Joinery Tools
Joinery is the act of cutting and shaping pieces of wood to fit together. As this is quite specialist work, certain tools are essential to a joiner.
- Chisel – Joiners use chisels to carve wood, although many can also be used to carve stone and metal. Chisels come in a huge range of sizes, and are most commonly bought in sets. The most useful sizes for joinery are a quarter inch and a half inch. Chisels can blunt quite easily, and need to be kept sharp with the use of a sharpening stone.
- Router – This is a power tool, which is used to shape joints made from wood. Joiners use routers to cut edges in wood that will correspond to those cut in another piece of wood. A router works by using a collet on the end of a motor powered shaft, which then cuts the wood.
- Band Saw – This power tool is used in joinery to cut curves or unusual shapes into wood. It can also be used to cut wood into thinner pieces. The saw has a rotating metal blade with teeth running down one side.
- Plane – Joiners use a plane to shave small layers off wood. This allows for very exact measurements, and allows joiners to thin out pieces of wood. A plane also gives wood a smooth and professional finish.
- Drill and drill bits – In joinery, the correct drill bits are probably more important than the drill itself! Commonly used drill bits include countersink drill bits (which drill shallow holes) and hole saw bits (which drill extremely large holes).
- Retractable tape measure – It’s vital for joiners to ensure that their joint attachments are all the same size, and often the quickest way to do this is with a tape measure. Most tape measures have both inch and centimetre markings, and a locking mechanism.
- Spirit level – Joints need to be perfectly level, or they may be weak. Therefore, another vital joinery tool is a spirit level. It’s useful to keep a couple of different length spirit levels available, so as to fit into different spaces and joints. Useful lengths include a short 6” level (which is known as a Torpedo level), and a longer 28” or 36”.
- Screwdrivers – Some joints need to be joined together with screws, and so every joiner will need a screwdriver or two. A joiner will need several different sizes of all the types of screwdrivers, including Flathead, Phillips, square head, Torx and star drivers.
- Layout Square – This is a really useful joinery tool, which allows a joiner to quickly mark a square line for an end cut. It also measures up to 6”, and can be used to measure any angle up to 45 degrees. It’s extremely useful for making joints such as miter joints.
- Sliding Bevel – This is similar to the layout square, but allows the joiner to adjust it to any angle. This makes it useful if an exact angle needs to be duplicated multiple times.
About the author: Mark Jennings is a joiner in Edinburgh whose prices are competitive and affordable. If you are thinking about a career in joinery then the Directgov website has all the help and advice you need.
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