Dumb things that you regret: buying, making, or fixing tools

[Matt Lau]

Dear Sawmill creak neanderpeople,

After a caffeine induced manic email (that I regret already) to Stan, I was reflecting on the many dumb things that I've done on this woodworking journey. After trolling the archives, I realized that there's no posts on dumb things to avoid!


On my end, here's a few:
1. Buying used, worn out Japanese planes as a "bargain."
Most of mine were completely unusable, with the exception of a block plane and small sized one.

2. Buying a Grizzly plane set and assuming that it'd work out of the box.
It cut like butter--a stick of butter against ebony, and the sole was warped in 3 ways.

3. Buying a Stanley plane iron from BORG to replace the Grizzly plane iron.
It cut like cheese--Parmesan against ebony. Not too effective at all.

4. Trying to build a Hauser guitar out of flamed rock maple and ebony using a butter knife, razorsaw, and said Grizzly plane set. This was an exercise in futility, and where I first learned the value of good tools. The maple ended up going to Kathy Matsushita to hopefully make an instrument.

5. Buying a 26" 1870's Marple try plane, and trying to flatten it on a scrounged up 28" long piece of glass and 18 micron sandpaper. I ended up giving it to a luthier friend.


Also, dumb things that I've been talked out of doing (thankfully):
1. Making a frankenplane using a Japanese Iron, Krenov attachment, and fancy woods.
2. Splitting my own lumber from a log using a broad hatchet.
Dentist + broad hatchet + workholding using other hand= career loss waiting to happen.
3. Building my own bandsaw.
4. Building my own planer.
5. Cutting down a 40 year old air dried, laminated 3" x 22" x 70" maple slab for banjo parts.
6. Making tools and heat treating them in the kitchen.

Thankfully, most of my other purchases/projects have been pretty satisfactory thanks to the advice of people like George, Stan, David, Harry. I've kept my fingers largely thanks to the kind people here.


Would you care to share your experiences of dumb things not to do/buy/start?

[Patrick Chase]

Dear Sawmill creak neanderpeople,

After a caffeine induced manic email (that I regret already) to Stan, I was reflecting on the many dumb things that I've done on this woodworking journey. After trolling the archives, I realized that there's no posts on dumb things to avoid

With one glaring exception those all actually sound like "constructive stupidity", by which I mean things that are clearly not optimal but that you also obviously learned a lot from without losing much in the process.

The exception is of course the abortive hatchet experiment. I hope the person who talked you out of that was richly rewarded.

My biggest doozy is sinking a stupid amount of money into every sharpening approach under the sun, and then discovering that what I needed all along was practice.

[Tom McMahon]

"My biggest doozy is sinking a stupid amount of money into every sharpening approach under the sun, and then discovering that what I needed all along was practice."[/QUOTE]

Everyone should take special note of this.

[Luke Dupont]

Cheap tools of all kinds from Lowes, Home Depot, and Harbor Freight. Especially Harbor Freight. I didn't really know any better when I first started woodworking, and kind of assumed that anything sold as a "saw" "chisel" "plane" or "file" were indeed good quality items representative of those labels. I was nearly turned off from hand tools until I discovered that there are much better tools to be found, which make life far more enjoyable. Oh, and sharpening does that for one as well.

So, using dull, poor quality tools would be my answer.

Oh! Also, work holding devices. For the longest time, I didn't know much of anything regarding how to hold my work, and just held it in some way with my body, or up against a wall/corner, or with clamps on a table. A vise - even (especially?) a portable type that clamps on to a table top, along with a few bench hooks, and a saw horse or two, are among the most useful things any new woodworker can have. You can't work effectively or safely if your work is moving on you, or if you can't hold it in such a way that you can work the surfaces you need to work. I'm sad to say that I went far too long without any decent work holding devices/methods!

I have to disagree with the OP on a few things, though! In general, I've had wonderful luck making my own tools, and in many cases, I've made higher quality tools that better fit my needs than I can buy (or, at least, than I can afford to buy!). Moreover, working with a hatchet, and splitting green wood is a great skill for any woodworker to have. In fact, I'd say these things constitute some of the most rewarding aspects of woodworking that I've done. Don't let fear stop you from learning, and growing your skillset. Just proceed with due caution, knowledge, and safety. Knowledge really helps the other two points fall into place.

Of course, I have had just as many failures and time-wasting endeavors. Most of them involve crude metal working as opposed to wood though :P Or were conducted when I just needed a tool or device, and didn't work as painstakingly careful as I usually do. Or else got frustrated and kept working - that's always a recipe for disaster.


Edit: One more. This one more recent: buying large, 4x8' sheets of hardwood plywood to work with. $100 worth of the stuff. Now, I'm sure if you have the right space, tools, and physical strength to carry them about, this isn't a problem. But for one who lives in an apartment, works on a 10x10' balcony, and has only hand tools and a (I discovered) useless-for-cutting-straight-lines-cheap-harbor-freight-jigsaw, and chronic tendonitis to boot, this material is a nightmare. Ripping 4-8' of hard plywood to width over and over again with a little Ryoba is not very fun. And rather damaging to the hands/wrists/arms. Also, it sucks, because it's not fun to work with. If it's warped, you can't just plane it flat. If an edge isn't cut square, it's difficult to plane that as well, because you just get dust, and not shavings. So it's hard to tell what you're doing; you don't know if you're consistently taking off the same depth of wood across the whole edge, or if you're heavy on one side or the other. Moreover, the edges aren't really conducive to gluing.

I think I'm going to stick to real wood from here on...

[Mike Henderson]

I suppose mine was buying too many hand planes. Good vintage Stanley planes that I tuned up and replaced the blades, but just too many. I don't use them all. I could do with a lot less. One of these days I'll sell off what I think is the excess. But every time I start to do that I think, "Maybe I'll need this one later" and I keep them.

Mike

[Tony Zaffuto]

Buying too much stuff thinking it was collectable, when I should have just saved my funds for the truly collectable. Who needs a dozen ordinary #4's, or 20 kitchen variety D-8's and so forth.

[Frederick Skelly]

"My biggest doozy is sinking a stupid amount of money into every sharpening approach under the sun, and then discovering that what I needed all along was practice."

Everyone should take special note of this.[/QUOTE]

Yup. I fell for that one BIG TIME. Bought 5 diamond stones, a shapton 6000, a worksharp with diamond lapidary disks, a piece of granite, a tormek clone (tried and quickly sold off) and a slow speed grinder with cbn wheel and LV tool rests. Guess which ones I need/use? Two diamond stones, the shapton 6000 and the slow speed grinder.

Buying sharpening gear hasn't been among my brighter woodworking moves......

[Ray Selinger]

Trying to tune-up a 1949 #4 Stanley by hand. Stanley and their green castings. I did it, I'm very stubborn . They were made on machines, they should be corrected on machines. Better yet, buy a new LV. Craftsman power tools, followed by Craftsman hand tools, that Sears credit card was a curse.

[Tony Zaffuto]

Fred,

Hope you didn't ditch the CBN wheel! Just the ticket for easy, non-burning concave grinds!

T.Z.

[Kees Heiden]

Usually it is about internet deals that were just too good to be real. Like a carpeneters chest full of tools which turned out to be the collection of rejects from the seller. At least the chest itself was usefull during my kitchen renovation.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Bought a fancy saw- one'a dem fancy "boutique" saws. Day 1 left it on the bench with a window opened. Huge blowing rainstorm passed that night. I forgot all about it until the next day. Saw was covered in rust.

[Frederick Skelly]

Fred,

Hope you didn't ditch the CBN wheel! Just the ticket for easy, non-burning concave grinds!

T.Z.

No Tony. I kept that grinder and wheel. It works every bit as well as you folks all told me it would. I'm (finally) satisfied with my sharpening setup!

Thanks man!
Fred

[Joe A Faulkner]

Harbor Freight pistol grip vises. Back in the early days. Why I thought $2 24" inch vises would work anything like Irwins I have no idea. More recently bought some no name 12" F clamps from a home center. The threads lasted about a half dozen applications befor stripping.

[Joe Tilson]

+1 on all the above. I have hand saws all over the place, and the ones I use are the ones I thought were no good except for collecting. Ain't that the way of things!

[bridger berdel]

I have a lot of sharpening stuff I don't use. Most of it cost pennies, but a few items I paid full retail for. I don't regret any of it though, and I'll continue to pursue that elusive ideal sharpening setup. At this point I'm after diamond disks on a flat top makita. We'll see.

[Stanley Covington]

Everything related to woodworking (handtools and powertools) I ever bought at Sears, JC Pennys, Harbor Freight, Monkey Wards. All trash.

[Prashun Patel]

I regret buying a halfblind dovetail jig and bad router bits.

As far as handplanes, even though some of my rehabs work horribly, I can't help but feel it's the musician and not the instrument. I still try to take them apart and tweak them to better use. In this way, they've become very good training.

[john zulu]

I don't recall making bad choices in wood working. Just learning from experience.
I did buy one plane which I kind of regret but that was when I used LV BUS plane. So far lucky I guess since I spend 10 times thinking before buying the tool.

[Prashun Patel]

Funny you say that, John. I think that might be the one tool that didn't suit me well too.
pp

[Steve H Graham]

When I started metalworking, I worked hard to get good advice. A bunch of idiots on some forums told me Chinese tools were horrible, and that I needed some "old iron." I bought a beat-up Clausing lathe from a guy in another state who didn't accept credit cards (the idiots told me he was the salt of the earth). He sent me the wrong model with the wrong motor, and then I found out it was nearly impossible to make it cut metric threads. It came with very little tooling, too. Tooling and parts for old American lathes are incredibly expensive, IF you can find it at all.

He refused to do the honorable thing, take it back, and pay for shipping. I ended up selling that hunk of garbage and getting a wonderful new Taiwan lathe.

A lot of the mainland Chinese stuff is very good, and the price is right.

[Andy McKenzie]

I've been fortunate in that I've been pretty happy with most of my purchases. Even the cheap junky stuff has served its purpose, and usually fairly well. I do regret wasting time trying to restore a few inherited tools, since they just weren't worth the effort. They'll be kept as keepsakes, but not used as tools. (Most of what I have from my parents, grandparents, and one great-grandfather is fantastic, though.)

I do regret one Millers Falls hand plane, which was in a lot worse shape than I thought... three years on and I still haven't got it working right. At this point it needs a new tote, further rust removal and lapping, and possibly being fired into the sun where I won't ever have to look at it again.

[Stew Hagerty]

Well when I was first getting into woodworking I bought a lot of weird and poor quality stuff. I was a General Contractor before I became disabled so I was coming from a world of power tools, not to mention every single episode of the New Yankee Workshop, This Old House, and Home Improvement (Tim Taylor: "More Power, Uhhh Uhhh"). So I was figuring I'd be all about woodworking with power tools. Then as I got into it, I started watching videos and joined this forum, so I started buying some hand tools. But I didn't know anything and bought a bunch of cheap chisels, a whole slew of vintage molding planes (nice, but I have only ever used a few), a Harbour Freight Combo Sander w/stand (the sander itself was ok, but the table was JUNK!), etc, etc.
Since then I have slowly been replacing & upgrading to good quality tools as I have the money to do so.

[Daniel Rode]

I have plenty but top of my list today is the woodcraft slow-speed wet grinder. The 1000 grit stone is horizontal and spins slowly (like a vinyl album). I don't know what to do with it. I don't want it, no one would buy it but I can't bring myself to throw it out. So, I just move it from place to place trying to get it out of my way.

[Matt Lau]

Luke,

Thanks for the correction!
One reason why I started this thread, is because I'm well aware of my inexperience and limitations.
Corrections are especially appreciated.

Any tips on splitting wood/hatchet work? For a while, I was copying the Pete Follansby model of keeping the wood between me and the hatchet. However, I was talking with Dr. Phips in Auburn (a boy scout leader), and he recommended being very careful with axes. It's not that I think that splitting wood is a fool's errand--rather that there are some "mishaps" that I can't afford to experience. For the walnut, I was just going to resaw it on my bandsaw to smaller, workable chunks.

Regarding making tools--I'll be making an assortment of finger planes soon, as I bought a bunch of white steel, japanese plane blades on closeout.

-Matt

ps. Regarding the full sheets of plywood, I might recommend getting a tracksaw (haven't used mine yet).
I'd been wrestling with my $100 used Rockwell 9" tablesaw, and decided not to risk losing digits (I've known 6 dentists lose their careers by severing tendons on their palm).

The Paulk workbench + tracksaw is a pretty nice combination.




Cheap tools of all kinds from Lowes, Home Depot, and Harbor Freight. Especially Harbor Freight. I didn't really know any better when I first started woodworking, and kind of assumed that anything sold as a "saw" "chisel" "plane" or "file" were indeed good quality items representative of those labels. I was nearly turned off from hand tools until I discovered that there are much better tools to be found, which make life far more enjoyable. Oh, and sharpening does that for one as well.

So, using dull, poor quality tools would be my answer.

Oh! Also, work holding devices. For the longest time, I didn't know much of anything regarding how to hold my work, and just held it in some way with my body, or up against a wall/corner, or with clamps on a table. A vise - even (especially?) a portable type that clamps on to a table top, along with a few bench hooks, and a saw horse or two, are among the most useful things any new woodworker can have. You can't work effectively or safely if your work is moving on you, or if you can't hold it in such a way that you can work the surfaces you need to work. I'm sad to say that I went far too long without any decent work holding devices/methods!

I have to disagree with the OP on a few things, though! In general, I've had wonderful luck making my own tools, and in many cases, I've made higher quality tools that better fit my needs than I can buy (or, at least, than I can afford to buy!). Moreover, working with a hatchet, and splitting green wood is a great skill for any woodworker to have. In fact, I'd say these things constitute some of the most rewarding aspects of woodworking that I've done. Don't let fear stop you from learning, and growing your skillset. Just proceed with due caution, knowledge, and safety. Knowledge really helps the other two points fall into place.

Of course, I have had just as many failures and time-wasting endeavors. Most of them involve crude metal working as opposed to wood though :P Or were conducted when I just needed a tool or device, and didn't work as painstakingly careful as I usually do. Or else got frustrated and kept working - that's always a recipe for disaster.


Edit: One more. This one more recent: buying large, 4x8' sheets of hardwood plywood to work with. $100 worth of the stuff. Now, I'm sure if you have the right space, tools, and physical strength to carry them about, this isn't a problem. But for one who lives in an apartment, works on a 10x10' balcony, and has only hand tools and a (I discovered) useless-for-cutting-straight-lines-cheap-harbor-freight-jigsaw, and chronic tendonitis to boot, this material is a nightmare. Ripping 4-8' of hard plywood to width over and over again with a little Ryoba is not very fun. And rather damaging to the hands/wrists/arms. Also, it sucks, because it's not fun to work with. If it's warped, you can't just plane it flat. If an edge isn't cut square, it's difficult to plane that as well, because you just get dust, and not shavings. So it's hard to tell what you're doing; you don't know if you're consistently taking off the same depth of wood across the whole edge, or if you're heavy on one side or the other. Moreover, the edges aren't really conducive to gluing.

I think I'm going to stick to real wood from here on...

[Matt Lau]

It's funny that you mention that.

I'm technically Chinese (American), and I go out of my way to avoid Chinese made stuff (aside from the Muji planes, and my disposable belt sander). Most of my big tools were old American iron, and I'm pretty happy with most of it. The gem of my workshop is my Walker Turner "lightweight" drill, and my Rockwell bandsaw comes close.



When I started metalworking, I worked hard to get good advice. A bunch of idiots on some forums told me Chinese tools were horrible, and that I needed some "old iron." I bought a beat-up Clausing lathe from a guy in another state who didn't accept credit cards (the idiots told me he was the salt of the earth). He sent me the wrong model with the wrong motor, and then I found out it was nearly impossible to make it cut metric threads. It came with very little tooling, too. Tooling and parts for old American lathes are incredibly expensive, IF you can find it at all.

He refused to do the honorable thing, take it back, and pay for shipping. I ended up selling that hunk of garbage and getting a wonderful new Taiwan lathe.

A lot of the mainland Chinese stuff is very good, and the price is right.

[David Peterson]

Same story with me re: sharpening gadgets before learning to do it by hand with a few stones. Sold most but still have a Tormek, with all its pricey jigs and jags. Hasn't been turned on in years.

No huge errors maybe but plenty of everyday misfires and wasted energies. Recently I decided to turn new handles for a full set of vintage Stanley 750's that I have. Thought that would look nice. I spent a weekend on the lathe with some choice curly maple. Had a thick leather hide to use to make washers for each. Lovingly fit and finished each one and assembled them all on my bench only to realize that I liked the look of the original, old battered red handles better. Put the newly turned handles with the Tormek.

[Rob Luter]

I have too many planes and too many saws. Most were acquired while on a quest to put together a good user set. I'd keep finding better examples and buy them. Not that I have my user set complete, I have a bunch I need to move. Hoping I can find a tool swap meet close to me so I can trade them for things I don't have too many of.

[Javed Akhtar]

When I started out, I acquired as much as I could, as cheaply as I could. Mostly this meant big box stores, since I also avoided used stuff. I bought a table saw from Canadian Tire (for the Americans, maybe barely a step above Harbour Freight), and a whack of saws and planes and chisels from either Home Depot or Canadian Tire. I definitely had the "buy many shiny things" affliction. I struggled with accuracy and quality at every step of my projects.

The only smart purchase out of the bunch was a 6" bench grinder that I still have, and a full set of pipe clamps, which have proven indestructible and are still my workhorse clamps. Most everything else has gradually been tossed/given away/sold and replaced with a smaller, curated collection of tools from reputable makers. The quality of my work has improved as a result, and I enjoy my time in the shop that much more. My tools will probably outlive me.

[Bill McDermott]

I regret cutting off more than I should have.

Every time it has happened it was easily avoidable and was entirely my fault.
Some times it ended up being downright wasteful.
No way around regretting that.

[paul cottingham]

Funny you say that, John. I think that might be the one tool that didn't suit me well too.
pp

Strange. Me, as well. I managed to convince them to take it back, so it was ok in the long run.

[Jerry Thompson]

I bought one of the last planes made by Steve Knight. It is a 30'' razee jointer made out of Sapele. I have used it once on a big panel. It cuts whisper thin shavings but I don't know when I will use it again.
I listened to a fellow who said it was one that I would use over and over. My 24'' Staley would have done the job.

[paul cottingham]

Couple of major regrets. Bought a Leigh FMT (the low end one) hated the thing. It would be great in a production environment, but in a hobby shop, it is a solution searching for a problem. My gut wrenching hatred of routers doesn't help either. Sold it, use a mortiser and hand saws, as God intended now.

My other major regret was buying the Veritas power sharpening system. Lee Valley being LV, they took it back, but I could never get it to create a decent edge.

[Mike Cherry]

As my sharpening has progressed, my poor buying decisions start looking better and better.

First st saw I bought was a Disston 5 1/2 tpi rip 26". The thing was dull as hell. Now I rip 8/4 hard maple with it and it destroys soft woods. Best part is, I feel like I continue to get better at sharpening all the time so I'm sure there's more room for progress.

[Phil Mueller]

I regret building a saw till that only holds 15 saws. I regret building a chisel holder that only holds 10 chisels...and a marking gauge holder that only holds 3, and a, well you get the point.

I also regret buying at least three different sets of miter clamps thinking any of them would make a poor miter cut fit perfectly.

[Andrey Kharitonkin]

I regret going power tools route first. Mostly because I have no space for them and noise/dust levels are not appropriate for an apartment where I intended to do that:

Contractor table saw with good motor but very basic fence (Bosch PTS-10),
then ordering Incra TS-LS Fence upgrade to it,
plus Incra Miter Gauge that requires widening of miter slot on TS.
Expensive Bosch router with two bases (GMF1600 CE),
plus Incra router table plate with inserts,
plus some expensive router bits in considerable quantities.
Sanders: belt sander I would still keep for grinding and such but orbital and delta sanders are really useless now.
6" jointer-thickness planer with 4 blade sets, plus Veritas sharpening holder for them (sharpening went pretty good with it).

On the other hand I regret buying only 10" band saw, now I think it would better be 12" or 14". Band saw runs quiet.

Since I converted to hand tools I can do woodworking almost any time of the day or week (using chisels with mallet is still problematic though). But I got into trap of well-advertised and reviewed BU bench planes. Use mostly BD planes now, but somehow incline to keep BU as well.

The cause of my regrets is me and apparently american magazines and books and of course numerous youtube videos. It's the biggest inspiration and also a curse :p

But mostly I regret that in order to get those shining tools I have to work in the office and have very little time to do woodworking. Time vs Money dilemma... I wish my father would have had all these tools for me when I was still in school and it would be a summer break right now! :D

[Christian Thompson]

I bought a cheapo slow speed grinder that I wasted many hours trying to balance. Never could get it to stop vibrating like crazy so now it sits on a shelf in the garage. I "fixed" the problem by buying a grizzly wet grinder. I like the wet grinder for touching up a bevel, but it's super messy and too slow for any major changes (the other day I spent almost an hour regrinding the bevel on a 3/16" blade...) So now I wish I had just spent the money on a decent grinder in the first place.

My first major purchase was a table saw. I didn't have a lot of space so I got a job site saw. I works fine and I actually use it a decent amount but hate it. It's so loud and I'm paranoid that I'm going to take a piece of wood in the face or lose a finger at any moment. I'd really like to replace it with a band saw.

I've got lots of stories like that - a lot of my first tool purchases and builds ended up being "prototypes" for figuring out what I really need. Good for learning, but frustrating when you think about the money and time spent. It'd be so much easier to learn in a shop with good tools and an experienced teacher!

On the other hand, one of my first hand tool purchases was a home depot smoothing plane. I bought before I started woodworking because I had fond memories of using one in shop class and figured I might need it one day. Of course I had no idea how to sharpen or use it. The first time I tried using it I put the dull iron in upside down (bevel up) and it just chunked and tore along until I quit. But... once I did get into woodworking and watched a few videos I spent a lot of time working on that plane and got it working really well. I learned a lot and got a decent amount of mileage out of it until I upgraded and sold it.

[Glen Canaday]

I regret more what I didn't buy than what I did. There were a few things, but topping the list was that Woodrough McParlin panel saw for $2 at a garage sale. I didn't realize what it was until later.

[Stephen Rosenthal]

Notwithstanding your space limitations and that this is a hand tool forum, a fantastic way to cut plywood sheets to size is with a Porter Cable 314 trim saw with a Forrest Woodworker II Rip/Cross combo blade and a Tru-Grip straight edge (or equivalent). This small and relatively light weight worm drive circular saw has more than enough power to cut any type of 3/4" ply and the Forrest blade leaves an incredibly smooth edge. I picked up an older model (Made in U.S.A) 314 in perfect condition on Craigslist for $75. Nowadays they go for $200 up on the auction site.

[John Sanford]

Craftsman Router Table w/ Router package.

The router table itself was "okay", "good", merely "okay. The router, on the other hand, was a waste of money. The greatest sin? It only took 1/4" shank bits.... I returned the whole package, minus the table's power switch/connection, which served me well for 10+ years. For a while, it was virtually impossible to find a router table "switch" that had a second plug for a vac.

When I used the Bosch router table during my adventure in New Mexico, I experienced what a decent router table could be....

The other regrets? Vintage planes. I have poor luck with them. I like the look of them, but they always have "challenges". On one, the tote is loose, and can't be tightened up any further because the loooooong bolt is too long. That wouldn't be a problem. If I were a machinist. I'm just not terribly excited with refurbing old planes. Fortunately, I figured this out before my count even reached 1/2 dozen.

Papa Griggio, my monstrous 24" Eyetalian bandsaw, is on the cusp of regret. It's a dust production champion, and because it's 3 phase, which I have to hook up every time I want to use it, it's a pain to use. As a result, I'm reluctant to use it, but that nice, big cast iron table makes a wonderful flat surface for catching things. Which, sadly, adds even more hassle to using it to cut anything. :o

[Rich Riddle]

Buying cheap tools with the idea the would save time, money, or both. They did neither.

[Lenore Epstein]

Notwithstanding your space limitations and that this is a hand tool forum, a fantastic way to cut plywood sheets to size is with a Porter Cable 314 trim saw with a Forrest Woodworker II Rip/Cross combo blade and a Tru-Grip straight edge (or equivalent). This small and relatively light weight worm drive circular saw has more than enough power to cut any type of 3/4" ply and the Forrest blade leaves an incredibly smooth edge. I picked up an older model (Made in U.S.A) 314 in perfect condition on Craigslist for $75. Nowadays they go for $200 up on the auction site.

Or you could go the cheap but perfectly functional route using any decent circular saw, a good finish blade rated for plywood, and a shop made rip cutting guide. I use an 18V 6 1/2" DeWalt cordless saw, a Diablo 140 toothed OSB/plywood finish blade, and a simple but brilliant cutting guide made of tempered hardboard (Masonite). The low- powered saw isn't speedy but the combination yields amazingly straight, square, clean cuts on 3/4" plywood of various grades that only need a little sanding before finishing.

BTW, I respect the recommendations for pro-level tools and toys on woodworking forums, but if mid-grade tools and easy to use jigs yield great results I'm going to save my pennies for gear for which there's no substitute.

Matt, send a PM if you want details on making the simple cutting guide; I didn't want to derail this further. You can also Google 'circular saw' and 'rip guide' or 'crosscut guide' to find lots and lots of pics.

[Shawn Pixley]

I don't have any real regrets on what I bought. I do have regrets on what I have been given. Two plane shaped objects that no amount of fettling can make work well. A drill doctor (just never needed it) and two 1970's Disstons.

[Roy Lindberry]

Everyone should take special note of this.

Yup. I fell for that one BIG TIME. Bought 5 diamond stones, a shapton 6000, a worksharp with diamond lapidary disks, a piece of granite, a tormek clone (tried and quickly sold off) and a slow speed grinder with cbn wheel and LV tool rests. Guess which ones I need/use? Two diamond stones, the shapton 6000 and the slow speed grinder.

Buying sharpening gear hasn't been among my brighter woodworking moves......

This concept isn't specific to sharpening, either. It's easy to fall for the shinier new tool or to assume that a different saw, name brand plane, etc. will make your work improve, when the truth is that while they may help some, nothing will be a substitute for practice and gaining experience.

[Luke Dupont]

This concept isn't specific to sharpening, either. It's easy to fall for the shinier new tool or to assume that a different saw, name brand plane, etc. will make your work improve, when the truth is that while they may help some, nothing will be a substitute for practice and gaining experience.

And knowledge! You can struggle along gaining sub-optimal experience for quite a while if liu of it ;)

[Mike Wasson]

I have a Rockler router table I bought a few years ago, that has now been disassembled and rests against a wall, and a dovetailing jig to go with it. I don't do hand cut dovetails very well yet, but I dislike having to drag out all the router junk and the vacuum/ dust system, and listening to the noise. I can only get better with practice.

[Niels Cosman]

I REGRET NOTHING!!!

If the first step is accepting you have a problem, I ain't taking it! :D
I only wish I had more space for all of my stuff and junk!