What are two tools you absolutely could not live without in your daily woodworking? For me as a professional woodworker and cabinet maker I would say a tape measure and a good table saw.
Choose a hand tool and a power tool and why. Hope this strikes an interesting discussion.
Replies
For the hand tool it would be the marking gauge (I don't care how long something is, only that two things match) and if we must have a power tool power tool it would be a band saw because it allows more than straight cuts.
But a plane, chisel and back saw must be added.
I'd go with a quality bandsaw and a low-angle block plane as well.
Well let me think......
I think I choose first my Lie Nielsen Low Angle Bronze Block Plane.
and second the Hitachi Resaw.
I use the Resaw for everything except crosscutting. I rip with it I resw with it.
The Block Plane is used for fine tuning joints and edges. I love that plane.
http://www.kalafinefurniture.blogspot.com
Surface jointer.. every project. Block plane.. every project... a pencil and and ole school style pencil sharpner with a crank.
I know.. I cheated. :>)
SARGE..
Yikes, Mon! You are giving my half-full shop mentality falling dreams...
I am sure this is not what you intended but, in my woodshop, the two tools I could not live without are:
1) My hands with all ten digits attached - use those safety guards
2) My eyes - use those safety glasses
Steve
Power tool: Bandsaw
Hand tool: Card scraper
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." A. Einstein
http://www.albionworks.net
Well, I have more than 2, but if I had to pick just 2, I'd say:
1.) Smoother plane
2.) my jointer, so I didn't have to flatten a board by hand.
Jeff
Workbench
Digital calipers
In my day to day work in my shop it would be : a measuring device, and a table saw.
Because, everything needs a demension, and a way to get it there, and those are the tool I use most to do that.
Is demension how we get dimensiaYou can make it fool proof but not idiot proof
The first tool may not be regarded as a hand tool but its my HEAD WITHOUT this tool nothing else is possible second an accurate tape unless you can measure accurately nothing works
You can make it fool proof but not idiot proof
While it would be nearly impossible to make something of any complexity with only two tools, my picks would be a fore plane and the surface planer.
The fore plane, because it is large enough to do accurate work, but small enough to be handy.
The surface planer, because no other tool does so much work precisely and quickly.
Rob Millard
BPS,
The two tools that I rely on most in woodworking are 1) his mind (accumulated knowledge, wisdom, experience, attitueds), and 2) his access to information (books and computers, etc.)
I think of the woodworker as much like a Stanley #55 plane (or a router, if you are a motor-head). Its value lies in its versatility via the use of different "end effectors" (as they say in the robotics business). A band saw, and a low angle block plane are examples of these "end effectors" that a woodworker uses to shape wood into the forms that exist in his mind. These forms come from analysis and creativity based on two kinds of experience. The first is your own experience. The second is the experience of others, as seen in books, on websites, in museums, etc. Our minds cut, paste and bend other ideas to form our own, which are never 100% original. As someone once said, "I can steal more good ideas than I can generate."
Just having these ideas in ones head doesn't make a person a woodworker. The person must have the skills and knowledges necessary to use his tools to achieve those forms, and must use good attitudes to stay healthy long enough to achieve those forms.
If you asked what the most important tools that the great cellist, Yo Yo Ma has, I would not say that it is his expensive cello. That is easily replaced. The tools that he has that others don't are his knowledge and skills, developed over a lifetime, and his access to music from books and other sources to apply his skills to.
To me, a good woodworker, like a good cook, can achieve great results even if the tool that they are looking for is not available. They merely make an intelligent substitution, and achieve their goal another way.
I really don't understand the fascination that some Knots woodworkers have with the fine points of differences between very similar tools, eg LV and LN planes, that keep coming up. The differences between those tools in helping you achieve the wood forms that you have in mind, are TRIVIAL in comparison to the power of your mind and your resources for getting information.
If we were having a woodworking contest among the two woodworkers, one of which is a highly accomplished woodworker who only has access to poor tools, and an inexperienced woodworker with all of the best tools in the world, who would you pick to win? Yup, me too. Now, do you see why the two greatest tools that a woodworker has are his mind and his access to good information?
Hope that helps.
Enjoy,
Mel
Measure your output in smiles per board foot.
Tool #1. A fully loaded Euro combination unit.
Tool#2. A bandsaw.
Oops, I kinda cheated.View Image
#1)Ambition and #2)Determination
1) pencil
2) chisel
I have to go with the "uncoventional" answers:
1) Brain Housing Group, complete and off-pause ("power" tool);
2) Metacarpus with phalanges, 1 pair, (left and right: 1 each) ("hand" tool -- heh heh heh).
Tschüß!
Mit freundlichen holzbearbeitungischen Grüßen aus dem Land der Rio Grande!!
James
hand tool - vise
power tool - screw gun
Sorry guys I have to do it:
My Lunch box and my cell phone
-Lou
My alarm clock and coffee are pretty important to me.
Hal
http://www.rivercitywoodworks.com
1. pencil
2. eraser
Tablesaw and jointer is the 2 most used tools in the shopJim at Clark Customs
A couple of tools from here - Richard Jones and Lee Grindinger.
Charles, I'm more of a hoary old chestnut myself. I can't speak for Lee though. Slainte.Richard Jones Furniture
Richard,
I too think of you as a knaggy, knurry old tree - of the sort one likes to hug whilst giving mental thanks for all the nice timbers and what one may do with them.
Your correspondent, in this instance, is more reminiscent of one of them broken-off branches, which may have once been graceful and limber; but now has interesting but frightening fungus growing out of it and is the home to beetles of various kinds.
Lataxe, a sycophant
1) Taken to the extreme, as in only having 2 tools - I'd go with a bottle opener and a refrigerator to keep the Newcastle cold because I couldn't even make a mess with only two tools.
2) With a chainsaw and a maul I could build a fire. Does that count as wood working?
3) Serioiusly I'd miss my tablesaw and LN L/A Adjustable Mouth Block Plane the most.John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
The more things change ...
We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
Petronious Arbiter, 210 BC
Anyone else notice that hot wind in here?Hah, hah, ha, Charles. Lee
The Humdinger.
Same here, a table saw and a tape measure.
Pardon my spelling,
Mike
Make sure that your next project is beyond your skill and requires tools you don't have. You won't regret it.
I would choose trammel points and a shaper, I make radius architural moldings for a living. Great question , I would like to see more responses.
Edited 12/6/2006 9:09 pm ET by TJGILL
Well, since I don't have any stationary power tools yet, I'd have to say
my circular saw & router.
This is turning into an interesting route. Maybe Ruth could do a survey and put it into a viewable format?
>> Tool #1. A fully loaded Euro combination unit.
I believe that's cheating Bioman :)
The question is "tools you couldn't live without" and not tools you use the most. Aside from physical and mental, I have to think using what 2 tools could I make the most furniture with (assuming glue and clamps are excluded from tools)
1) Table Saw
2) Router & Table
If not exculding glue and clamps
1) glue
2) clamps
My Grandpa's 100 year old Starret Combination Square and my Laguna bandsaw. RF
I'm a newbee and couldn't build w/ only 2 tools. ... so my wallet and cell phone so I could pay someone on knots who has the skills to build it for me.
My first thought was a jointer and a planer to make nothing more complicated than a straight board. But I can buy a planed board from the lumberyard. With that in mind, it would have to be a hammer and saw.
Festool and EZ smart ??? Eh, eh, ehhhh !C.
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