# The Essentials for a Small Shop



## MiamiSnook (Dec 4, 2005)

Hello,

After the holidays I plan on buying the first elements of what will eventual be a small woodshop that will exist in a shed that will be built in this summer. As I mentioned in my intro, I have loved wood working for many years and have always dabbled in it but I am now in a position to really get serious about this hobby.

As much as I love the The Router Workshop and The New Yankee Workshop, they also drive me nuts. Today's episode of The Router Shop was part two of an oak side table. Beautiful project and masterfully done. Here's the problem, each board was perfectly planed, joined and squared. There is no mention of how these boards got that way. A novice like me will go down to my local lumber store and buy stock boards, cut them to the desired sizes and start routing. The novice will end up with something that resembles that table, but with many flaws. 

I said all that to say this.

What are the essential, most needed tools for someone that wants to make furniture at home? If the first thing I buy is router and I don;t have a table saw to cut the wood into size, and if I don;t have a planer I won't have wood with smooth broad surfaces. A joiner may not be necessary because a router can be used to clean and square up edges of wood. 

Am I forgetting something??

What are the essential, most needed power tools for the home woodshop?

Thanks,

Peter


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## Glenmore (Sep 10, 2004)

Hi Pete the most important thing I think you mentioned is the tablesaw. You can do your jointing with a router if you have a table. That is how I did my jointing before I got a jointer. The best advice I can give you get your self a wide enough jointer and you can plane with that. I have a dewalt 733 planer and a 4" grizzly jointer which I up graded over my 3 year period. Hope this helps you out.


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## jerrymayfield (Sep 25, 2004)

Unless you buy your lumber s4s (expensive) after a table saw you will need a jointer.A jointer can face joint a board , a planer can't it can make one face of a board parallel to the other face only. In my opinion : 1. table saw 2. jointer 3. planer 4. router 5. router 
everyone has an opinion thats mine.

Regards

Jerry


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## reible (Sep 10, 2004)

Here is a listing we did some time ago that you might find useful:
www.routerforums.com/showthread.php?t=539

If you click on the link you can read several peoples attempt to answer about the same question you're asking. (After getting a drum sander I might be tempted to move that up a few spots.)

I'm sure a few people will not have read this posting since it more then a year old so if you are reading this post please read the other post as well and feel free to comment either here or there.

Ed


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