A workshop collects. The question is what to keep and what to throw away.
The hand tools I actually use
Planes:
- Jack plane, 2.5 inches, for rough work and grain fighting
- Jointer plane, 8 inches, for flattening
- Smoothing plane, 6 inches, for the final pass
Saws:
- Tenon saw, for joints
- Coping saw, for curves
Chisels:
- 1/4 inch
- 1/2 inch
- 1 inch
- 2 inch
Mortise chisels are stronger. Bench chisels are lighter. I use bench chisels
for everything because the light ones work on hard wood.
Other:
- Workbench with a vise
- Two clamps
- Marking gauge
- Try square
- Pencil
That is the list. Everything else is decoration.
The power tools
A table saw. A random-orbit sander. A drill.
The table saw is for ripping. The drill is for holes. The sander is for
between-coats work.
What I bought and never used again
- A thickness planer, which made me lazy
- A band saw, which was searching for a project that never came
- Seventeen clamps, because I thought I needed them
- Wood species I did not understand
The question that would have saved money
“Will I use this to make the things I actually want to make, or to make the
things I think I should want to make?”
The answer to the first question is yes, rarely. The answer to the second is
almost never.
Why the workshop stays small
A full workshop is a thing to manage, not a thing to use. My half-day Saturday
is for making, not for organizing the machinery.
The smallest workshop that makes things is a better place to be than the
biggest workshop that has things.