by Jimmy

Created on: June 26, 2009

First thing a woodworker, or any other craftsmen needs is; safety glasses, and hearing protection. You should have the glasses on even when you're using sandpaper, why? Sand that table top over there, now, blow the dust off so you can paint it, see, or do you have dust in your eyes? Use the earplugs, with your glasses, when you're cutting with a power saw, repeated abuse of the high pitch noise generated from cutting wood, will deplete your hearing slowly over the years, and you already know you won't be able to get it back once it's gone.

The next thing you absolutely need is a sturdy workbench, with plenty of room to work. It really doesn't matter if it's homemade, or store bought, they each have their pros and cons. Homemade has its charm. If it were made many years ago it's probably made of heavy timber, perhaps left over from the original construction of the house. With zero modifications this could be a solid beginning of a great workbench, you might even have one of the primary staples of necessity, fastened securely at one end of it, a vise.

A vise is a must in any workshop. They are an extra pair of hands when you need them, and they are available in many varieties. General workholding vises, which are made for most uses, wood, metal, piping, almost anything that can fit in its jaws. And specific vises, such as woodholding, which are primarily used when you're working with wood exclusively. These vises have slip joints, and clamping capability, that can hold any sized wood that fit in its jaws; and even larger pieces of stock, that span the width, and/or breadth of your work table, with simple pegs, placed in holes across the table face, perfect for handling almost any wood project, and they also have a jaw surface that is gentle to wood, but easily damaged when used to hold harder irregular material most suited to a general use vise.

If you purchase a new workbench, you might lose the charm of that, fine old timber, but you can gain a lot of preinstalled accessories, including overhead lights, electrical receptacles, peg boards for hanging your tools within hands reach. Some may have storage cabinets, depending on how much you are will to invest. There is also a handy assortment of portable, saw horse/bench units, some with very specific angled, and/or, roller surfaces, which can be real handy when you're trying to cut, a long timber or heavy sheet of plywood, when you're the only one around.

Portable lighting is a necessity, more

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