My Woodworking Tools List For 2022 (2025)

My lists: Tools – Jigs – Workbenches – Everything

If you need a good idea of what kinds of tools and equipment I use to build my furniture, check out my complete woodworking tools list here. No tool left out.

I even lay out the types of workbenches and shop-made jigs I use.

As for beginners, FYI, this is not a list of tools you need to get in order to start woodworking. That is a much shorter list.

This is just the list of tools I have, which have taken me years to accumulate.

My Power Tools

1. Dust Evacuation System
2. 3hp Table Saw
3. Sliding Compound Miter Saw
4. Drills – 2 battery and one corded
5. Random Orbital Sander
6. Handheld Belt Sander
7. Thickness Planer
8. Benchtop Drill Press
9. Plunge router with router table attachments/accessories
10. Biscuit cutter
11. Benchtop OscillatingSpindle Sander
12. Benchtop Stationary Belt and Disc Sander
13. Scroll Saw
14. Circular Saw
15. Jig Saw
16. Jointer
17. Air compressor
18. Band Saw

My Hand Tools

1. Quick Clamps
2. Pipe clamps
3. Bar clamps
4. Hand screw clamps
5. Kreg clamps
6. Screwdrivers
7. Chisel: 1-1/4″ and a 1/4″ mainly
8. Basic mechanics hand tools (box wrenches, pliers, Allenwrenches, ratchet and sockets, etc.)
9. Center punch
10. Hammer
11. Rubber Mallet
12. Hand saw
13. Backsaw
14. Bench Plane and Block Plane
15. Combination square
16. 3″ Machinist square
17. Dial indicator
18. Digital caliper
19. 6″ ruler
20. 20″ ruler
21. 36″ ruler
22. 6′ steel ruler
23. Circle Stencils
24. Tape measurer
25. 36″ level
26. Small level
27. Round, flat, and triangle wood files
28. Utility knives
29. Spokeshave

My Jigs: Store-bought and Shop-made

1. Kreg pocket hole jig
2. Kreg pin-hole jig
3. Kreg Drawer Installation jig
4. Miter sled for the table saw
5. Crosscutting sled for the table saw
6. Dovetailing jig for the table saw
7. Straight-edge and tapering sled for the table saw
8. Tall auxiliary fence for the table saw
9. Tenoning jig for the table saw
10. Panel glue-up and clamping jigs
11. Picture frame clamping jig
12. Plane blade and chisel sharpening jig, and a wet stone
13. Drawer pull and knob installation jig
14. Wood shaving jig (for runners and inlay)
15. Mortising jig for the router

My Work Benches and Cabinets

1. Main center workbench with power-strip, quick-clamp hangers, and drawers
2. Tool hutch – cabinet style with large drawers
3. Heavy, solid, butcher-block style workbench/board support for the miter saw bench
4. Miter saw workbench with drawers
5. Hanging cabinet for glues, stains, finishes, etc..
6. Plywood-scrap vertical storage-rack on wheels
7. Torsion-box assembly table with retractable wheels – same height as the table saw; doubles as infeed table for large plywood cuts

Other Essentials

1. Zero clearance throat plate for the table saw
2. Stacked dado blade set for the table saw
3. Flush trim, straight, spiral, chamfer, round-over, bead, and cove bits for my router
4. Sanding attachment for my drill press
5. Countersink, Forstner, spade, brad points, and all standard bits for the drill press
6. A good handheld sanding block
7. Brad nailer
8. Finish nailer
9. Paint and finish sprayer

Related:
Scroll Saw Vs Band SawShould You Get A JointerTable Saw Vs Miter SawHow To Choose A Table Saw

My Woodworking Tools List For My Methods

I’m not a hardcore, fundamentalist woodworker that uses nothing but hand tools and creates beautiful pieces of art.

While I really appreciate those kinds of guys, and I love seeing what they can do, I really have no desire to take that approach.

I’m a very busy full-time dad, full-time worker, and I don’t have air conditioning in my shop. These 3 things mean I have a lot of times that I simply can’t go out to the shop to work.

My projects are practical, custom, inexpensive, and my wife loves them. I use power tools, pocket joinery when possible, and cheap or free wood.

I actually had a buddy of mine give me about 70 board feet of rough cut walnut. This is absolutelybeautifulwood, and I even love the way it smells. I’ve made this lumber last for several smaller projects, like this pool cue rack.

But usually, I use cheap pine for rustic looking furniture. If I’m building something with a little more class, I usually go with red oak, as it’s cheap in my area. Here’s a china hutch I made for my wife last year out of mostly pine.

Anyway, that’s just a little about me and the type of woodworking I do. And doing these basic projects, I use basic power tools. The learning curve is pretty small with most of them.

And after all the furniture I’ve built, I’ve never even done a dovetail joint. Again, nothing wrong with guys that do thatkind of work. I just prefer fast and practical.

Related Articles
14 Essential Hand Tools
My Woodshop Layout
How to Build A Drawer

The Centerpiece of My Shop – Grizzly 3hp Table Saw

I’ve gone thru 2 other table saws. My first one was a portable saw with a stand built in. It was a Craftsman I got from Sears. I used it for several years and really had to learn my limitations, as it really couldn’t handle much hardwood, or any plywood. Not safely anyway.

Then I bought a hybrid and after a year, I sold it and sprung for a more powerful 220v cabinet saw, builtto handle full sheets of plywood.

Once I had it installed, I even built a nice melamine-topped outfeed table for it, complete with level adjustable feet.

For this saw, I had to run a 220v circuit to my garage, which was handy because that also allowed me to put in a hanging electric heater. Now I can work in the shop all winter long!

>> How To Choose A Table Saw

My Miter Saw

Here’s another tool I use very often. Usually, it’s for crosscutting to a rough dimension, not my final cuts.

I’ve got the Craftsman 21237 10″ sliding miter saw, which I review here. It’s been a great tool for me, and I’ve had it for at least 5 years now. It’s never given me any problems.

Related Articles
Best Craftsman 10″ Miter Saw
Dewalt 10″ Miter Saws Reviewed
My 2-car Garage Woodshop

My Dust Evacuation

Yes, I’ve included the all-important dust collection system on my woodworking tools list. This is one of the most important features of my wood shop. And yes, it’s a garage, which I usually do call a shop, since that’s mostly all it’s used for. My wife is gracious enough to let me use up both parking slots, so we park outside in the driveway. I am a lucky man, I know it.

But because it’s not a separate shop, we all walk thru it to get into the house (like any other attached garage). That means if the floors don’t stay pretty clean, the dust gets tracked into the house.

So dust evacuation is very important in my shop. I have 3 methods for dust control, each having separate purposes.

Small shop vac – I use this if I’m doing a lot of pocket holes, I’ll attach the small shop vac to the Kreg jig to keep the wood chips from piling up.

Shop Fox 120v dust collector – This is a blower and a filter bag. I’ve connected a long flexible 2″ shop vac hose to it. I use this for my orbital sander, router table, belt sander, spindle sander, and scroll saw.

Delta 120v dust collector – This is a blower with a filter bag plus a plastic lower bag to hold the larger wood chips and dust. This is hooked to a y-splitter, each 4″ run from there has a 4″ blast gate. One run goes to the miter saw dust box, the other runs to the dust port on the back of my table saw. This dust collector I have on a remote switch that I hang on a Carabiner on my belt loop. That way when I’m working on the table saw or miter saw, I can turn it on and off from anywhere in the shop.

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