10 Essential Woodworking Tools - Woodworking Tips and Tricks

Hey, this is Cam with Blacktail Studio, and this week we're talking tools. Specifically, 10 tools I feel that every real woodworking shop should have eventually. It doesn't mean you have to have all 10 tools before you make your first cutting board, but this is something I feel like every woodworker should be working towards if they have the space and the money to merit these. Kind of that next step towards maybe generating a little bit of income from your woodworking and moving on from just a hobby. Now, this does not include things like a cordless drill, a tape measure, things like that. That's things that I feel like every household should have. This is going to be really that next step of a more serious woodworker, things that I think all of them should own. And if you want a little more deeper dive into these tools, I've made a blog post where I gave a best option, where money was essentially no object, and also a cheaper option, and whether I thought it was better not to purchase this on Craigslist or buy new. Because some things like a router, I don't prefer to buy used, but things like a table saw, I don't have a problem buying used. So if you want a deeper dive, check out my blog. But here is a quick rundown of the 10 tools I think every woodworking shop should have. This list is in no particular order, except one thing is the table saw. This is the only one that I could definitely say is my favorite tool and my most important tool. So every shop should have a table saw, even before you make a cutting board. And the SawStop is the best one to get. That's pretty much the end of discussion. The fence is rock solid. Everything on it is adjustable. The one I bought here was absolutely beat up, and it took me about a day's work and $150 worth of materials. But I have it completely dialed in now. If you knock something out of tune, you can adjust it. There's some of those little adjustments there and there. Everything is replaceable too. They have really good customer service. So table saw is my number one tool on this list, and everyone should have it. My blog, I give my cheaper option if you aren't ready to spend the money on a SawStop, because that's totally understandable. But for now, this is the one you should strive to have. Not only does it not cut you, but it is just the best saw to have. You can see it just rips through that two-inch walnut, no problem. And this is not an ad, although it probably sounds like it at this point. It's just how passionate I am about the saw. You can have any number of jigs for it. And this doesn't just go for a saw stop. This is any table saw. 45 degree jigs, crosscut jigs, even a jointer jig here. This is a really cool one that I still use. My next tool up is a bandsaw. And this one isn't as critical to have in every single shot, but it is maybe the most fun tool. You can do some really, really fun things with it. You can cut thin veneers. Here I was bookmatching. It's only about a one-inch board, but I was resawing it down the middle. And then when I was done, able to glue it together for this really cool bookmatch effect. So bandsaw is a lot of fun, really cool tool. I really love the one I have. I have a Laguna 14BX. Fence is not super strong. It's not like the saw stop fence. So I do wish it had a little bit better of a fence. It is adjustable. You can lower it down for that, for the low profile cuts. Really good power. My favorite thing is probably the foot brake on it though, is I've got myself in a lot of trouble. And that's that mountain bike looking brake right there. But it will stop the saw in, gosh, it feels like less than a second. You can see here, that's real time. Stops almost infinitely. So if you get in a bind and you need to kill the motor and the blade immediately, you can do it really quick. The miter saw is one of my least favorite tools on this list. Although I do feel like every shop should still have one. It's just so quick and easy for things like cutting a big wide 2x4 or a 4x4. Things you can't really do on a table saw with a jig. The adjustments are good and quick. They just aren't that accurate. So I don't love it, but I do still feel like every shop should have a miter saw. I like my Makita miter saw quite a bit, but I don't love it. I would definitely check out the Bosch and the Festool if you wanted the absolute best miter saws. But DeWalt, Makita all make good ones. I would recommend getting a 10 inch over a 12 inch. So that way the blades are interchangeable with your table saw though. Next up is the circular saw. And this is one of the very, very first tools you should have. Maybe even before a table saw. It doesn't have to be the $800 Festool like I have. I used that Milwaukee for quite a while before I was able to afford my Festool. Get yourself a good straight edge and a circular saw and you will be able to accomplish a ton of tasks. If you can afford the Festool, it's cool because you can make things like this chamfer cut. But it's not completely necessary to have this saw right away. But get a circular saw. I have slowly learned how bad operating without proper dust collection is for your lungs. And I will never go back to how my shop used to look. I am actually right in the middle of upgrading my system too. Because this is a non-HEPA Laguna. And it's a really cool looking machine. It has decent power. But it really isn't that good for your lungs. It gets rid of the big chips. But the small particles still remain airborne. And that's what can really get you as far as the lung cancer and the really long-term health problems. So I am moving to an Oneida system. And it's going to be out in my shed. So it's going to be super quiet. Way, way, way more powerful. But most importantly, it's going to be way better for me. So this system, way overkill for most shops. This is like a full-blown professional system that I can take with me if I'm ever able to move shops. But get yourself some sort of HEPA machine. Oneida makes smaller ones for more residential type of applications. Check out the Oneida Air System. Really, really good products. And I think everything they do is HEPA. I know that dust collection is not the most fun, most sexy tool to talk about. So the next tool up is a super fun, super sexy tool. And that is the jointer. And I don't recommend getting a benchtop jointer. Some tools, like a planer, I'm fine with a benchtop one. But get yourself at least a 6-inch stand-up jointer. This is an 8-inch one with a spiral head. Definitely, definitely, if you can find and afford a helical head, spiral head, same thing. Get one of those because they have tons more power. They last a lot longer. And blade changes are so much nicer. Next up on my list is the planer. And this tool was my very first big tool purchase that I purchased brand new. And this is a Grizzly 5-horsepower helical head 20-inch planer. And this is really, really big. And I have a really big garage or a small shop, however you want to look at it. So I'm able to fit a large planer like this. If you don't have this type of space, I actually think you'd be just fine with a lunchbox planer. You're just going to have to go a little bit slower and take a little bit more time. So this one is really, really nice. It's not perfect. The dust collection isn't great. And it leaves a little bit of kind of a chattery finish from that helical head. It's kind of hard to see on the camera here. Sands out really easy. Not a deal breaker. But get yourself a planer. I get a ton of people tagging me on Instagram or commenting on YouTube about their tables. That they are having a really hard time sanding it. They can't get the pigtail swirls out or a big ugly scratch pattern. And I really think now that you need one of these sanders if you want that really perfect finish. And this is a Festool ETS sander. I love it. It's like a Ferrari in your hand. It just is that much nicer. And it's like $500. So it is a huge expense for pretty much anybody to purchase. But if you really want to take that next step in your sanding and the finishing of your tables, I actually think that is a necessary tool. Again, kind of like dust collection, it's not the most fun tool to buy. But it is that important. This table here was one that my client asked for this really high gloss with this hard wax finish. Which you have to sand absolutely perfect. And without this Festool, I really don't think I would be able to get this nice of a finish on a table like this. And if you're curious, I will have a full build on this table in a few weeks, maybe a month. Because I get a ton of people asking me, why don't you do color? Why don't you do metallic? So I will have a step-by-step of this table in just a few weeks, maybe a month. I bet you thought I was going to leave hand tools off this list since I use so many power tools. But every woodworker needs a good set of chisels. And it actually doesn't have to be an expensive set. But it just needs to be a really, really sharp set of chisels. And I have a ton of different ones. These are, that's an old Japanese chisel that I've kind of restored there. These are some blue spruce butt chisels. And I will say I own these Stanley chisels, but those are my least favorite. So don't buy that Stanley set. A lot of people do because they look cool and they're pretty inexpensive. If you want a more inexpensive set, this is a Narex chisel. That I actually really, really like. And I shouldn't leave it in that horrible junky drawer. But get yourself a good set of Narex chisels and get them sharp. I love getting suggestions from you guys about videos you want to see. That was actually the inspiration for this week's videos. I had a ton of people ask me, how much does it cost to start a shop? What tools should I get to start my shop? So that's why I made this week's video. So let me know in the comments what types of videos you want to see in the coming weeks. And the only thing I ask is if you get something from this video, if you enjoy it, hit that little subscribe button. Hit that little bell button because that enables me to keep making more content just like this. In the meantime though, I will give you guys something a lot of you asked for. And that is less talking. I have a quick clip from one of my old videos, all chopping, no talking. I know it's hard to believe with as much as I talk in these videos, but I actually have a full 15 minute video on inlaying those bow ties with no talking, just woodworking sounds. And it's actually a pretty cool kind of an ASMR video that got like 2 million views. So apparently other people want to see me not talk so much as well. But moving on to the router portion of this, this is my trim router. Not the first router you should get. It is nice, but I use it pretty much just for rounding over these corners. Next up is the Festool plunge router. It's really well built. It's also really expensive. I will say the dust collection is really nice on it. It works incredibly well. The micro adjustments are also nice. So it's probably the most well-built router I own, but it doesn't replace the need for having other routers. So it's kind of a tough pill to swallow when you're gonna spend 600 bucks on a router and then still have to buy more routers. So it works really well when you're using it in a jig like this. The dust collection does work better flat on the wood than when it's raised off that acrylic. But again, you still have to have other routers. So don't make this the very first one you buy. I will include links to all the tools that I do recommend buying before this one, but it is nice for what I use it for here. I usually really like Bosch tools and I actually hate this router. It is really, really poorly built. I liked some of the features, which is why I bought it without having used one, like that micro adjustment there. But the plunge is so bad on it. It's if all your weight isn't evenly distributed, it won't go up and down. So it gets really herky jerky there and it's just a really poorly built router. So it has some nice features like that light that's always on and it has good power and I like the kind of the trigger start for it, but it's just really not very well built. So I would recommend you the 2.25 horsepower Bosch. That's actually a router that was one of my first ones I had and it works better than this one and is less expensive. If you are new to my page, you should know every week I like to give a little bit of credit to the people that make it all the way to the end of the video. So start your question or comment with your number one favorite most important tool and I will know you watch the entire video and I promise I will answer all of your questions or comments first. So thanks so much for watching the whole thing and please subscribe for more videos just like this one. Have a great week!