The evolution of your shop. Part 1: The basics, from my perspective.

When I started out woodworking I had minimal tools.
All I was making at the time were mantel shelves with pre-milled crown molding and really no details at all to them.
I had a miter saw, a brad nailer and circular saw. As my skills progressed, I started seeing the need for new tools. First and foremost came the table saw, then a router somewhere in there, then I could create most complex joinery operations (or try to anyway!) Then I decided I was ready to grow up in the world of woodworking and stop buying pre-milled “Home Center” wood for my projects and I wanted to mill it myself. Thus came the most life changing purchase of my woodworking career: the jointer and planer. After I got used to those for awhile, I started noticing the need for the “nice to have” tools like sheet and random orbital sanders, 2 separate routers and somewhere in there I even constructed my router table.

Now my shop is fully outfitted. I have a Grizzly table saw, 12-inch jointer, mortise, a Delta bandsaw, Dust collector, planer and drill press and a Jet miter saw spindle sander, edge sander, shaper, and open end belt sander. An impressive collection seeing as where I came from! The point of all this is for new woodworkers reading this or woodworkers who are at a loss with what tools to buy, to learn the evaluations to go about making, in order to help your shop evolve.

I’ll start by focusing on those who might just have gotten in to woodworking.
The majority of you who are new to the craft will be tackling small projects at first, not calling for a large amount of tools. The first question you want to ask yourself is, “Do I want to use mainly hand tools or power tools?” This is a serious question to ask for new woodworkers. Both paths ultimately get you to the same place, just at different speeds and ways. I am almost solely a power tool shop so that’s what I will be focusing on.

The most important tool you can consider buying starting off is….you guessed it! A table saw.
This saw remains the workhorse of your shop no matter what throughout its life. From milling wood to making cross cuts, from cutting dadoes and intricate miters all the way to constructing mortise and tenon, it seems like the table saw can do it all!

Along with your purchase of the table saw, you will definitely need to get your hands on a good square, a tape measure, and a cordless drill.

As you advance your skills and learn new things, you will notice that not everything can be done easily if at all with just those tools. I found myself needing a router, time and time again. There are currently some great router combo kits on the market right now, including a 2 and ¾ motor and both a fixed base and a plunge base for the router. My favorite happens to be the one porter cable has out. You can’t go wrong with a porter cable router. Some great bits to pick up with your router to start with are: a round over, a rabbeting, a straight bit or two, and maybe if you have the funds to spare, a flush trimming bit. In my experience, you will soon learn that you cant live off home center wood forever.

Now you are going to enter the wild world of jointers and planers.
Now given not everyone will start out with a 12 inch jointer and 15 inch planer right away but that doesn’t mean smaller models are incompetent. Something that I have found would work great for a small shop or a limited workspace is a joint/planer. You get both models in one machine. Jet has out a very nice jointer/planer currently. It performs excellently and it has a whopping 10 inch capacity! That’s a big jointer for your first, kids. Eventually as your space and needs grow you may upgrade this machine.
I found it necessary to get high-powered planer because I was thicknessing and milling some very rough, very thick and very long stock. If you are going to working with very thin pieces such as veneers and guitar parts if you’re getting in the world of being a luthior you might want to keep the planer you have and look in the some sort of an open end belt or drum sander.

As for the jointer, you can definitely get by with a 6-inch or 8-inch as many, many woodworkers do every day - but you just can’t get around the luxury of having a 12-inch (or depending how rich you are, a 16).


As your path down the woodworking road evolves, you will make some decisions and go down some paths. There are many to take. You may want to get heavily into turning, in which I strongly believe you will still want to have the tools we have already talked about, or in my case, you may find yourself wanting to make furniture and cabinetry - that is the path we will be focusing on.

The first tool I got after making those other large improvements didn’t really have to do with building things at all; it helped with my cleanliness and stress-level in the shop.
You may or may not know this but a big thing that clouds your focus and hinders your accuracy is the amount of chaos going on around you. For me, I need a clean shop to work in. If it’s not neat and tidy, I go bananas and fail to create. Therefore I got….you guessed it - a dust collector. Granted, this can be a bit of an investment. If you want to do it RIGHT and not have hoses running on the floor every which way, you’re going to have to invest in a fair amount of hose footage and the appropriate fittings. If you do, you will be quick to notice the improvements it will make!

Well, that covers most of the basics - this is only part one! I will be making second and possibly third parts discussing more in-depth the tools you can get, the more you advance! Remember, this is from MY perspective. You need to follow the path right for you.

I hope this installment has helped some of you and I hope the next will continue to!