Best DIY Woodworking Tools

I was going to title this hub “Tools for Women” because I’m highlighting my favorite tools, but I didn’t want the men to be turned away. I admit that most tools are used by men; however, besides myself, I’m sure that there are plenty of “handy” women out there who, like me, love to work with power tools too.

Now, I’m no pro (not even close) but I like to tinker when I can, and when I’m able to I like to have the right tools to get the job done. It's still a work in progress for me but I'm sure eventually I'll be able to tackle that dream list down below!

I’ll begin by featuring tools that I personally have and love (they may be similar to what I have, as many of mine are older models that are no longer available), followed by tools that I wish I had.

I think one of the first tools that I got was a miter box that came with a back saw. This handy “gadget” is great for making standard straight and angle cuts (45°) of relatively smaller pieces of wood, like molding or the such. The one featured here, like most, has cam pins as well as a honeycomb bottom to secure it to your work area. This one also includes a built-in 22.5° angle – that’s a step up from my old one! This particular one got mixed reviews from Amazon consumers, but I can say that mine is exactly like this one – just an older version – and it has worked just fine for me for many years.

Of course, if you click on any of the product links to the right, it’ll take you over to Amazon and you can browse all of Amazon’s product selections.

One of my most frequently used tools is my compound miter saw. Now the miter box does a great job for quick and easy jobs, but ever since I got my compound miter saw I haven’t seen much of the miter box. The compound miter saw is ideal for cutting trim such as door frames, baseboards, crown molding, chair rail molding, etc. It’s also great for trimming wooden curtain rods. Most easily adjust to cutting any angle in the range of 0° - 52° and the bevel range (tilt of the blade itself) is usually 45°. To me, this is one of the most useful tools in my garage. Most recently, I used it to cut down curtain rods and to cut 2x4s to make a bench like the one you’ll see on the right (love it!).

The next most useful tool in my garage is my cordless power drill. I recently painted all of my kitchen cabinets and not only had to remove all of the doors and drawer fronts, but I had to remove the hinges as well. It would have been a long, tedious job had it not been for my cordless drill. Sure there are some things you need to do where it would be easier to just grab a screwdriver, but other than that, no home should be without one of these! We actually have a cordless one and a corded one just in case the battery of the cordless dies or we forget to charge it.

Note: If any ladies reading this suffer from the same problem I do – a husband who’s always stealing tools from the workbench for his hobbies and not putting them back – a great solution is to get yourself screwdrivers, regular and power, in pink or with floral prints. That’s what I did – I bought a couple of pink floral screwdrivers (on right) and I know he wouldn’t dare be seen at the RC airplane field working on his airplanes with my screwdriver!

Okay, this is dragging on a bit, so I’ll quickly brief the remaining tools on the list:

A cordless or pneumatic nailer and/or stapler is a great tool to have in the house, especially if you’ll be completing projects such as hanging molding (chair rail, crown) or paneling (beadboard).

A jigsaw is a wonderful tool to have when you have to cut something that’s not straight, liked curved lines or circles – a great tool for come crafts.

A circular saw is great for cutting (ripping) large sheets of wood or anything you would also use a miter saw for, but a circular saw is lighter-weight and more portable.

If you're fond of your shoulders and have a large project that involves sanding wood, you'll want to have a power sander.

Of course, no garage tool set would be complete without a great set of screwdrivers, wrenches and drill bits.

Sliding compound miter saw – does what a regular compound miter saw does, except you can slide the blade back and forth to cut things that are wider than what a regular compound miter saw can cut.

I would love to have a band saw. A band saw is known to be great for cutting curves, but it’s also great for many other types of cuts, like ripping, re-cutting, cross-cutting, bevel cutting and more. It’s a little safer than some other saws because there’s less of the blade actually visible.

A table saw is most often used to rip long boards or plywood sheets and can come in handy for a multitude of home improvement projects.

A reciprocating saw, also known as a sawzall (actually a trademark of Milwaukee tools), is a versatile saw that can cut through wood, plastic, metal, pipes, and even wood with nails in it (our countertop installer had to do just that last weekend).

The list can be quite long, however a few more tools that everyone should have in their workshop, garage, home or wherever you keep them are:  a combination wrench set, a nice screwdriver set, a decent drill bit assortment, an allen wrench set, a socket set (standard and metric), a staple and/or nail gun, and a pliers set.