Tool Choices

Check out Mario Rodriguez's article

Eric Hedberg

>"Shop on the Go" in the January 2002 Tools and Shops issue I believe of Fine Woodworking. He had a well refined set of traveling tools and explained his choices. I'm not going to even venture a minimum list myself. New or collected, I am always one tool short of something. Eric

Problem with...

Richard R

>deciding on a minumum portable tool kit isn't the tools themselves, but where you're going to actually use them. What are you going to use for a bench? I'm lost without my cabinetmaker's-style bench. I built the base on my workmate because it's all I had at the time. Chopped the mortises (with bench chisels), cut the tenons (I did have a Nobex for that, thank the Lord), and smoothed the saw marks from my little Ryobi bandsaw on it, and I wouldn't wish that experience upon my worst enemy. Carpenters can get by with saw horses and a sheet of plywood, but we can't.

I'm only saying this because you mentioned building/installing/repairing furniture in your post. Just something to think about.

I second the suggestion to read Mario's article, he has most of the bases covered there.

RR

I'm with Richard

Adam Cherubini

>I have a tool kit in a plastic tool box that I take with me when some family member needs carpentry help. In addition to the various drill bits and drivers, including allen drivers for ikea type stuff, I have a japanese zeta saw with a few various blades (including a flush blade), gimlets, and a LA block plane. Come to think of it, I haven't got any chisels in that box. Curious.

Anyway, I'm with Richard. You can carry tools in your trunk to change a flat, but not to change a transmission or a timing belt. Its just not reasonable, tool collector or no. I would say you can get away with a small shop with very few tools. But I think you need a shop and more tools than you can carry comfortably.

One more thing: I have a lot of tools because that's what is required for the work I do. Fewer tools would decrease my efficiency and/or limit the types of projects I could do. 18th century tool kits were quite large. I know you didn't mean to imply it, but a big tool "collection" isn't necessarily wasteful.

Adam

Re: Tool Choices

Bob Hackett

>I`d take a tip from the old Joiners(wood boat builders) that I used to work with.

They used to have a large box they kept thier tools in and from this they filled a tote that they used on the boat every day.It may change from day to day according to the task at hand but the things that stayed in it were chisels,a block plane,push drill,tri-square,multi-tip screwdriver,pencils and marking tools to include dividers or compass and a couple of clamps.The other tools changed as the boat progressed but most carried these on a regular basis.

The large,heavy tools stayed in the shop where most of the heavy and large work took place.The shop had the benches and vices to accomodate this type of work.

Mainely,Bob

PS-You NEVER touched a joiner`s toolbox without asking first.Most prefered to get the tool for you,even if it meant getting off the boat to do it.Some never loaned tools,period.

Re: Tool Choices

mike recchione

>I'm going to take a different tack and assume that the "carry" part of the question was just to drive home the need for minimalism - after all, it isn't often that we're required to go and build furniture on site. If I'm wrong, well - it wouldn't be the first time.

Having said that, I'll further equivocate by saying that the minimal set of tools depends on what you want to do and how you want to work. For example, the set of tools required to build furniture completely by hand starting from rough lumber is different from the set of tools required to build furniture entirely by hand starting from dimensional s4s lumber that you get from Home Depot (and there's a whole spectrum in between). Also, if you're happy to have every piece of solid wood in your work be 3/4" thick, or you're willing to pay to have the wood milled to thickness at a lumber yard, your needs will be different from someone who wants to completely prepare all his own stock or who wants to do fancy stuff like resaw or create bookmatched panels. And the needs of someone who wants to build pieces with simple lines, mostly right angles, etc. are different from someone who wants to incorporate more curves or fancier angles in his work, or who wants to decorate it with carving, etc. And if you're happy screwing or nailing pieces together you need fewer tools than if you want to do more traditional joinery. Back in my apartment dwelling days I built a number of useful if not particularly artistic pieces of "furniture" using a toolkit that my grandmother could have easily carried around with one hand. Now, well, I don't think she could manage. You get the idea.

Let's assume, for starters, that you want to build useful furniture that isn't ugly but isn't going to be in the "reader's gallery" of the next issue of Fine Woodworking. Let's further assume that you do want to work "unplugged" (since you asked on this forum), but that you'll at least start out not needing to thickness lumber yourself, i.e. you'll confine yourself to the thicknesses that are on the shelf or pay the lumber yard to plane 4/4 stock down to whatever you want. I also assume you're not too proud to use plywood for wider parts - if you want to properly join up panels, my list would have to be expanded. My last assumptions are that you're not too proud to sand and you'd like to attempt some joints other than screws and nails (but you're not too proud to use screws and nails when it makes sense for what you're doing).

For this, I think you could get by with:

* A hammer

* A set of screwdrivers

* A brace and set of bits in the usual sizes 3 - 16.

* An eggbeater drill and a set of general purpose bits to cover the small sizes, plus a countersink or two.

* An 11 pt crosscut panel saw. (I'll get pushback on this, but I got by with one of these as my only crosscut saw for years, and I still reach for it more often than I do for the coarser saws, except for the roughest carpentry).

* A 5 pt rip saw. Even working with dimensional lumber, you're occasionally going to have to rip stuff to width.

* A crosscut back saw and bench hook and/or a miter box

* A "joinery" saw. If you're going to have only one, a ryoba with disposable blades is a good place to start.

* A coping saw and blades.

* A set of bevel-edged firmer or butt chisels. People used to recommend Marples Blue Chip chisels as good value for not much money, but I think they've fallen from grace. I think the word now is "Two Cherries". I could be wrong.

* A mallet. I won't get into the joiner's vs carving mallet controversy. I like both.

* A low angle block plane.

* Measuring, marking and layout tools: These should include at least a good combination square, a marking guage, a bevel guage, a couple of rules (12 inch, something longer), a tape measure, a thin-leaded mechanical pencil

* A sanding block and sandpaper in grits from 100 - 400.

* Something to work on. A workmate will do until you get sick of it. I intentionally didn't include a lot of planes because you really need a decent bench to plane on. But you can actually make functional and not-repulsive furniture (I guess that really depends on your standards, though) without doing much or even any planing.

* Clamps.

I probably left some things out, but that's my first attempt.

Building furniture on site...

Greg B�tit, Vergennes, VT

>That thought reminded me of the year the scoutmasters were all going to Philmont with the older boys and needed someone to take the younger ones to the local scout camp for a week.

That turned out to be me. My duties were to herd them to meals and supervise evening activities- the rest of the time I was on my own. So I brought some tools so I could keep gainfully occupied.

I brought a brace, a couple bits, a hollow auger, a small firewood bow saw, a keyhole saw, a draw knife, and a froe. And my Swiss Army knife!

First I made a (pretty crude)shaving horse using branches for legs, and then I set to work making peg leg stools for the camp site out of the firewood. When there were enough for the troop, I made an axe handle and some parts for ladderbacks.

The boys got busy carving their stools to personalize them. They also snarfed up a bag of my shavings for the fire starting contest and won hands down.

Greg -who could stand to do that week again any old time.

Couple of other things

mike recchione

>The first is something I forgot, which was a way to sharpen the chisels and plane iron. Sandpaper on glass (or even on MDF in a pinch works). I'm partial to oilstones, so I would have a medium india stone, a hard arkansas stone, a leather strop and something rough to repair really mangled edges - blue 60 grit sanding belts cut open and glued down on MDF work for that.

The second is that this (minus the workmutt) is actually smaller than the kit that my grandfather DID actually carry around, on his back, during the Great Depression. He was trained as a cabinetmaker and had his own shop in Italy, but lost everything in 1930 and came here. He found work as, among other things, a finish carpenter. He used to carry his box from Astoria, Queens, over the Triboro Bridge to The Bronx to look for work in the new appartments they were building on the Grand Concourse. That's a good six or seven miles.

To get his kit, add to what I listed: a level, a plumb line, a chalk line, a folding ruler, some crayons, a #4 smooth plane, a narrow round plane for grooving the backs of moldings for electrical cables, a #7 jointer for doors and a #93 shoulder plane. He also had a #12 and a few different profiled card scrapers for moldings in the box. For the record, there's no way I could carry that box 6 or 7 miles. But he certainly qualifies for your requirement to consider someone I loved very much carrying it.