Is woodworking messy and what tools do I need?

At school we had to draw the plans, in technical drawing, then make them in woodwork/metalwork. I was put off woodwork for years after spending 12 lessons just scraping the top of a coffee table!
 
colhel said:
Routers.... some say avoid, some say useful to have. What does a router do?
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Plunge cut an accurate hole. Extend hole sideways to create a mortice. Put mouldings on wood, like picture frames, fancy architraves. Cut out lettering. Cut out knockouts in kitchen worktop for sinks etc. Can be used with a jig for worktop joints, housing hinges on doors, strike plates.
 
fisherman said:
Plunge cut an accurate hole. Extend hole sideways to create a mortice. Put mouldings on wood, like picture frames, fancy architraves. Cut out lettering. Cut out knockouts in kitchen worktop for sinks etc. Can be used with a jig for worktop joints, housing hinges on doors, strike plates.
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All the above + edge trimming, rabbets & dados, dovetails & box joints with a jig or table and many more tasks. Just enter "router" in YouTube search, plenty of info there.
 
Greetings..

Woodwork is not messy compared to mixing diabolical chemicals like polyester and epoxy resin, wood actually smells nice!

learning to sharpen blades is handy, useful in the galley as well. Not rocket surgery, just a craft skill like fixing a puncture

Sharp blades are safer, BUT... never forget you are using an electric planer, rather than the trusty old Sheffield hand plane, on which you normally slide your fingertip over the blade to feel the sharpness... that doesn't work when it's doing 12,000 RPM!
Luckily oak is very tolerant of bloodstains, take care P

(edited to add, Sarabande makes a good point about the dust, my grandad (builder /chippy) died of lung cancer from that stuff. He never smoked a fag in his life.)
 
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"Not rocket surgery,"
Rocket surgery's a b'stard! Trying to remove a spleen neatly in amongst all those sodding great flames is no fun at all!
 
reginaldon said:
In the old days, boys did woodwork and metalwork, it was replaced by CDT Craft,Design & Technology assuming they could all use tools and were great inventors - a crassly stupid move.
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My school taught CDT in the old woodwork, metalwork, and technical drawing rooms, teaching how to properly use saws, files, lathes, milling machine, oil-bluing...

Welding was not generally taught although there was an oxy-acetylene set available. If your project just needed one or two quick welds then the teacher would do it, if someone came up with a design involving lots of welding then he'd show them how and leave them to get on with it.

Pete
 
Well, I never learnt woodworking formally at school, beyond helping to make scenery for the school drama society! It was part of the fallout of being in a fast stream to O-level.

However, I am making (very slowly!) a dinghy, and so far it is going well; I've painted the outside and I think it will float when I put it in the water; I ve just got the inside to tidy up and paint.

I'd say that yes, woodworking is messy. Any and all power-tools will make a LOT of dust and shavings, and most hand tools will do the same, but more slowly!

You will inevitably find that a job will arise that needs a tool you don't have.

Power tools are great, but they cut very fast, so a moment's inattention can mean a big mess! I've always found routers hard to control, though they are no doubt very effective. The power tool I like best is a multitool - fast, effective and easy to control accurately. An electric drill is vital - the one I've got is an ancient Black and Decker (bought in about 1979!), but it does what I need and has ample power.

"Measure twice, cut once" is a good mantra to keep reciting to yourself, as is the old adage that you can cut more off but it's much harder to stick it back on!
 
The first thing to get is a paper copy of Axminster Tools' catalogue.

If you need the product then a sliding cross cut mitre saw is a boon. It will cut accurately square and to length which is a very good starting point (particularly for table legs :)). Use it to produce a sturdy bench and you are away.
 
You don't actually 'need' that many tools.; After all the Vikings built some quite nice (and complex) boats with probably no more than an adze; and my great grandfather made grand pianos with nothing more a nice set of chisels (which I still have) and a few hand-tools.

I seem to get by with doing quite complex jobs (including building a dinghy) with good hand-tools (a Stanley plane is indespensible), a jigsaw and a palm sander.

But whatever you have it WILL be a bit dusty.
 
colind3782 said:
Do it in the living room and the missus can keep it tidy with the hoover. Sorted! :)
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I once made two flights of stairs in our sitting room using a router. It made a good deal of mess and made my ears ring for days. I sold the router immediately afterwards vowing never to use one again.
 
If you buy a router build a router table it opens up a whole load of ways to do things. Seriously if you are new to the game spend a few weeks cutting square, chopping mortices, cutting tenons and fitting them once you have mastered that try a few planing exercises like getting all four faces square to each other then try flattening a warped board. Once you have mastered those and know how to look after your tools yo can start on some simple projects the first of which will be a bench which as your skills progress you will want to remake. After a few years you may just have the skills to make a simple rectangular shaker style table, forget fancy round oval polished etc these are things that come after many hours of hard work. We used to have a really good cabinet maker on the forum, I forget his name but if you find it and look at his work you will see it doesn't come easy.
 
Cuchilo! Only took me a week to remember. In re front room workshop, I helped him to get a set of woodworking machinery near heathrow, Wadkin planer from 1963 plus other (big) stuff, the owner had been taken into care, he was never married, his workshop was his front room. Cuchilo's work was/is exquisite, trompe l'oeuil etc.
I searched for any of his posts, 'invalid username'. Sure I have it right.
 
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