classichandtools.com

 

[Dr.Al]

I agree - that's an excellent book.

 

[sweols]

You'll be off in the right direction with the advice so far and some practical pointers from Mike.

You might also like to look at a book or two. But there are too many! I've read and collected rather a lot, mostly from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But I won't give you a long reading list, as that wouldn't be much help and also because so many woodworking books are dreadful!

I'll recommend just one, which covers the basics of getting a piece of wood straight, square, flat and the size you need it, then joining it to another piece, then guides you through making some useful furniture. I was lucky enough to have had a little bit of woodwork teaching at school in the 70s, and the book I recommend is the closest I have found to a one volume revision guide to the things I did learn, the things I have forgotten, and things that there was no time to cover. It's written by someone who clearly understood how beginners can struggle, and includes the sort of details that inferior books leave out.

You might be lucky and find a second-hand original going cheap, but there's no need, as the good people at Lost Art Press have re-published it and you can get it from the excellent tool company Classic Hand Tools for £29 in well-printed hardback. It's "The Essential Woodworker" by Robert Wearing. Everything in the description here is true:

The Essential Woodworker

By Robert Wearing Robert Wearing's hand-tool masterwork. This book contains every skill you need to get into hand-tool woodworking. And it is explained with a minimum of fuss, using accepted traditional practice and with the assistance of more...

www.classichandtools.com

Morning Andy,

Thanks for the recommendation, is it mainly body of text or does it come with illustrations / examples? I’ve never been much of a reader, but I do watch a ton of videos. A reference book would be much better, especially when in the shed.

I am going to see Mike on 2nd of December and will see where it takes us. I think it’s fair to say I am a complete novice with no recent experience. I am originally from Sweden and as part of the curriculum, wood working is one of the requirements or at least used to be. I thoroughly enjoyed it but never had the chance to do it again (life).

One of the things that I really struggle with is patience. My wife would probabaly refer to me as an all or nothing type of person. Wood working is an art and I am keen to learn.

Like Mike said, we gotta walk before we run.

 

[AndyT]

Over 500 very clear diagrams. My 1988 copy has a sprinkling of b&w photos too, I'm not sure if the LAP edition updates them, but it does include Wearing's drawings.
There's a very informative review on the CHT site.

 

[AndyT]

Also have a look here

The Essential Woodworker

In our opinion, “The Essential Woodworker” is one of the best books on hand-tool usage written in the post-Charles Hayward era. Wearing was classically trained in England as a woodworker and embraced both power and hand tools in his shop and in his teaching.

lostartpress.com

where you can download an extract as a pdf.

 

[AJB Temple]

Welcome. I started as a child at my dad's bench and am still not much better. In your shoes I would start with a very simple project that does not require much wood. I'm thinking breadboard or a box, not a wardrobe. Building confidence in your skill avoids building errors.

 

[NickM]

Welcome. I started as a child at my dad's bench and am still not much better. In your shoes I would start with a very simple project that does not require much wood. I'm thinking breadboard or a box, not a wardrobe. Building confidence in your skill avoids building errors.

Good advice. The apprenticeship at Edward Barnsley takes exactly this approach. Everything is hand tools at first to understand how wood behaves. The first two projects are breadboards of different shapes. Then a small coin tray carved with gouges. Then dovetailed book ends. And so on. All use little wood and each project introduces a new skill.

 

[Phil]

Behind the scenes sweols and I are planning a visit to my workshop. Sharpening will be one of the topics we cover.

You will be in good hands and learn a lot from Mike.

(just be weary you don't end up digging trenches and mixing concrete and daga! )

And, welcome to the forum from way down South.

 

[Cabinetman]

And if you aren’t wary you will certainly be weary! Lol

 

[Ovaloe]

A bench hook
A mallet
A saw horse.

Surely you mean a pair of sawi stools (alternative name) rather than one? At a pinch an old flush door screwed onto the tops of two saw stools will form a makeshift bench onto which a portable vice can be clamped, as well as being streets ahead of a Workmate. Or is that just the site chippie traits in me coming out? A nice solid bench is a wonderful addition to a toolkit, but you've got to start somewhere

To the OP: welcome - you've picked an excellent hobby where you'll probably end up learning new things until you retire, possibly longer. I have a list of kit I advise site apprentices to get hold of, but it's aimed squarely at modern joinwry installation work and not wholly of use to someone who intends to make furniture. If anyone is interested I'll tidy it up and reproduce it on here

 

[sweols]

You will be in good hands and learn a lot from Mike.

(just be weary you don't end up digging trenches and mixing concrete and daga! )

And, welcome to the forum from way down South.

I will happily mix concrete, dig, and shovel! I own a gardening business on the side of my 9-to-5.

Surely you mean a pair of sawi stools (alternative name) rather than one? At a pinch an old flush door screwed onto the tops of two saw stools will form a makeshift bench onto which a portable vice can be clamped, as well as being streets ahead of a Workmate. Or is that just the site chippie traits in me coming out? A nice solid bench is a wonderful addition to a toolkit, but you've got to start somewhere

To the OP: welcome - you've picked an excellent hobby where you'll probably end up learning new things until you retire, possibly longer. I have a list of kit I advise site apprentices to get hold of, but it's aimed squarely at modern joinwry installation work and not wholly of use to someone who intends to make furniture. If anyone is interested I'll tidy it up and reproduce it on here

If you don't mind sharing the list, that'd be great. I've compiled quite a list already, but will not buy anything until I've had a chance to meet Mike and gained his views etc. Whilst making furniture is the end goal, I'm probably going to be limited to picture frames, floating shelves and wooden butcher blocks for a little while. My wife have already started making requests lol. I am super excited - literally just had a new wooden shed installed this year 10x8, but have a larger 12x8 shed with double doors that will likely serve as the 'workspace'. Already have lighting and electrics out there, even a work bench although I don't particularly like it in terms of practicality. I like practical solutions!

 

[Cabinetman]

I hear a workbench build coming on! So many types and styles to choose from.

 

[PitStopCrew]

did anyone mention a drill with a set of drills and a countersink bit to add to the growing list! Self confessed collector of shiny new things here! Another pragmatic add is a baby monitor so you can hear the other half in the house when they call your name! Or to hear that the dog is barking (for those with dogs). I’ve just taken delivery of a cheap monitor and am looking forward to less chuntering from the in-the-house team!

 

[AndyP]

Baby monitor in the workshop takes me back. These days they just ring the mobile

Welcome from NW France BTW.

 

[Ovaloe]

did anyone mention a drill with a set of drills and a countersink bit to add to the growing list!

From a purely trade perspective - combined drill/countersinks with matching tube type plug cutters (e.g. Trend Snappy) whilst expensive are a godsend when you need to do pelleted work. Just because something says 12mm it doesn't necessarilly follow that different manufacturers are working from the same type of ruler! (And rulers really aren't all created accurate)

 

[sweols]

My apprenticeship starts tomorrow

I haven't bought anything yet, which is unheard of, but I have compiled a small list of things that I would like: a centipede table, squares, 90-degree clamps, and clamps. I've also scouted Facebook marketplace for various hand tools, hoping I'll be able to pick up a pack of tools for cheap!

 

[Woodbloke]

Behind the scenes sweols and I are planning a visit to my workshop. Sharpening will be one of the topics we cover.

Excellent Mike! Actually talking to someone who knows what they're doing and seeing a well set out workshop is worth it's weight in gold (or shavings) I'd suggest that sweols ought to consider is a decent bench (it's a 'tool' after all) as without one, a newcomer isn't going to accomplish much, no matter how enthusiastic - Rob

 

[Mike G]

My apprenticeship starts tomorrow

I haven't bought anything yet, which is unheard of, but I have compiled a small list of things that I would like: a centipede table, squares, 90-degree clamps, and clamps. I've also scouted Facebook marketplace for various hand tools, hoping I'll be able to pick up a pack of tools for cheap!

Blimey, not only is there stuff on this list that I don't have myself, there's stuff on the list I've never heard of! Don't buy anything just yet......

 

[sweols]

Excellent Mike! Actually talking to someone who knows what they're doing and seeing a well set out workshop is worth it's weight in gold (or shavings) I'd suggest that sweols ought to consider is a decent bench (it's a 'tool' after all) as without one, a newcomer isn't going to accomplish much, no matter how enthusiastic - Rob

I have a couple of ideas for a work bench but due to limited space needs to be foldable in some way. Will discuss it with Mike tomorrow and see what his thoughts are.

 

[sweols]

Blimey, not only is there stuff on this list that I don't have myself, there's stuff on the list I've never heard of! Don't buy anything just yet......

I’ve been very good. I haven’t spent a penny and ive also promised my wife not to make any purchases…….yet

 

[duke]

My apprenticeship starts tomorrow

I haven't bought anything yet, which is unheard of, but I have compiled a small list of things that I would like: a centipede table, squares, 90-degree clamps, and clamps. I've also scouted Facebook marketplace for various hand tools, hoping I'll be able to pick up a pack of tools for cheap!

I fancy a centipede table, some day.