(Part 2) Top products from r/BeginnerWoodWorking

Here are the basics, I will edit if I think of any more essential tools, but you can go an awfully long way with these.

Hand Tools:

• Hand saw- I prefer Japanese style pull saws, meaning they cut on the pull stroke. My go to utility saw is a Vaughn bear saw, which is a robust package, with several types of interchangeable blades. There are countless types of saws, for different uses, but a fine toothed Japanese saw will get you by for most things.
  
  
• Combination square- A sliding ruler square, perfect for marking and layout. you will also want a speed square eventually, so you might as well get one.
  
  
• Tape measure- Start with a basic 25' tape, and get more as needed.
  
  
• Basic chisel set- Most of the entry grade chisels are pretty much the same, this Irwin set is a pretty good buy. to start with a set of 1/4", 1/2", and 1" are all you really need, but you can never have enough chisels.
  
  
• Block plane- A low angle block plane will get you a long ways breaking corners and trimming pieces. Stanley makes a great, affordable, option. As time goes by you will need a jack plane, but a block plane will do for now.
  
  
• Sharpening equipment- A fine diamond stone like this will get you a long way keeping your chisels and plane sharp. You should do research into sharpening methods as you use your tools more, and build a system that fits you.
  
  
• Hammer- A cheap smooth face hammer. Build a wooden mallet as a starter project.
  
  
• Clamps- You always need more clamps. Big clamps. Small clamps. Weird clamps. I like bar clamps. Harbour Freight has good deals on fair clamps, but don't expect too much out of them. To start with get a couple with ~8" throat, and a couple with ~18" throat.
  
  Power Tools:
  
  
• Cordless drill- If you're willing to spend the money for a good, reliable, tool I recommend Makita, but a Ryobi or Rigid will serve you well if you're just working on small projects. Everyone has their favourite cordless tool brand, and, for the most part, it really is just preference. I highly recommend adding an impact driver and circular saw to whichever system you choose.
  
  
• Circular Saw- If you want to work with plywood or larger sticks, you will want a circular saw, which is the most basic power saw. Most of the major tool companies make fine starter saws, Skil is the original, and is quite cheap, but there are plenty of others, browse a store and see what takes your fancy.
  
  
• Jig saw- A jig saw is used for cutting curves, and you will eventually need it if you build enough things. I prefer Bosch but there are cheaper options. See what feels right to you.
  
  
• Miter saw- You don't need this right away, but if you start doing more projects you will want one. I recommend going right to a sliding compound miter saw, like this Dewalt. You will never need more miter saw than that, and if you get a small one you will eventually end up buying a the real deal.
  
  
• Table saw- Again, you don't need this right away, but eventually you will feel you need the precision and ease that a table saw brings. The Rigid portable table saw is a great saw if you're working in tight quarters and need to pack up, but you'll appreciate the appreciate the stability of a cast iron topped cabinet saw if you have the cash and space for it.
  
  Misc:
  
  
• Drill bits- Get a cheap twist drill set that goes from 1/16" to 1/2" and a basic spade bit set. Later you will want a set of forstners and hole saws.
  
  
• Utility knife
  
  
• Driver bits
  

This seems to come up a lot - enough that the mods should have a sufficient amount of info to create a how to guide at this point. Here's my general default answer to this:

I've always liked The Homestead Heritage
series. It's old and they don't update, but their are some good videos.

Steve Ramsey has some good ones too. Near the end, he seemed like he decided to simply start pimping his bad website instead of really produce good stuff, but his beginner videos are really good.

The English Woodworker if you can get past his accent, he's got a bunch of good videos. His are a bit more advanced, but he goes through an entire project at a time which I find helpful.

William Ng. He's got a very dry sense of humor and his videos are pretty technical, but if you like that sort of thing (I do) then he's a really knowledgeable source, plus he answers youtube comments.

There's also a good simple book called 2x4 Furniture which I really like.

A.) why are they dropping this on you?
B.) Safety! Safety! Safety! Before you do anything, you need to brush up on safety in both a shop setting and when it comes to tools. Both Hand and Power.
C.) Boxes. Learn how to make boxes. 95% of all woodworking is making a box. Picture Frame??? It's a box without a top or bottom. Dresser??? A box with smaller boxes in it. Well, maybe not 95% but learning to make a box is a pretty good step in being able to take different projects.
D.) Safety
E.) Do you know what kind of tools you will have access too, space to work, how much time these kids are going to have?


You may check out the following Youtube Channels:

• Stumpy Nub
  
• Woodworking for Mere Mortals
  
• Paul Sellers
  
  Some books that might be handy as well:
  
  
• Woodworking Basics - Mastering the Essentials of Craftsmanship - An Integrated Approach With Hand and Power tools
  
• The Complete Manual of Woodworking: A Detailed Guide to Design, Techniques, and Tools for the Beginner and Expert
  
• The Joint Book: The Complete Guide to Wood Joinery
  
• One-Board Woodworking Projects
  
• The Big Book of Weekend Woodworking Projects

Interesting read. I recommend checking out Good Clean Fun by Nick Offerman (link). The first part of the book has some great beginner info and the rest of the book are projects, with humorous stories peppered throughout.

There's an endless amount of writing on the subject. The book I own is Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Woodworking. Having an abundance of pictures and diagrams really helps to explain to things.

For tools, I agree with u/OSHTechie. Make sure he's really into it before buying tools. If you really must buy tools, make it something that he can use even if he loses interest like a hand drill or a tape measure.

Bill Hylton’s Illustrated Cabinetmaking is only $16 and has hundreds of exploded drawings of furniture of different styles. Not plans with cut lists but the benefit of custom furniture is that it can be sized to fit a specific space and for materials at hand.

If old timey wood working rocks your boat, I highly recommend following Chris Schwarz. He has done a lot to popularize the Roubo bench and other older tools and methods. He also wrote two of the best books on workbenches (https://www.amazon.com/Workbenches-Design-Construction-Popular-Woodworking/dp/1558708405).

There's also a good video about the Roubo workbench at http://www.popularwoodworking.com/video/roubo_workbench_tour

You can follow Chris at:

• http://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/chris-schwarz-blog
  
• https://blog.lostartpress.com/
  
  His latest research has him investigating Roman workbences (http://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/christopher-schwarz-on-roman-workbenches-2) although that's probably not as useful in a home workshop as a Roubo.
  
  If you really want to go off the deep end into traditional woodworking, you also have to check out Roy Underhill's Woodwrights Shop, a show that has been airing on PBS for over 30 years. Chris is a regular guest on there.
  
  http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/home/
  
  If you couldn't tell, I'm a little bit obsessed by all of this traditional woodworking stuff.

It may be not popular, as I have never seen it suggested, but this was the book that got me started. It is a bit dated but it has excellent reference diagrams, some basic projects for woodworking, and most of the carpentry they discuss is useful around the home. Plus it is cheap for the old edition, linked in this post.

Books like this specifically for beginners has been a great resource for me.

Much better than anything I have found on the internet

R. Bruce Hoadley's Understanding Wood should be required reading, and not just for woodworkers.

For anything else, especially anything specific to joinery, I've found it's basically six of one, half a dozen of the other. A solid foundation of how wood behaves (which you'll get from Understanding Wood) will let you filter out almost all of the bad information yourself, and every book will have bad information. There's value in almost any book that looks like it has value.

The one set of books I'd recommend you definitely not get is Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking; that one is consistently garbage and guaranteed to end in personal injury. Unfortunately, it's also a set that gets recommended in threads like these in a lot of places, because Tage Frid was associated with Fine Woodworking (the magazine, not the practice) for almost three decades and therefore has a lot of visibility.

Paul Sellers' book Working Wood 1 & 2 takes you from carving spoons to making your workbench and is written in his easily accessible and super-informative style. A little pricy ($35) but completely worth it:

https://www.amazon.com/Working-Wood-Artisan-Course-Sellers/dp/0956967302

There is special hardware that allows the tabletop to move as necessary.

Here is one style. With this type, you use a Forstner bit to make a little recess in the apron to allow for a flush-fitting, and then attach as normal. You put them on the 2 opposite sides that do not expand/contract as much (width of the boards), and then leave them off of the 2 sides that expand/contract more (length of the boards).

Looks good, they don't ship to Germany though. I thought about this plane

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B000LFTOE2/

And these sharpening stones, although I worry they might be too small?

https://www.amazon.de/DMT-Diamond-Whetstone-Mini-Diamantstein-extrafein/dp/B00004WFTD/

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Manual-Woodworking-Albert-Jackson/dp/039456488X/ref=sr_1_3?crid=DK69C7CGSONH&keywords=the+complete+manual+of+woodworking&qid=1556768108&s=gateway&sprefix=the+complete+manual+%2Caps%2C180&sr=8-3

​

The first chapter of this book should answer all your questions.

This?

The Woodbook https://smile.amazon.com/dp/3822817422/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_PSn1CbJ68ZMZ1

https://www.amazon.com/Woodworking-101-Skill-Building-Projects-Basics/dp/1600853684/ref=sr_1_2

The projects get quite complex by the end of the book, so once you complete them you'll have a lot of skills

Marking Gauge

Contour Gauge

Pull Saw

There's a shaping thing I see advertised a lot on the WoodWorkWeb Youtube channel, except today when I want to find it. But it's a bunch of straight edges that are held together with wing nuts and you use to to replicate odd shapes for cutting to fit.