I should stay away from this thread, I gave my tools to my sons-in-law when I moved here, along with some nice mahogany that I'd been saving.

Actually, I did bring one or two, or three with me. And we have a well equipped woodshop here.

Toon likes tools but he's not much on using them. He gets a lot of that in his day job when he has to fill in for the furniture delivery/setup guys.

He delivered a mattress yesterday to a (gasp) BRITISH! couple that live not too far from us. She's English, he's Scottish. Toon did tell the missus that we met on *British* Expats which she found rather amusing.

Did you actually meet on here!!!!

No way! aw cyber-love

I like Craftsman myself. They have some nice starter sets you can build on.

There is no one brand, some are better than others in different products.

I also bought a Ryobi set when I moved over, came in a box with wheels for $300. I have added some of their other tools, they are usually fine, as long as you do not abuse them. They are not Contractor grade, but then if you are a Contractor you will be spending a lot more.

I have also bought from Harbor Freight, you have to be selective.

http://www.bt3central.com/

They have a very good forum on tools etc, and any bargains.

My biggest mistake was buying a table saw, should have bought a good compound mitre sliding chop saw.

My next purchase is a chain saw, from Lowes, with a 10% discount voucher. Both Lowes and HD honour each others and they are reasonably easy to get. HF hand them out all the time, harder to use at the big boxes.

Ever watch "The New Yankee Woodshop?" http://www.newyankee.com/tour.php

I'm sure that his tool's are donated by the sponsor's. My father is a retired carpenter and all of his tools are "contractor grade."

BTW, most professionals have this nasty habit of removing the safety features. So they sometimes do things like cutting power cords if not fingers. At least Abrams keep saying, use the safety features.

My hardwood floor guy is a one man operation, and all of his tools but one are "contractor grade" but old. One exception, he uses the cheapest portable table saw from home depot [which is under $100 at Father's Day]. He says, just keep a new blade.

Every once in a while I catch that show. He's awesome at what he does. I wish I had his wood working talent. I'd love to build my own dresser one day but that's not going to happen.

Fans of Norm must visit this site. Trust me.

I like This Old House, they tend to be a bit more practical, I really like what Norm does, and he has some very nice toys.

I have a friend who is a Carpenter, he has told me a few injury stories.

I do have 3 Angle Grinders, not sure how that happened.

Awesome

http://www.normstools.com/images/nor...a-chainsaw.htm

I am going to get the 455, I have some trees to chop down, can't wait!

Norm Abram pisses me off no end. He is a wood butcher. He has several tools for every need. I wish he would show ways to get an operation done with a limited set of tools, most who watch are amateurs, but his shows are for professionals with fully equipped shops.

He really disgusted me when he got some wide boards from an old building and instead of hand planing them, he ripped them into boards that would go through his planer, and then glued them back together. That is butchery, it is a sin, a crime, and should be punished.

ps. I learned woodworking from a master craftsman, at school. All with hand tools, no machines. If it sounds slow and time consuming, it is but the satisfaction with the finished article is priceless.

My DH used to watch Norm all the time in the UK. He has subscribed to Woodworking and Home Handyman since coming here. I am waiting for the muse to inspire him.

Best money I ever spent on power tools was a Bosch 18v cordless hammer drill (green, consumer grade). Used it and abused it hard for 5 years and it's still going strong (including an 'F' on the standard drill intelligence test - "will it be ok on a second floor windowsill?"...).

18v minimum is definitely where it's at though for a cordless. Any less and you'll really struggle with certain bricks types. Built 3 kitchens in the UK and it didn't miss a beat and the batteries functioned superbly. It handled all of the cabinet assembly using the screwdriver bits, nicely torqued down with the brilliant adjustment, all wall fittings into concrete, brick etc. done with the hammer action into some awful bricks and dodgy stone in old houses). The newer Bosch battery packs are even better (they call them bluecore or something). The standard screwdriver bits are made out of chocolate, but get some decent 3rd party oned from Home Depot and you're laughing.

In the USA, they only seem to sell the Bosch blue pro grade stuff, which is even better.

Someone mentinoed that Craftsman stuff was rubbish. Some of it might be, but the Craftsman Professional line is decent. I have a set of Craftsman Pro spanners (or wrenches...) and they are very nice indeed and incredible value for the quality. Not Snap-On grade obviously, but closer than you'd think.

I couldn't agree with you more Paddington. I trained as a joiner when I left school (a brickie too) and the only time I used machines was when I had to reduce the size in some way of what I started with. All of the actual work and finishing work was done with hand tools. To rip a board just so it will go through a machine and glue it back together makes me shudder. Could you imagine doing that with a nice piece of South American or African Mahogany??????? disgraceful. I also did a small amount of finishing and all I can say is French polishing is an absolute art form. I too learnt from masters that shied away from the machines. Aah nothing like taking a smoothing plane and finishing some teak and not seeing any saw or planer marks in it.

Yes way.... I really do try not to repeat it since most people know about it already.

PS to those interested: the ROC (I-751) stuff is going in the post tomorrow morning.... I gave Mr Procrastinator a nudge, looked over everything, found one thing missing. My mother thinks that giving people A numbers (A for Alien) is insulting (calling them an alien) but I told her that being termed an alien is about the least troubling bit about immigration.

Now back to tools... I want a deck.