   Woodworking hobby
  Hello, I am looking into getting into the hobby of woodworking.  I have only basic tools: circular saw, power drill.  What kinds of tools would be the most helpful?  I was thinking of making a kind of table saw by mounting my cirular saw somehow...  I really dont have enough money for expensive tools.  Spending limit would be somewhere around $200-$300 at the very most.who else here builds small furniture/bookshelfs/beds/couches/etc?It sounds like a lot of fun due to my enjoyment of designing and building.  Can''t wait to start!Dwiel   Go see some hot chicks and vote to see who is hottest: dwiel.no-ip.com
  You might want to buy some wood carving knifes. ;  If you get PBS, you can see a few wood working shows. One of them makes use of expensive power tools, and another uses old devices. ;  For 200-300 I would suggest trying to find different hand tools at a swapmeet or some other second hand shop, and spend the rest on whatever power tool you want most. Oh and try to enroll in a community college course or get a book.   ------------------------------HITLAR ;  Table/hand routers are good.  Turning a skill saw into a table saw ... tricky. A table saw for ripping and a chop saw for cutting to length would definitely be good. And some way to sand/plane, I suppose.I work at a furniture plant, so I know loads.  Jesus saves ... the rest of you take damage."A page of history is worth a volume of logic." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes;  If you need to create some odd or circular shapes then you will probably require a Jigsaw. ;  Thanks for all of the suggestions!I forgot to mention that I do have a power sander also.I have a friend who I always borrow a jigsaw from so I know how handy those can be.  I''d like to not have to borrow from him as much though.Say I want to build things like bookshelf and hope to be able to make a super simple couch by the end of the summer.What would be the best for those kinds of things?  I am more worried about functionality, sturdyness, and comfyness when applicable of what I make.  Intricatly cut rounded edges are not anywhere not the top of priorities.How feasible would it be if I were to try to make a simple couch?  Woodworking doesn''t seem that hard, but I ahvnt tried all that much, so I can''t really say.  What am I getting myself into here?Thanks!   Go see some hot chicks and vote to see who is hottest: dwiel.no-ip.com;  You can make just about anything with a table saw, a router, a jig saw, a drill press, a load of clamps, a couple planes, and some chisels and you are set.  You don''t neccessarily need a planer but if you can get one or have access to one it is a huge help.  Woodworking is capital intensive at the start but a good piece of hardware will last 20 years.  Wood is also expensive.  Once you see how great quartered oak or cherry looks you won''t like working with a less expensive wood.  A coffee table or a small end table might take a couple hundred dollars worth of wood to make.  If there is a woodworkers guild in your state become a member.  The Minnesota woodworkers guild offers discounts from local shops.  The discount I get on wood alone from my lumberyard pays for the membership cost ten times over every year.  They also might have certain very expensive powertools available for use."... we should have such an empire for liberty as she has never surveyed since the creation ..."Thomas Jefferson ;  ''Tis true, oak, cherry, and other hardwoods look very good. But to start out with I''d recommend good old pine. It''s soft, easy to work, and it''s cheap. Your first projects, if you are like most other beginner woodworkers, will not come out perfect, and messing up with the hardwoods is just an extra expensive lesson.To start out with I''d say a good chop saw and either a table saw or a radial arm saw are worth your money. You can get clean, straight cuts or accurate angles with the chop saw, but you''ll need one of the other two for ripping long boards.If you do end up really liking it, I''d also suggest getting a planer down the road. You can buy rough-sawn lumber by the truckload fairly inexpensive and plane it down yourself. Yes, it does take awhile to evenly plane a few hundred linear feet, but it''s good time to just think about stuff. I enjoy it.I used to run a business with my father, but after his stroke a few years ago that fell apart. I was very fortunate that my father let me have all of the tools, so I''ve got my complete shop ready to pack up and bring up to my garage. I''m hoping to go into business here and build custom cabinets and other kinds of furniture for people.Woodworking is a very satisfying hobby to get into if you can get past the investment. The inital investment may seem bad, but it''s worth it. You''ll constantly be saving up for more tools, though. It''s neverending.Oh yeah, definately check out The New Yankee Workshop on PBS, this dude Norm is an amazing woodworker.Good luck and have fun!   ====================================The worst thing about mistakes is explaining it to my wife.My site, with some new content!;quote:Original post by Tazzel3D  Say I want to build things like bookshelf and hope to be able to make a super simple couch by the end of the summer.What would be the best for those kinds of things?  It wouldn''t take much to do these things if you plan it all out in advance.Here''s an example of a super-simple design that''s easy to build. I made my daughters this bunk bed out of 16 2x4''s, 3 1x4''s for the ladder, and 2 sheets of particleboard that are under the mattresses:Basically all I used was a chop saw to cut the 2x4''s, a router to round off all of the edges, although you could do that by hand, and a table saw to cut the particleboard to size.There''s a little more to it than that, but it''s the easiest example I have at the moment.Yeah, I know, I haven''t painted the ladder yet.The key to working with wood is plan, plan, plan.I use AutoCAD for all of my projects. If you don''t have it, get some graph paper and do it that way. ====================================The worst thing about mistakes is explaining it to my wife.My site, with some new content!