2. TOOLS
2.1 HOW DO I GET STARTED IN WOODWORKING?
If you have less than $20,000 to spend, forget it. You can't make
anything, not even pukey ducks, without at least that much invested in
tools. You need to watch Norm and buy all the same tools he has. You
also need to build a workshop: 60'X100' is about the minimum size for
a newbie. Anything less won't get you anywhere. Always buy the best
and most expensive tools: buy the best and only cry once. Anything
cheaper than a Northfield, Altendorf or Felder is a waste of money.

As Ed pointed out, the tools that any shop must have as an absolute
minimum a

Unisaw
Cast iron 15" planer
8" jointer
36" belt sander
18" Laguna bandsaw
16" floor drill press
5HP IR compressor

If you cannot afford the above, take up macramé.

Don't bother with used tools, only buy new. Otherwise you're just
buying someone else's problems. Besides, where would bottomfeeders
like me get their good tools if it wasn't for newbies giving up on
woodworking and selling off their expensive new tools at bargain
basement prices?

If you can't afford the best, don't buy it. There's lots of different
ways to do any woodworking operation. If you can't afford a dedicated
tenoner or a Unisaur with a tenoning jig, you can use your teeth to
cut tenons. A well-honed scary-sharpened pinkie nail can replace a
top-of-the-line Multico mortiser or a Sorby or Knight mortising
chisel. You can do period reproductions with broken pieces of glass
and a spoon; it just takes you a bit longer.

Even if you want to go Neander, nothing but the full collection of
Lie-Neilson, Clifton, Knight and Veritas planes will do. If you can't
afford them, you need to revise your spending priorities.

2.2 SHOULD I BUY A TABLE SAW OR A RADIAL ARM SAW?
Buy a band saw instead. The cut wanders all over the place and they
leave nifty decorative ridge lines. Then you'll get the chance to
spend hours and hours hand planing the ridge lines and straightening
and squaring the butchered wood with antique hand planes. (See Hand
Plane FAQ)

Speaking of butchering, the purchase of a bandsaw can more easily be
justified to your spouse because it is absolutely indispensable in
cutting frozen food.

You can also use band saws to cut thick stuff in half, such as
yourself, other people, frozen bread and chickens, dead cats, and Ming
vases, none of which can be handled by a TS or RAS. The most a TS or
RAS can cut is little more than the thickness of a hand.

2.3 WHAT IS THE BEST TABLE SAW?
No question: Sears. Bennett accurately described how great Sears
table saws are and about all their special features. They're even
better than the Inca, General, Powermatic or Delta cabinet saws.
After all, he wrote the table saw FAQ, so he should know. Not only do
Sears table saws sort of cut wood and body parts, but they also can be
used to achieve special colouring (coloring, Unisaw) and dye effects
that would otherwise require hours of painstaking finishing work.
Among the special features discovered by Bennett, which Sears does not
advertise, is the "pulse temperature alteration" process which turn
maple into walnut and instantly ages cherry to a patina that normally
takes decades to achieve. It also enhances the grain pattern of dull
woods by having the aluminium (aluminum, Keeter) top add attractive
black streaks to your wood, turning it into zebrawood without the
aggravating unworkability or price of the real thing.

The new Ridgid saws at the Borg apparently have the same features.

Here is a recent series of highly informative posts on this very
topic:
Poor innocent Pid asked:
Delta or Griz...which makes a better Table saw?

Silvan wrote:
The [Delta/Grizzly] [model] is *much* better than the
[Delta/Grizzly] [model] which is a piece of crap.
[Delta/Grizzly] is *much* *much* *much* better 90% of the time
than [Delta/Grizzly] so you should always prefer
[Delta/Grizzly] over [Delta/Grizzly] whenever you have
a choice.

"Mike Marlow" wrote:
Oh Bull! You're just a [Delta/Grizzly] bigot and cannot see
that [Delta/Grizzly] is really a far superior saw. Go ahead
- keep you eyes closed to the facts. One day you'll wake up
and get a real saw - a [Delta/Grizzly].

"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote
Why don't you guys knock off the petty bickering. Real men use
[Delta/Grizzly/Jet] table saws.

This was followed by a bevy of bad puns. The authors should be drawn,
quartered and hung.

Paul in MN started it:
I thought that all the saws cut quick as a Jet, but when used
in high humidity, say down by the Delta, they leave a bit of
a Grizzly finish...... in General.

To which Mike Marlow had to add his two cents:
That's where it takes a real Craftsman to get the job done.

Jo4hn could not resist:
This gives me a Harbor Fright.

Meanwhile, back on another fork, Silvan uttered:
That post gives me the Craps man. Somebody ought to Bosch you
in the head for having such a Rigid attitude. Why, I'll bet you
don't have any Skil as a wood dorker at all, and if you had
to dork wood for a living, you'd DeWalt on your mortgage.

And Paul in MN replied:
Maybe I could make a living at it. I think I'd be a Starrett
that game.

Aaaargh!

2.4 WHICH SAW BLADE SHOULD I BUY?
Any one will do. Don't spend too much. But do get a thin-kerf, that
way you'll use less wood and save lotsa money. Freud and Forrest are
rip-offs.

2.5 WHAT ARE THE BEST CLAMPS?
Like Larry says, get 'em from Harbor Freight, don't pay the big bucks.
So what if they slip, you can always improvise with wedges and inner
tubes. Besseys are a ripoff made out of plastic crap while the
Jorgensens can't be opened after they're slammed shut, even when your
finger is stuck in them.

2.6 WHICH TYPE OF DADO BLADE SHOULD I BUY, THE DIAL (WOBBLE TYPE) OR
THE STACKING (CHIPPER TYPE)?
Get both! But don't spend too much on them. Avoid Freud, Forrest,
Amana. These guys are out to rip you off. You can also use two or
more saw blades. Who cares if the bottom isn't flat, nobody sees it
anyway.

2.7 WHAT IS THE BEST ROUTER?
For the money, buy a Crapsman. It has a nifty light that allows you
to see the Automatic Random Height Adjustment in action. [f]Art. will
tell you how great they are. Besides, as Jeremy pointed out, the PC
69x's are way too heavy to use.

2.8 WHAT IS THE BEST CORDLESS DRILL?
Stanley. It has a neat ratchet mechanism that allows you use a back
and forth motion rather than just circular. Works all day on just two
charges (breakfast and lunch). Quiet. Any of the German-made
eggbeaters are also pretty good for small holes. For screwing it's
Yankee, despite all the Southrons' delusions of adequacy in this
sphere.

2.9 SHOULD I GET A DUST COLLECTOR?
I am one. You should see my extremely valuable collection of dust.
It is nicely layered on my workshop floor and you can explore the
geology of my woodworking by carefully digging into it and examining
the different layers. Sears tools also work well as dust collectors.
Oh, you mean those big noisy suckers? Here's what Paul Jordan had to
say about them:
http://groups.google.ca/groups?hl=en&lr=&selm=6ntp1v%24fcc%241%40supernews .com

2.10 HOW TO KEEP SPLINTERS AND MINUSCULE BITS OF WOOD OUT OF YOUR
SOCKS?
Man, you must be new. Efficient dust collection is soooo important.
Do a Google search for "Downdraft floors."

Basically, you drill a 1/2" hole every 4 to 6 inches in your floor and
hook up a Trane commercial HVAC blower to some duct work that connects
to a "dust pan" that you build under your floor, sized to your shop.
Seal the perimeter well, and oh, do be careful to avoid drilling
through the floor joists. DAMHIKT. Bob's yer uncle, no more dust in
yer Keds.

Concrete floors? No problem. Google for "Updraft roofs." Same
principle, with the added bonus of fuller, bouncier, body in your
hair.