Want To Purchase Woodworking Tools ? Do This.
Purchasing woodworking tools should be an exciting and fun experience, but too often because of all the tools to choose from, it can be overwhelming. Even the most experienced woodworkers can have trouble making a purchase. With all the choices and advertising it is hard, but not impossible, to cut through all the noise and buy a woodworking tool that will do the job and last.
One thing that we are all guilty of is seeing an infomercial on tv and instantly falling in love with the tool and let our emotions get the best of us. Let think about this for a second, the people that make the infomercial are not professional woodworkers they are professional marketing experts. Their job is to make you think that you can’t live without their product, or at least your life will be greatly improved. The main problem here is when we are unable to do the things with the tool that we saw done on tv, we think that it must be our fault, not the tools. After all the guy on tv did it with ease, I saw him.
Woodworking tools are the most important factor in woodworking, if you ask me. Workmanship defines a woodworker, and without the right high quality tool this is hard. Not to long ago a friend asked if I had time to stop by his house to give him some advice on his garage shelving project. When I got there him and another buddy was trying to rip up some plywood for the shelves. Instead of a straight line their rips were all over the place, there was no way to get four 12 inch rips from a sheet of plywood with cuts like that. The first thing I noticed was they were trying to rip free hand, so I told them that they should use a straight edge clamped to the plywood as a guide. In no time we were set up and ready to make the cut. Then I noticed his circular saw, old 5 dollar garage sale special. I want you to know, I have been using saws for more than 35 years and there was no way I could cut a straight line with that circular saw. Got a good circular saw out of my truck for them to use, his rips were straight. Poor workmanship, in this case was not his fault, it was the tools.
My friend is not a woodworker but with a quality tool and a little advice he was able to do a good job on his project and in the process saved himself some money by doing it himself. He right away could see that if he was going to do other projects that he would have to get a better quality circular saw, he could not borrow mine every time. This is true of all woodworking tools not just circular saws, no matter the tool if you want to do a good job you have to have a good tool.
At this point is were he would have to ask himself how often would he use his circular saw, and for what type of projects. Circular saws like mine are expensive, but I need a saw that is powerful, will make good cuts, and last a long time. There are different quality of woodworking tools, not every woodworker will need to buy the best commercial grade tools. It is possible to find a good quality homeowner grade tool, but you will have to remember that these tools are designed for limited light duty use.
So what’s a woodworker to do? Well unless the tool is brand new, other people have already bought and used the tool. “So”, you say, the best way to tell if a tool, or anything for that matter, will do what it is suppose to do, is read what others have to say. People are always happy to share their experience with a purchase, and the good thing is they will tell the truth, they have nothing to gain, or lose. Big online stores like Amazon