Let me preface this post by saying that I am not a Carpenter. I am not a Woodworker. Those are people who work with wood professionally, or who take their hobby seriously.  I respect them for there skill and dedication, but I can’t claim to be one of their ranks.

I’m a dabbler. A hacker. A maker. A little bit here, a little bit there. To use the cliche: Jack of all trades, master of none. But I don’t mind. I’d much rather mess about with a bunch of different things than get too caught up in one. Life is too short. Maybe that means that I won’t be the best woodworker, but that’s okay, as long as I can get the job done.

That being said, here are a couple of thoughts I have about power tools for woodworking.

The Cordless Drill

You must have one. Easy enough. You can drill holes, and drive screws. Here’s what I’ve learned: Do NOT associate high voltage with usefullness. I have a 19.2 V Craftsman drill that I use a lot. It’s a decent tool. But you know what? It’s too fucking heavy. After drilling about a billion holes for chicken coops I have learned that LIGHT IS GOOD. You don’t want to have to lug around a 10 pound tool for every fricken hole you drill. Yea, I know, bigger batteries will last longer. But the weight and clearance issues mean that I’ve recently purchased a Makita 10.8 volt compact set that is far lighter than the Craftsman. I am dying for UPS to deliver it. (I got a set — a drill for my drilling, and an impact driver for my screwing. Changing bits slows us down too much.)

The Circular Saw

The old standby, a 7 1/4 inch saw. Corded. I’ve used cordless, and they don’t have enough power. Get a good brand for long life. I have a Bosch. I use it to chew though 2 x 8s. My Bosch is so much smoother than my little 5 1/2 Craftsman trim saw, even though the Bosch is twice as heavy. Go figure.

The Jigsaw

This is one of those tools that I thought I wouldn’t use much, but instead grab quite a lot. Perfect for complicated cuts (like in my previous post) where you don’t want to cut off your finger. Sure, it will cut off your finger happily, but not quite so easily as a circular saw will. A good saw with a good blade (and I stress, GOOD BLADE) is a marvel. I often forget that my Bosch has a dangerous blade slicing away — it’s that smooth. It’s one of those rare tools that you want to work with more, so that it will become second nature to use.

The Random Orbital Sander

Another tool that I was so-so about, until I got it. Picked up a DeWalt with a set of sanding discs at Lowe’s on sale. (DeWalt is heavily discounted right now, along with Milwaukee.) A boring tool, but it works well, and I grab it quite often. Gets the job done, without taking a lot of space. Has made smoothing out rough patches brainless.

The Biscuit Joiner

Believe it or not, I put a Biscuit Joiner ahead of a Drill Press or a Scroll Saw. It’s that useful. Maybe it’s because we make a lot of mitered doors for our coops. Maybe it’s because I’m lazy as sin. Who knows. But if you are going to join wood on a regular basis, get a biscuit joiner. We have the Porter-Cable 557, which is pretty much the standard model. While you are at it, make sure to order a bulk box of biscuits. They are SO much cheaper than the individual “jars”. (It costs $8 for a jar of 100, or $20 for 1000. Do the math. You will go through a LOT of biscuits.) There is a reason Norm uses this tool so much. It make joining a breeze. Yes, you could use a router and a bit, but the $220 we spent on the Porter-Cable has already paid for itself in time saved.

The Router

A tool I thought I would use more of, but don’t. In fact, much of the original purpose I had for the router has been superseded by the Biscuit Joiner. Don’t get me wrong: You need a router. But for our rough work, I use the other stuff a lot more. I’m glad I have it, but I’m also glad I bought a less expensive model (the Milwaukee set, which you can get for $100 at Amazon) and some decent, but inexpensive, bits from Grizzly. I’d recommend starting with a small (1.75 HP) router set, and then move up to the bigger stuff if you find yourself needing more power. The great thing about “spare” routers is that you can mount them in tables.

The Dremel

It sands. It grinds. It cuts off metal. It shapes. It polishes. It drills. It’s safe. It’s easy to handle. We own 3 or 4 of them. They are one of those tools that every shop, wood or otherwise, should have. I almost forgot to add this line of tools because they are so common. If you have a shop, get a good Dremel, and let it grind away your cares.

The Other Stuff

Two other items come to mind: The Drill Press and the Scroll Saw. The press is boring, but very useful. More of a metal working tool, it is invaluable when you need to drill accurate holes. I use it a lot for carving out countersinks on small pieces. It’s a tool I happen to use quite a lot, but many woodworkers will not. Get the other stuff first.

The Scroll Saw is a lot of fun. Evelyn won (!) a very excellent Dremel saw during the 2007 Austin Maker Faire. We use it for small stuff, part cleanup, and detailed “scroll saw-ish” projects. It’s a wonderful tool, and the PERFECT starter tool for a young person. It is the safest power saw you can own. It’s the one power tool I don’t worry about using, and that allows you do get really close-in to your work.

My Lifesaver

This is a tool that some shops will have no use for, but that I use 90% of the time: The Miter Saw. I picked up an inexpensive ($100) Skilsaw for one of my other projects, and it has been used over and over and over again for our coop work. If you are cutting small (<6″ width) lumber on a regular basis, or you need accurate angles, you need a miter saw. We would not have been able to much of what we do, with any efficiency, without the Miter Saw. Chop chop chop. Cut cut cut. I’ve made hundreds of cuts with this tool in the last few months. Along with the Cordlesss Drill, the most used tool in my shop.

But let me re-iterate: This is much more of a production tool. I don’t think a whole lot of home shops will really need it. But, for us, it’s invaluable.

My Wish List

Probably the next power tool for the shop will be a planer. Much of our cedar is very roughly cut, so a planer would help us to even out the face of the wood — to get it at a known height. This is one of those tools I know I’ll use if we start selling coops, but that I won’t get until I really need it. Which brings me to…

My Rule

Since we are on a tight budget, we have to be very very careful about spending money on tools. Our rule is that we must say to ourselves “damn it … if I only had that ….” about a dozen times. If, after a dozen times, we say “damn it, if we only had that planer…”, then I will get the planer. Not before. It’s worked out pretty well. We get tools only when we really need them. And I’ve not regreted anything we’ve purchased that followed that rule. It means that you’ll get tools that you really need, instead of building up an expensive collection of stuff.

The Unsung Hero

There are a lot of silent heros in the shop, but one that I use most of all — more than the drill — more than the miter saw — is the Shop-Vac. You have to have one. Do you want to fall on your ass? Do you want to track sawdust into the house? Do you want to look like a slob? Get an original Shop-Vac, put it on a long cord, and use it constantly. Mine gets fired up dozens of times a day. Pick of sawdust. Clean up the workspace. Suck up bugs. Suck sawdust off my clothes. It’s boring, but it is critical.

I built another coop this morning, so I decided to work on some other stuff in the afternoon. Here is an upcoming Special Project. Can you guess what I’m up to?

In this photo you can see my Bosch Barrel Grip Jigsaw (1591EVSK). I love this tool. Clean cuts, easy to control, and made by the Swiss. It’s the best jigsaw I’ve used. Pair it up with some T308B Xtra-clean blades, and you are in woodworking heaven. She gets hot and heavy after extended use, but it’s a rock solid tool that will see years and years of use.

We now offer the Adult and Child size versions of the Leopold Bench for sale. You can purchase either a fully assembled (and stained) unit, or a pre-cut kit. Check out our business site, Austin Kontore, for more details.

Last weekend we had a couple of people stop by and take a look at our chicken coop setup. Evelyn gave the grand tour, while I tooled around in the shop. I did peek out now and again and saw that they were spending a good deal of time standing by the coops. Talking, coming up with ideas, and so on. I thought to myself: They need somewhere to sit down, in front of the coops.

On Friday, between cutting lumber and hardware cloth, I spent a little time putting together a bench for the backyard. Here is what is looks like:

It is made out of 2×8 lumber. I used pine because it’s cheap and I knew I would be staining and sealing it. You can use cedar or pressure treated. The seating area is about 42 inches wide, with a 22 degree angled back. Just big enough to fit two people comfortably.

The bench design is based on the work of Aldo Leopold, a nature writer and protector of the wilderness. (Do a search on “Aldo Leopold bench” to find plans. I took mine from the same magazine I got the cedar BBQ table from.)

Here is a wider shot, with the table:

Notice that we are good water conservationists.  That’s what happens when you work with hydrogeologists.

If you are thinking of making your own, you only need (3) 2×8 by 8 foot pieces of lumber. Actually, you can do it with (1) 2×8 by 8 foot and (1) 2×8 by 10 foot, but I can’t get 10 feet of lumber in a Corolla. Though, I can get (3) 2x8s, 30 pieces of 6′ cedar picket, and 10 8′ 1x2s — at the same time — into that car. Thank god for fold-down back seats.

In other news, we actually got a good soaking rain yesterday. A couple of inches they say (at least 2 in our area). The backyard was starting to flood in parts, but the house and shop were okay (thank goodness). And it was another good test for the coops. It’ been gray today (hence the dark photos), but no rain so far.