SW Woodwork — Beginner and small-shop woodworking | swwoodwork.com
Five purchases in order: measuring tools, a saw with two 250 mm blades, a drill-driver, clamps, and four grits of sandpaper.
The first tool is not a machine — it is measurement. A tape, pencil, and square turn the actual board sizes (38 x 89 mm, 19 x 76 mm) into a cut list, and every later capacity on this list exists to serve that list.
The saw is bought around its blade. The common small-shop size is a 250 mm (10 in) blade, and it is specified by tooth count: 24 teeth for ripping with the grain, 40-60 teeth for crosscutting across it. Check the bore before checkout — 30 mm on metric saws and 5/8 in (16 mm) on US saws — because a blade that does not fit the arbor is scrap.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
A drill-driver handles the joinery. Pocket-hole screws are cut to the stock: 19 mm (3/4 in) material takes a 32 mm (1-1/4 in) screw and 12 mm (1/2 in) material takes a 25 mm (1 in) screw. With PVA glue in the joint, that combination builds a shelf carcass without any advanced joinery.
Clamps are the tool beginners under-buy. The glue-up needs pressure for the full 30-60 minutes it takes PVA to reach handling strength, and the assembly then sits undisturbed for 24 hours at about 20 °C — so the clamps have to hold the carcass square, not just hold it tight.
Sandpaper closes the list, bought as a sequence: 80 or 100 grit to shape, 120 to level, then 180-220 before finish. Most oil and film finishes specify 220 grit as the last step. With these five purchases, the seven-step build on the main page and the moisture checks on the movement page are both fully equipped.
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