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Whether you’re a novice woodworker or a professional cabinetmaker, you’ll appreciate having the proper tools for cabinetmaking. The right tools make the difference between efficient projects with tight joinery and sloppy jobs where nothing fits or aligns. Investing in the best tools brings a return that’s hard to beat.
If you’re like most people who love woodwork, you’ll have an interest in DIY cabinetmaking. You’ve probably read books on how to make cabinets. And, you’ll likely have watched TV shows and online videos on the subject. Something you’ll see is that cabinetmaking resources emphasize having the right cabinetmaking tools.
Some tools for cabinetmaking are complex and expensive. They’re difficult to afford and master but, once learned, they make the work much faster and more accurate. Other cabinetmaking tools are smaller and simpler. They require far less cash output to acquire. However, there are certain tools you need to make your own cabinets. Here’s a rundown on must-have cabinetmaking tools.
No cabinetmaking tools are handier than clamps. In fact, clamps replace your hands in many situations. A good clamp assortment is like having assistants in your shop. They hold materials in place while you’re measuring, cutting, joining and fastening your work.
There are countless clamp designs available at your favorite tool supply store. There’s a good reason for that. It’s because there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all clamp. There are too many different clamp applications. Here are the most common clamps you’ll find in a cabinetmaking workshop:
C-Clamps: These are the oldest mechanical clamp design. They’ve been around for hundreds of years. C-clamps have simple steel frames with an open throat controlled by a screw jaw. They come in a huge size range and various throat depths.
Pipe Clamps: You’d have a hard time building cabinets without pipe-clamps. They look just like their name — a typical iron pipe with one fixed jaw and an adjustable clamp face. Sizes range from short to as long as you can find a rigid metal pipe.
Bar Clamps: These irreplaceable cabinetmaking clamps use a metal bar frame instead of pipe. They combine the strength of a pipe clamp with the depth of a C-clamp. Many shops have a dozen or more bar clamps on hand.
Band Clamps: If you’re assembling large structures like cabinet boxes, band clamps make it easy to wrap and secure your work. Band clamps have malleable fabric straps and ratcheting clamp controls that allow you to carefully squeeze components.
Specialized Clamps: Cabinetmaking often requires specialized clamps. Two common and irreplaceable specialized clamps are the 3-way face clamp and the flush-and-flat face clamp. Both make tricky joints easier.
Table saws are a woodworking shop’s heart. Experienced craftspeople turn out amazing cuts on a table saw, and make cuts safely. Table saws are dangerous tools in the wrong hands. Fortunately, modern table saws have excellent safety devices in guards, guides, adjustments and controls.
If there’s one must-have anchor tool for cabinetmaking, it’s the table saw. There are a lot of table saw options available. Making the right choice for your shop can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are the main table saw types used for cabinetmaking:
Cabinetmaking Table Saws: Like the name sounds, these table saws are centerpieces in a cabinetmaking shop. They’re heavy and rigid woodworking machines that fit between table extensions. Cabinetmaking table saws accept blade diameters from 7.5 inches to 12 inches and handle large pieces like 4-foot by 8-foot plywood sheets.
Contractor Table Saws: These are medium-duty machines that many cabinet makers regularly use. Contractor saws are portable, whereas cabinetmaking table saws stay fixed in the shop. Good quality contractor table saws make accurate cuts and also handle blade sizes up to 12 inches in diameter.
Benchtop Table Saws: Benchtop table saws might be small and compact, but they’re extremely handy for cabinetmaking work. They’re portable tools that make great resources when cutting small material on installation sites. Most benchtop table saws use 7.5-inch or 10-inch diameter blades.
Miter saws are must-have cabinetmaking tools, right next to table saws. Where table saws sit rigidly and require feeding woodwork into the blade, miter saws bring the blade to the material. Miter saws aren’t designed for ripping material though. They’re operated by bringing a spinning blade down onto fixed materials.
You’ll often hear miter saws called chop-saws or cutoff saws. Actually, the word miter refers to making angled cuts for specific joints on frame or trim material. You’ll also hear of different miter saw versions that accommodate blades up to 12 inches in diameter. Here are the common miter saws available to cabinetmakers:
Standard Miter Saws: These tools have a fixed swing arm that adjusts from 0 to 45 degrees. That includes left and right turns for either angle on the work face. Standard miter saws are simple tools, but many cabinetmakers opt for their more complicated cousins.
Compound Miter Saws: Compound saws also make 90- and 45-degree cuts as well as any angle in between. But the magic to a compound miter saw is you can make cross angles on the work, so each cut has multiple geometric angles. Compound miter saws are the answer for crown molding work.
Sliding Compound Miter Saws: For the best variety of cut angles and work size, sliding compound miter saws are must-haves. Their sliding arms let them cut across much wider stock than fixed arm saws can handle. With a 12-inch blade, sliding miter saws cut material up to a foot wide.
Even if you can’t afford the best quality table or miter saw, you can’t afford not to invest in high-quality saw blades. Sharp and precision saw blades make all the difference in the world compared to inferior blades. Your cuts are clean, without frays and make joinery easy.
LUXITE® carbide–tipped circular blades are must-haves in your cabinetmaking shop. These tools pay huge returns in performance and efficiency. Here are the top LUXITE® saw blades you must have in your shop:
Crosscut Saw Blades: LUXITE® fine-tooth crosscut saw blades are perfect for cutting fine-grained materials like plywood and melamine. They’re also excellent for across-the-grain miter cuts on trim. They come in two sizes — 10-inch 60-tooth and 12-inch 80-tooth. Like all LUXITE® blades, they are carbide-tipped.
Rip Saw Blades: For ripping with wood grain, nothing beats carbide-tipped rip blades from LUXITE®. They work quickly, efficiently and safely. Again, these blades come in two sizes — 10-inch 30-tooth and 12-inch 40-tooth.
Combination Saw Blades: You can get the best of both crosscut and ripping with LUXITE® carbide-tipped combination blades. If you have only one blade option for your shop, it should be a LUXITE® combination saw blade. These also come in two sizes — 10-inch 50-tooth and 12-inch 60-tooth.
Many cabinetmakers construct their own drilling jigs. As indispensable, must-have tools, drilling jigs help you make reliable, accurate and repeatable holes in your woodwork. They serve as both clamps to secure your work and guides to make sure you drill holes in exactly the right location with the proper angle.
You’ll find many pre-made drilling jigs available in tool supply outlets. Many are adjustable so you can customize your drilling to your needs, not some unworkable pre-set specification. Drilling jigs can be plastic, metal or wood. They also come in configurations compatible with certain cabinetmaking hardware like hinges, slides and pulls.
Scribes are must-have cabinetmaking hand tools that let your mark wood or other materials, so you have a clear pattern for cutting, drilling or other operation. Scribes are excellent for transferring a known pattern to a surface destined to mate with it. In cabinetmaking, you’ll regularly use your scribe to trace and transfer irregular shapes like existing walls to new cabinet and counter joints.
Most scribes are metal and use a sharp point to inscribe a prescribed pattern into a new surface. Some scribes have pencil-like points to transfer erasable marks. You can also buy complex scribes that are similar to geometry compasses. With them, you can scribe angles, circles and ovals.
Placing hinges on your cabinet doors must be precise if you want excellent fit and finish. You can carefully transfer hinge points and attachment holes with a shop-made jig or a commercial scribe. However, those processes are slow and not always accurate.
Your must-have tool for fast and precise hinge placement is readily available online or in leading cabinetmaking tool supply stores. If you want speed and accuracy, then a high-speed hinge placement tool is a must-have. It works especially well with popular European hinges. Some even have three spring-loaded punches that you tap and transfer your drill points, making quick work of this task.
Other must-have cabinetmaking tools are self-centering bits. They come from many sources, in many sizes and many quality grades.
Your best-quality self-centering bits have precision-made hard carbon steel guide barrels with tungsten or carbide internal bits. The guide barrels align the bit with a hinge or fastener hole then line up your bit, so it makes a perfectly centered hole. There’s no bit slippage across a tight grain or error in hinge creep when you make self-centering bits a must-have in your shop.
Cabinetmaking requires much finer cuts than general construction work. To build fine-quality cabinets, even one-sixty-fourth of an inch can make a difference. That’s especially true when you’re making cabinetry dados and need a precision-cut kerf.
Kerfs are the cut-out channels left by a saw blade that’s not set to completely sever the wood. You always make kerfs in drawer construction. You’ll also make kerfs to join cabinet boxes. To do this, use a dado blade that lets you adjust your kerf widths. Specialized dado blades allow you to make thin kerfs ranging in dados from one-sixteenth to one-quarter of an inch.
If you’ve tried mounting cabinet drawer slides to drawer and box frames, you’ll know how hard it is to be accurate without help. Magnetic drawer slide mounting tools solve that problem of needing three or more hands to hold the slide frame, the screw and your screw gun.
This must-have mounting tool is a metal jig you clamp to either your drawer or frame. It has a magnetic surface that attracts your metal slide and holds it in place while you screw the slide down. Once done, you unclamp the mounting tool and snap it away from the magnetized slide.
Misplaced drawer pulls can indicate amateur work and stand out on your cabinetry face. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix when you use a drawer pull jig.
Most commercially available drawer pull jigs have multi-position, pre-set hole locations. Most have six standard off-sets as well as a common center spot. These inexpensive tools save you time during tedious pull attaching.
Drill sets are absolute must-haves in all cabinetry making toolboxes. The trick is having the right type of drill bit sets and the right quality. This is no place to skimp on your investment. You’ll pay more for good drill bits, but they’re worth every cent.
Not all drill bits are the same, by any means. You’ll need an assortment of drill bits if you’re serious about cabinetry. Here are the three common drill sets that you need in your toolkit:
Twist Drills: These are the standard drill bits you’ll see in every shop. They’re the most versatile, general-duty bits on the market. Twist drills range in size from one-sixty-fourth of an inch up to 1 inch. They’re available in many materials and come in both USA Imperial and Metric sizing.
Forstner Bits: Every cabinet maker needs quality Forstner drill bit sets. They let you make various sized holes without puncturing through the material. Forstner bits also leave a smooth bottom finish. If you’re setting barrels in European hinges, Forstner bits are must-haves.
Center Bits: These handy guys have centering guides at their tip. They allow accurate centering on a punch mark before starting your larger bit’s penetration. Center bits come in sets with various sizes and are necessary for precision drilling.
Hammers and mallets might seem like brute-force cabinetmaking tools. Yes, they’re used for force, but there’s nothing brutal about using hammers and mallets around fine cabinetry. The skill lies in the craftsperson’s hands as well as in the hammer and mallet design. Consider these hammers and mallets for your cabinet shop:
Conventional Claw Hammer: Nothing replaces a conventional claw hammer when it comes to making cabinets. You’ll use this old wooden-handled, steel-headed tool every day to drive and pull nails as well as gently tapping metal parts into place. Head weights of conventional claw hammers that range from 8 to 16 ounces are best for cabinetmaking.
Cross Peen Hammers: Instead of a curved, two-pronged fork on one end like a conventional claw hammer, cross peen hammers have a straight, solid wedge. Cross peen hammers are delicately-balanced persuaders for fitting metal parts including setting plane blades.
White Rubber Mallets: Rubber is an excellent surface for contacting cabinet works. The beauty of using white rubber rather than black is that these mallets won’t mark finished surfaces.
Wooden Mallets: Nothing replaces a wood mallet when it comes to driving chisels or pounding unexposed surfaces together. You can buy inexpensive wooden mallets at any supply house, but many cabinet makers enjoy their homemade models.
Combination squares are one of the most used tools in the cabinet shop. You’ll recognize combination squares from their design more so that the name. Combination squares are a blend of square, ruler and level. They’re adjustable devices that let you measure, transfer information, calculate angles and find levels.
Combination squares also serve as protractors and compasses. You can determine flatness or trueness of a cabinet surface with your combination square. Some complex combination squares have dial indicators for minute measurements.
LUXITE® brand carbide-tipped saw blades are must-have tools in your cabinetmaking shop. This is one area where it really pays to invest in top-quality tools. Every LUXITE® saw blade is American-made in York, Pa.
LUXITE® is the only blade manufacturer in America to make its blades from start to finish right here in the U.S. From design to sharpening, all our blades are made in our state-of-the-art facility. Since we have total control over the entire manufacturing process, you know you’ll be getting superior performance from LUXITE® blades. We carry a versatile blade selection for every cabinetmaking task. Check out our online store and view our lines of 10 and 12-inch crosscut, rip and combination carbide-tipped LUXITE® saw blades.
For more information on LUXITE® saw blades for your cabinetmaking needs, call us at 1.800.654.7297 or reach us using our online contact form.
Jump to: Saws | Files, Planers, & Sanding Tools | Assembly Tools | Measurement Tools | Other Necessities
Woodworking means different things to different folks. Many woodworkers create useful and long-lasting pieces to relieve stress and exercise their creative muscles. They’re hobbyists who know sawdust is good for the soul. Others turn professional. They’re handsomely compensated for skills in building coveted furniture. But no matter if you’re a master craftsperson or a rank amateur, you need the must-have tools for woodworking. Read this entire guide for information on these tools. In short, the must-have tools for woodworking include the following:
Many beginning woodworkers feel overwhelmed with the vast array of tools available on the market. It’s easy for you to rack up thousands of dollars’ worth of expensive woodworking tools in your shop. Most tools for beginner woodworkers don’t have to be elaborate and costly, though. Beginners’ woodworking tools should start with the basics so you can get the feel of simplicity that’s the core of great work.
There are five classes of basic woodworking tools. Those are tools to cut, finish, assemble, measure and hold wooden parts while transforming raw materials into completed projects. These tool groups cover everything a starting woodworker needs for building simple to complex items. To help prioritize what should go in your basic toolbox, here’s a beginner’s guide to must-have tools for woodworking.
Almost every component in a woodworking project starts with cutting materials. The best and most interesting pieces start with rough lengths of wood. Whether that’s hardwood like oak or softwood like pine, wood stock needs ripping and crosscutting to start taking shape. Saws are the answer, but they come in different shapes and sizes. They’re also for different cutting tasks. Here’s what you need to begin building your saw collection.
If there’s one power-activated saw belonging in every beginner’s box, it’s a circular saw. There are endless brands available, but they all have a common feature. That’s a round or circular blade full of sharp teeth that tear through wood. All circular saws are electric, although they come in various power ratings. Most are corded tools running on household current, but there have been great advances in cordless circular saws.
Some view circular saws as more ideal for rough carpentry than for fine woodworking. That’s not true at all. In the right hands, circular saws cut straight, clean lines. A lot depends on the blade you use.
Circular saw blades come in three types:
The difference between blades is their teeth design. Ripping blades have evenly spaced teeth, while crosscuts have staggered ones. Combination blades have both tooth layouts. If budget is your concern, it’s best to invest in one good combination blade fitted with carbide teeth. It’s also necessary to understand blade diameters. Circular blades start at 7 ½”, though 10” blades are common, and 12” diameters are available for large dimensional woodcutting.
Circular saws are available in two distinct designs. One is a direct drive where the blade is mounted 90 degrees to the motor and directly on the arbor. Direct drives are the most common circular saw and the least expensive. Worn drive circular saws are made for heavy work. They still have the same blade designs, but the blade is gear-driven ahead of the motor.
Every beginning woodworker should invest in a decent jigsaw. They’re also called saber saws because of their reciprocating, saber-like blade. These electric power tools are designed to make intricate cuts that can be straight, curved or serpentine. Think of the lines in a jigsaw puzzle, and you’ll know what a jigsaw is capable of.
Jigsaws are completely different than circular saws. Instead of revolving blades, jigsaws cut with a back and forth or up and down motion. Blades vary in tooth numbers and composition. They’re used to cut metal and plastic as well as wood. Fine-tooth blades are used for sawing veneers, while coarse tooth-blades are for rough and fast work.
Jigsaws are easily operated with one hand. That allows you to hold your work solidly with your other hand. Jigsaws nicely cut small, intricate pieces. One of the best applications for a jigsaw is interior cuts, like an inner circle or rectangle. You simply drill a pilot hole and insert the blade. With some practice, you’ll soon learn to make plunge cuts with your jigsaw.
Compound miter saws are a step up from regular circular saws. They still take the same rip, crosscut and combination blades as circular saws. However, they’re fixed in an arm or a track much like the radial arm saws they’ve almost replaced. Common blade diameters are 10 and 12-inch, but compound miter saws can be fitted with the smaller 7 ½” size. For a miter saw, one should always use a quality crosscut saw blade.
These electric saws are exceptionally versatile tools. They’ve replaced the standard miter box and backsaw in most shops. Beginners find that powered miter saws make far more accurate cuts for miters, bevels and compound angles. They’re easily set at standard angles like 22 ½, 45 and 90 degrees, but they can be adjusted for every angle in between. That includes left and right cuts.
Powered miter saws evolved from the standard cut-off or chop saw. Now they’re available in models with sliding arms that extend cut lengths. Their power heads also tilt to each side, allowing for a combination of miter and bevel cuts. Practically any series of angles can be cut with a compound miter saw.
Most beginning woodworkers invest in a table saw early in the game. Table saws produce cuts that aren’t easily achieved with other saw types. They’re designed like upside down circular saws where the blade is exposed from below the saw table or work surface. Blade depth and angles are easily adjusted for precision.
There are three main table saw versions. All three are suitable for beginning woodworkers. It depends on the size of work you’ll be doing and the location. You might want a fixed table saw that stays in one shop location or a portable saw that can be stored away. These are your table saw choices:
For a table saw, also known as a chop saw or chop box, one should always use a quality blade, such as the carbide tip combination blades or rip saw blades by Luxite Saw.
There’s nothing like a bandsaw for ripping rough stock or making intricate curved cuts. These power tools are a combination of circular and saber saws, where teeth are fixed on a continuously looped, flat steel band and revolve around upper and lower pulleys. A flat table is mounted between the pulleys that tilts for angled cuts.
Bandsaws come in many sizes. It depends on the size of stock you’ll be cutting and how intricate of cuts you want to make. There are two main bandsaw characteristics to be aware of, and each determines your bandsaw size choice:
Bandsaw teeth come in coarse designs for fast cuts and fine teeth for smooth, slower cutting. Blade width is important with bandsaws. Wide blades are more stable for ripping, while thin blades make curved cutting easier.
For best operating use, be sure to also invest in quality band saw tires for your bandsaw.
There will always be a place for handsaws in every woodworker’s shop. Handsaws are so simple and easy to use for quick work or where detailed, precision cuts are required. The nice thing about handsaws is there’s no bulky weight, clumsy cords or batteries that die. Handsaws are always ready to go, and they’re not expensive.
Handsaws have been around for hundreds of years. They’re basically a toothed steel blade with a wooden handle designed to slide back and forth, cutting the work. But there’s far more to handsaw application than most beginners think. Here are some handsaw designs to consider:
Beginning woodworkers should invest in the best quality handsaws they can afford. Most frustrations with hand sawing come from cheap or dull blades. A sharp blade with excellent teeth can cut wood nearly as fast and true as an electric saw.
Once wood pieces are cut to a rough shape, they need more work to present an attractive, finished appearance. No matter how fine your saw blade is and how nice the quality, you’ll still need some sort of filing, planing and sanding supplies. Here’s what beginning woodworkers should consider investing in:
Planes are cutting tools rather than abrasive, sanding devices. All types of planes use a fixed blade to shave off wood fibers, letting them take shape and become progressively smoother. Blade size and depth are the key variables in how much material can be removed at a time.
You’ll hear several plane names that sound somewhat foreign, if not amusing. Rabbet planes and jack planes both shave wood, but they have considerably different applications. You’ll also hear terms like jointers, blocks and spokeshaves. As well, you’ll hear them referred to by numbers. They’re all types of hand planes that beginning woodworkers should investigate. These are the range of hand planes you might want:
If you’re going to buy one electric wood-finishing tool, it should be an orbital sander. These fast-action machines take all the strain out of hand sanding and do it a lot quicker. Orbital sanders differ from inline tools like belt sanders. They use sandpaper pads revolving in a circular or orbital pattern.
Regular orbital sanders take a circular abrasive sandpaper disk and spin it in a circle. Although they remove material fast, they tend to leave swirl marks that are hard to remove. A random orbital sander is your best buy. They don’t circulate. Rather, they oscillate in a random manner leaving the wood surface silky smooth and mark-free.
Often, there’s no better tool than a hand file to shape and smooth wood. Hand files are inexpensive and last a long time if you buy ones made with quality steel. Once dull, hand files are best replaced rather than trying to sharpen them. Here are your main hand file choices:
Rotary cutters are like hand files, except they’re designed as electric drill bits. You place them in your drill chuck and let the rotary abrasive action remove material. Rotary files are available in different patterns and cutting grits.
Hand files are also used to sharpen your other woodworking blades and bits. Metal files typically have extremely fine teeth and are composed of high-grade steel. As with any tool, you usually get what you pay for, and it’s worth investing in high-grade hand files.
Cutting and smoothing wood is only part of your overall woodworking process. Once your components are properly sized and smooth enough for finishes, they still need assembling. Successful woodwork assembly depends on two things. You need precision joints that will fit. You also need the right tools to assemble and securely fasten them.
These are the basic assembly tools for beginning woodworkers:
There’s no such thing as a universal woodworking hammer. Perhaps a carpenter’s claw hammer is as close to a one-size-does-everything pounding tool, but there are dozens of different types of them, too. Woodworking hammers are normally asked to do two tasks. That’s to pound and pry. How well they accomplish that depends on a few things:
Hammers vary in purpose as well as composition. Beginning woodworkers have a myriad of choices and need to identify what they’ll be using their hammers for before purchasing. These are the main types of woodworking hammers:
Don’t confuse mallets with hammers. Both are striking tools, but they have entirely different applications. Hammers are usually steel-faced, but some are brass or plastic. Mallets have large wooden or leather heads and detachable handles to accommodate various head sizes.
The difference between hammers and mallets is their striking shock and surface impression. Mallets are much softer than hammers and absorb shock rather than deliver it. They also leave minimal striking marks, making mallets perfect for tapping wood joints together.
Beginning woodworkers should understand that you never, ever use a steel hammer on chisels. Shock from steel hammers causes chisels to stab or jab at the wood, leaving rough finishes. However, tapping chisels with a mallet lets them smoothly slice through wood with consistent pressure.
Power drills can be a beginning woodworker’s best friend. Only a few old-time craftspeople still use a brace and bit or a hand drill. Electric powered drills are used so often in the workshop and for so many reasons. They’re not only for drilling holes. You can buy all sorts of attachments to turn your electric drill into other tools, too.
If you’re buying your first power drill, seriously consider getting a corded model. Drills running on 110/120-volt currents have considerably more torque and longevity than cordless drills. Some may find cords get in the way, but they’ll never let you down with a weak charge.
If you’d rather go with cordless power drills, they are rated in voltage. Early models were 7.5-volt, but that quickly upgraded. Now, 18-volt cordless drills are a wise choice for beginners. They’re not much more expensive that 14-volt drills and have considerably more strength.
Power drills are also rated by their chuck size — 3/8” chucks are the common medium size, and heavy-duty chucks are 1/2”. Drills are available in keyed models or keyless chucks that make bit changing easier.
Screws are the all-round best fasteners for woodworking. They hold tight and can be removed when disassembling, making temporary joints or when mistakes happen. You certainly don’t want to be without your standard hand screwdrivers, but investing in a powered screw gun makes driving screws faster and simpler. Screw guns are especially valuable when you have a job with multiple screws.
Screw guns are extensions of the power drill family. Most screw guns are now cordless, which makes them convenient. The main difference between a true screw gun and a power drill is the inside shape of the chuck. Screw guns are designed to insert hexagonal or six-sided bit shanks. This makes slippage non-existent.
They say measure twice and cut once. That old woodworker advice is the best there is. Some other advice is to buy good quality measuring equipment that’s accurate and easy to read. Below are the main measuring and angle checking tools you need as a beginning woodworker:
It’s next to impossible to create decent woodworking projects without an assortment of squares. Good squares let you create and verify all sorts of angles. Most squares also have measuring markings engraved on their surface. This lets them double as measuring rules. These are the squares you should have:
Dividers, compasses and depth gauges aren’t technically squares, but they’re simple and invaluable woodworking tools. They cross into the other family of measuring tapes and rules.
Every woodworker should have at least one tape measure hooked on their belt.
It’d be hard to have all tape measures attached to you, though, because there are so many types. Here are the basic tape measures to consider:
Now that you’ve got an idea about what beginning tools you need for cutting, finishing, assembling and measuring woodwork projects, you’ll need a way to hold them while underway. Clamping devices are indispensable in woodworking shops. The two best holding tools are sawhorses and your quality work bench:
Sawhorses are one of the first investments you should make as a woodworker. They’re simple four-legged creatures that nicely balance and support long lumber lengths and heavy weights. Sawhorses are usually used in pairs, but many woodworkers have half a dozen sawhorses around.
You can make your own rigid sawhorses out of wood. That’s an economical way to use up scrap materials. But there are so many commercial sawhorses available that are made from steel, fiberglass and plastic. It might not be worth your time to manufacture sawhorses unless you want the practice.
If there’s one real expense to consider as a beginning woodworker, it’s to invest in a quality workbench.
Yes, you can make your own out of 2x4s and plywood, but you’re never going to get the usefulness you’ll get with a professional grade, quality workbench. You’ll use it for every project and all the time. Here are features to look for in a quality workbench:
One last beginning woodworker tip to leave you with is investing in quality tools. That’s what Luxite Saw’s products are all about.
Our bandsaw tires and saw blades are backed by five-star reviews. All of our products are made proudly in the USA and our blades are manufactured in-house by our team of blade specialists. Our blades cost slightly more than a typical miter or table saw blade, but craftsmen swear by their durability and resistance to wear.
Updated 10/28/2021
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