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Comment by mattbrewsbytes | Hacker News Reader

My specific power tool advice would be to skip the miter saw, circular saw and possibly table saw and get a decent track saw for $500 US. Its a circular saw, you can also use it for angles, maybe with proper planning doing compound ones with a couple cuts, I've never tried.

Also if you set aside a certain budget for hobbies, etc. don't feel guilty about spending on it, go with the philosophy that is guilt-free spending. If you have fun and then lose interest, as happens with hobbies, you can sell the tools. But also see what you can get done with a small set of tools and see what you like first. Taking classes helps narrow in on what you like doing. I learned I like the mystique of hand tools but don't have the patience to do that 100%.

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Agree. I got a Makita track saw and a large sheet of that 1" thick foam insulation they sell in big-box stores.

Lay the foam down on a garage floor, lay your plywood (what-have-you) on the foam, lay your track across the wood (where you want the cut) and go.

As long as you make sure the depth of your cut doesn't pass all the way through the foam, you're good. (And a 1" margin for error should keep you from sparking the saw on the concrete floor.)

If you're clever, cut the 4' x 8' sheet of foam (with a long X-Acto knife) into 4 pieces: 4' x 2' each. Duct tape pairs of them back together and you can fold up your foam like a gym mat. Note: make sure the tape is on the floor-side, you don't want to cut through duct-tape.

Add a portable drill & driver combo and your woodworking journey has begun.

(Me, I added a jointer, planer, table saw, routers, built a workbench, etc. You need a lot of clamps. Got rid of my miter saw—kinda dangerous and I just didn't need it. To be sure the table saw is dangerous too, but the miter saw is stealthily so—seems undangerous for the longest time and then‚ bam!)

I should have gotten a track saw: I basically use my circular saw like one, which is a pain.

That's interesting advice. I only have a miter saw, none of the others. It's gotten me pretty far though.

Well there is also a chainsaw, but that is solving a different problem. No one uses chainsaws for woodworking, only those people carving stumps.

There are specialty chainsaws used for cutting mortises and so forth when timber framing, and some folks will rough up beams using just a chainsaw, to say nothing of the expedient lumber/board cutting jigs/fixtures.

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