5 Power Tools You MUST Buy as a Newbie! - #12

Are you new to using power tools and not sure what to buy for your DIY toolbox? We're going to talk about them in Episode #12 of The Thrift Diving Podcast! Each of the tools have important accessories, too, which you can find down below. We'll talk about the tools you need to get started with power tools, the brands I recommend, safety, tips, and more!

Show Notes:

Read more about how to use these tools and accessories HERE in the blog post.

WATCH: How to Use a Jigsaw (30 minute free tutorial).
WATCH: How to Use a Circular Saw

DIY Projects Mentioned:

Family Sign (cut with a jigsaw)

Power Tools Mentioned (contains affiliate links)

• RYOBI Jig Saw (regular, without battery included)
• RYOBI Jig Saw (Brushless)
• RYOBI Circular Saw (6 -1/2" size, regular, no battery included)
• RYOBI Circular Saw 7- 1/4" size (brushless, no battery included)
• RYOBI 2-pack of 18V batteries  
• RYOBI Nailer (without battery)
• RYOBI Power Drill (regular, no batteries)
• RYOBI Power Drill (brushless, includes 2 batteries and bag)
• RYOBI Orbital Sander and Jigsaw Combo
• RYOBI Multi-tool
• RYOBI Corner Cat Sander
• Corner Cat and Orbital Sander COMBO
• Kreg Plunge Cut Saw (similar to track saw)
• Makita Track Saw

Transcript

Hey, what's up. It's Serena here from ThriftDiving.Com, which is a blog, a podcast, and a YouTube channel that helps you decorate, improve and maintain your home.

Welcome to Episode 12. Today, we are talking about how to get started with power tools. This is something that I've talked about many of times on my blog or my YouTube channel, but I've never talked about it here because you think, how can you talk about power tools on a podcast? While we're going to talk about it today. We're going to talk about the five tools that are the must- have tools when you're just getting started building your DIY toolkit, but we're also going to cover some other things.

Like what are the accessories that you need? You might already know what the tools are, but what are the accessories that are going to help you get started with power tools and actually do a good job with cutting, with measuring. All of those things are very, very important. And we're going to talk about them today.

We're also going to talk about the biggest problems that people have when using power tools. And yeah, there are some common things you're going to run into, common mistakes that people tend to run into when they're using tools. And we're going to talk about that today as well. And we're also going to talk about safety because you cannot talk about power tools and not talk about safety.

And I always say this in the beginning. I hope that we don't take a lot of your time today, but once I get started, it's hard to not tell you everything that I know about a topic. 

So let's get started with talking about power tools. And some of you listening to this, maybe beginners, you've never even picked up a power tool.

Some of you may have a whole slew of tools in your toolkit, and some of you might be in between. And I think most of the people that find Thrift Diving for the most part, they're beginners. They may have used a power drill, maybe a jigsaw, but they're kind of afraid to use something a little bigger. So we'll talk about that today to, getting over the intimidation.

But let's start with the five tools that I always recommend to people get started with in their DIY tool kit. And I'm going to list them here. We'll go through each one of them individually, but let's go ahead and list them. 

Number one, you got to have a jigsaw.

The second one is a power drill. Most people probably already have that, but if you don't have it, definitely something you should have in your DIY toolkit.

 I also recommend people get a circular saw, as well as a nailer, and an orbital sander. So those five ones: a jigsaw, a power drill, a circular saw, a nailer, and a sander-- an orbital sander.  Let me tell you about my experience with power tools, and when I first got started. 

So this was, I want to say 2013, I went to a conference. If you're part of the DIY community or you follow a lot of blogs, a lot of bloggers, you probably heard them talk about this DIY conference called The Haven Conference. This was the very first conference I'd ever been to. It was all of these bloggers that I'd been following for several years, who were just so popular.

And I just idolized them because they were doing what I wanted to do: fix up their house and decorate. And this conference was great because it was sponsored by Ryobi and a lot of the sessions that they had, hands-on, we're teaching people how to use their tools. So this was the first time that I ever used power tools--.

Well, again, a power drill is something a lot of people already have. So I used that, but I had not used any other tools. So these hands-on sessions at The Haven Conference was amazing. There were people there teaching you how to use these tools. And I remember this was such a funny event, there was this huge party.

And usually in the conference, they would have one night where they would do this RYOBI sponsored party and around the room, of course there'd be free food and drinks and all kinds of amazing stuff. Oh, the things that we did pre pandemic, I loved it. But anyway, when RYOBI would come in and sponsor these events, they would have their tools lined along the walls.

So as you're going around eating your cakes and cookies and little hors d'oeuvres or whatever it is that they're serving, you could learn about these tools. Well, one particular night during this conference, during the party, everybody just started taking the tools. They were giving us the tools.

We were like, Hey, can we have these tools? And this was towards the end of the conference. There was no other, I guess reason why they would take the tools home with them. They wanted bloggers to use them and promote them on their blogs. So they gave us the tools and there was just a crowd of us running across the street from the party to the hotel, with all of these bright yellow and black tools.

And we're like, "We've got power tools!" It was so exciting. And so there's a picture on my blog, I'll leave a link down below, where you can see this excited face of mine, because I got my first circular saw and my first, reciprocating saw. I didn't even know what I was going to do with them. I'd never even used them before, but I was excited.

 From there I started acquiring some of these tools. I was doing some work with RYOBI and they would send me a lot of tools and I'm like, wow, great. But there was still some fear and hesitation that I had to get over, but it was really helpful for me to be at the conference, having the RYOBI guys there, showing me how to use the jigsaw and the, I think I used--

I think the first time that I used a jigsaw was at the conference, but then also a miter saw, and that's not one of the tools that I usually recommend when you're just getting started, but we'll talk about the miter saw in an upcoming video. 

That was my first experience in acquiring power tools. And from there, I've just started growing this massive collection of tools and over time things have changed. And we'll talk about that later. What happens when you go from being a beginner to being someone who's a little bit more experienced, or maybe you want a different quality of cut, you start upgrading your tools. And we'll talk about that later. 

But anyway, that was the first time that I'd ever gotten started with tools, was learning how to use some of these tools at these conferences and it was great. And so a lot of my readers began to associate me and RYOBI together.

Cause I would do a lot of work with them and I loved their tools. They were affordable. They're still affordable, even though it's years later, but they're still affordable. And they're typically the tools that I recommend people get started with because they're so affordable. This is not sponsored by RYOBI.

I don't work directly with them anymore. They've changed their marketing practices in the last number of years. So a lot of bloggers who used to do things directly with RYOBI don't work with them directly anymore. If we were to do anything with them, it's sort of like through Home Depot, if that makes any sense. They changed up their whole marketing program several years ago.

So that's how I got started with using power tools. And what I found is that I could do so many more things in my garage, in my home, because I knew how to use power tools. So I could go from painting, let's say a piece of furniture to then being able to cut off the legs and maybe make it a little shorter.

That's why I always tell people, if you are used to painting furniture, don't be so afraid to use power tools, because once you use power tools, it takes your DIY to a whole new level. Now, when you look at something, you can say, I think I might want to add some legs to this, or maybe I might want to upcycle this into something else, but it means I have to take the back off.

And in order to do that, I'm going to need to cut that off with a circular saw. So there's a lot of things that you can do with power tools that you can't do when you're only painting furniture. So that's the reason why you should be learning to use power tools. 

All right. So then let's talk about the must- have tools. So the first one that I mentioned was the jigsaw and the reason why I love the jigsaw is because you can actually do a lot of things with it. And it's not as intimidating a blade, as let's say, a circular saw or a miter saw. Those have big blades and they're very intimidating, but the jigsaw is actually a little less intimidating.

 It depends on the type of blade that you're using. You can actually make curved decorative cuts and straight cuts with the jigsaw. And if you've been following my blog and my YouTube channel, there's this project that I did that I absolutely love, and I'll leave a link for down below. What I did was I took some half inch plywood and made a template, sort of a design using a printer.

You'll see it in the blog post in the video. I won't go through all the details, but I created a, a sign that said family. And the only way that I was able to cut that out is by using a jigsaw.  If you use a certain type of blade, you can easily cut curves and edges very simple.

  It's just so easy. So this is a tool that actually gives you a lot of versatility. So you could do something more decorative, if you're cutting things out like signs, maybe for your room, you want to hang a sign that says welcome or home or eat, or if you want to do a straight cut, you can do that with a jigsaw as well.

 And again, this depends on the blade that you're using, but again, I'll leave some links down below for you, so you can understand that a little bit more, but on my YouTube channel, I've got a free 30 minute video that walks you through from step one to step 10 on how to use a jigsaw. And after you watch it, I guarantee you're going to feel very comfortable using this jigsaw.

It's actually a very thorough video and it's gotten a lot of positive feedback from people who wanted to know how to use this tool and feel comfortable and get started because I cover a lot of things such as, where are you cutting this piece of wood out? You know, how do you clamp your wood down to make sure that it's not going to move around on you?

How do you make sure that you're safe? What are the different jigsaw blades? So there's a lot of information in there and that's why I always say, have this tool in your toolbox, no matter what, because it does a lot, it cuts wood decoratively and straight cuts, but you can also use it to cut thin pieces of metal.

As long as you've got a metal blade on there. Again, more details are in the post, but it's versatile.

You can cut plastic with it. And I find that it's less intimidating for people to just get started with cutting. And I think RYOBI sells them, gosh, I want to say you could probably pick up a jigsaw for maybe 60 bucks. I mean, it's so cheap and the batteries work in all the tools.

 The 18 volt one plus battery. So you can go from your jigsaw to your circular saw to your nailer and use the same battery. So I typically tell people, make sure that you get at least two, three, four batteries.

So when one dies, you already have another one plugged in charged, ready to go. So definitely get the jigsaw. 

 The next thing that I would say that you would need for the jigsaw, let's just talk about accessories, are the dual cut blades. And I will leave a link down below for this, but there are certain blades that work better with the jigsaw.

And a couple of years ago, I went to this conference. I don't even remember what conference it was. I think it was like the Builders conference in Orlando and they usually bring their latest and greatest and best inventions for tools and builders and all that. Well, they had this blade by Starrett, which is a company that makes all sorts of little tools and bleeds. 

This dual cut blade was amazing because a lot of times when you're using a jigsaw, what can happen is when the blade goes down and then it comes back up. It's cutting when it's coming up. So it's like down, cut down, cut down, cut. And what happens is that sometimes that blade tends to move and shift and the Starrett blades are great because it cuts going down and it cuts going up.

So you tend to have a, cleaner cut on the top and the bottom, of your wood. It's amazing. So that's the only blades that I ever use any more when I'm using a jigsaw.  So you can find them down below, but definitely include that in your DIY toolkit as one of your tools. 

Now, the next tool that I would recommend is a circular saw, and the reason why you need it is because it's a little bit more heavy duty and it's a little faster.

So even though you could use your, let's say, your jigsaw in order to cut a sheet of plywood, well, it's going to take a little bit longer to cut it. Most sheets of plywood are going to be four by eight, right? Four feet by eight feet. Now, if you're cutting that big of a piece, the right tool for the job would be the circular saw.

And the reason why is because it's more heavy duty, you can adjust the depth of the blade. And it's going to give you a faster, cleaner cut than if you-- Well, I say it's going to give you a cleaner cut. That depends on the blade because some blades will give you a nice clean cut. Some blades will give you a lot of tear out and a lot of raw edges on your wood.

But there's different tools for different jobs. And if I were to ever cut a large piece of plywood, I would turn to the circular saw because it's faster and it's easier to do rip cuts. Now rip cuts is when you are going from, let's say the bottom of the wood to the top, and you're cutting with the grain. When you're doing a cross cut, you're cutting perpendicular to the grain. So those are just some vocabulary words to get comfortable whenever you're talking about making cuts. And I do understand, you know, we're talking here on a podcast, so I know that you can't visualize everything.

It might be very new to you. You, you may have never heard any of this before, but it's introducing you to some terms that, in the DIY world, in the power two world, you'll need to know. So again, when you're doing a rip cut, cutting with the grain from, you know, the top of the board or to the bottom, you want to use a circular saw, it's easier to use.

And let's keep in mind that sometimes if you're in your backyard, let's say you're building something back there, maybe a dog house, you're going to want to be able to take your tools out to the yard, get those cuts done quick and easy. And move on with the project. And that's where a circular saw really comes in and it can actually do bevel cuts.

So a bevel cut is where you can turn your blade to the side so that you can cut at an angle. So that's a bevel cut. Now, you can do bevel cut too with a jigsaw, but you know, it's sort of like cutting a piece of steak with a butter knife. You can cut a piece of steak with a butter knife, maybe.

But you're going to want to use a steak knife. So that's like comparing the jigsaw to the circular saw. And it's really funny for me to even mention steak because I'm a vegetarian, so I would never ever do that. 

But anyway, so you have to have a circular saw and again, this tool is a little bit more intimidating, but on my YouTube channel, I do have an in-depth video on how to use the circular saw, because there are some things that you need to know about the rules of using a circular saw. And to watch the video on how to use it and in terms of what you can make with it, one thing that I like is, two by fours.

You know, a lot of times if you're watching like Ana White or some of these DIY bloggers, they're using two by fours to build furniture. Well, if you try to cut a two by four with a jigsaw, it's very difficult. It's not impossible, but again, that's a pretty thick piece of wood. That's an inch and a half thick piece of wood.

You don't want to use a small blade to cut a big fat chunk of wood. So that's where the circular saw will come in and make the job a lot easier. 

Let's talk about how much they cost now. A cordless circular saw if you're just buying the tool costs about $70. They're really not that expensive.

They come in different sizes and that will determine the price. But if you're getting one with just like, let's say a six inch, or I think it may be like a six and a half inch blade. It's not that expensive. So you could afford to get that. And then again, you already have your batteries because you've got other RYOBI tools, so you don't have to go and buy more batteries.

Now you can get a circular saw in a larger size. There is a seven and a quarter inch, which is typically sized by the size of their blades. So if you get one that's larger, you're cutting capacity is a little bit more, but I think if you're a beginner, you can honestly stick with a six inch and have that be fine.

You don't really need to upgrade beyond that. 

All right. Now, in terms of what accessories you need to use with the circular saw. Now there is a company that I absolutely have loved using their accessories. And it's called Kreg. This isn't sponsored by them, but they are a company that I've used their accessories many of times.

So what's one of the problems, and we'll talk a little bit about this later, but what's one of the problems people have when using tools, when they're cutting? Getting a straight cut, right?  It's like the bane of my existence when it comes to power tools, it's so hard sometimes to get a straight cut, but Kreg, they actually make this accessory called a Rip Cut.

And you'll see a link down below, you can check it out. But what you do is you attach your circular saw to the Rip Cut and part of it will ride along the edge of your wood. So as you're cutting, it's giving you the exact precise cut and you just get a nice, straight even cut.

There've been times when, I didn't particularly like using the rip cut. Cause I didn't feel that it was as accurate, but I think if you are a newbie and you've never used a circular saw before, and you're afraid of getting wonky cuts, then I would definitely say invest in the Kreg Rip Cut, because it'll give you straight cuts. You just have to calibrate it. And there are some videos on how to calibrate it to get nice straight cuts. 

Okay. The next tool, tool number three is an orbital sander. Oh. We people here at Thrift Diving, we love refinishing furniture. We love taking something that's old, painting it, but sometimes we like to strip it down and we like to put some new stain on it. 

Now, even if you're using a chemical stripper, most times, you're still going to need to sand your wood because a lot of the times the dye is still on the wood, even though you've removed all the finish, you still have some old finished that's kind of baked into the wood that, you know, if you do like maybe, um, a good sanding down, it'll remove a lot of that. Sometimes you can't remove the stain, but a lot of times, if once you strip something and you go over it with the orbital sander, it'll leave your wood looking fantastic and ready for the next coat of finish that you're going to use, whether you're going to use an oil or whether you're going to use a pigment stain.

So the reason why I love it is because, it moves in this circular vibration pattern. Right. And it gives you this really smooth surface. Of course, you're going to need some sanding disks. So make sure you get a variety. I typically tell people to get some 80 grit sanding disks. You definitely want to get 150 grit sanding disks, and also 220.

Those are the three that I generally use, and it will leave your furniture feeling so smooth. The only problem is that when you're sanding furniture with your orbital sander, there's a couple of things you tend to run into. Number one, sometimes, if you're moving your sander too fast, you get these things called pigtails and you don't even notice that you're getting all these little squiggly scratches on your furniture until you go to put stain on it.

And there is nothing more frustrating than looking at this beautiful, sanded piece of, let's say a dresser. And you're like, wow, this is great. Like, I just sanded this thing down to the bare wood. It's going to get some beautiful Ebony stain but whatever the color is that you're using, guess what? The minute you put that stain on there, you're going to see those little swirly pigtails. 

 How to prevent that is two ways. Number one, make sure that you're not using that sander too aggressively, because what happens is when you're using a sander, a lot of times people think they just want to push down on the furniture. If they just push harder and harder, it'll get it off faster. 

You're hurting your chances of getting a really smooth finish. So let that sander do its job and don't push on it. You also don't want to move it along too quickly. So I had seen something somewhere that was a good rule of thumb. Your sander, when you're stripping things, and I don't even want to just say stripping, but if you're sanding a piece of wood with your orbital sander, let the sander move about one inch per second. Okay. So that's not super, super duper fast. That's a pretty slow speed. And you're letting the sander do all the work.

And you're not just running it over there. Like, you know what I mean? So let the sander do its job. Don't push and just let it work and check the sanding pad a little bit. If you notice that it's getting kind of gummed up, switch your sanding disc, and then that way a new, fresh sanding disc will help to remove the rest of that stain or finish. 

Now, another thing is, an orbital sander will not get into the corners. So if you are standing something that is like, let's say the inside of a drawer. Now I have done this. I've actually sanded in on the inside of drawers or on the side of a dresser. And you know, where the corner meets the top of the dresser and the dresser top has a little bit of an overhang there.

Well, what’s going to happen is you're going to get a little section of that dresser, where the sander can't reach. It doesn't reach in the corners. And that's when you can either actually add to your DIY toolkit and get something called a mouse or corner sander.

And that's the one that looks it's kind of in the shape of, if you look at an iron, you know, like if you're ironing your clothes, it has that pointy little top on it. So, you can get into the cracks and crevices of your clothes. Well, that's what a corner sander will do, sometimes called like a mouse sander.

It will get into those corners. So you could actually add that to your DIY toolbox too, just for those annoying corners. 

Typically what I'll do is I'll even invest in something called a multi-tool and I'll leave a link down below for that as well. That is something that I highly recommend because it still has that corner feature where you can get into the corners, but it's much smaller. And it's got these interchangeable heads that you could use for sanding, or maybe you need to do some cutting.

You can change the head and do a lot of different. jobs with this tool. There are so many different types of sanders, I can't cover all of them but out of all of them, I would say, get yourself an orbital sander.

And then if money permits, add on some additional Sanders that let you get into the corners of the pieces that you're working on. 

Okay. All right. So let's talk about the cost. How much does a sander like this cost? Well, an orbital sander from RYOBI is like $40. It's so inexpensive. So if you're getting one that's corded or getting one that has batteries, either way, it's not going to cost you a lot of money.

I say, stick with the battery powered. It's just easier to move around. If you have corded tools, now you've got to look for power supplies and that can be kind of difficult, especially if you don't have a dedicated workshop. And of course I did mention the accessories. What you will need for the sander is you'll need sanding discs. Those are not really that expensive, but if you tend to go through them very quickly, buy a larger pack. There's nothing worse than running out of sanding discs, and you're in the middle of a project.

So remember just get the 80 grit, 150 grit and the 220 grit. And generally what I do when I'm working on a sanding project, if I'm stripping something that is wooden, let's say a wooden table, I sometimes will skip the chemical stripper and just start with the 80 grit. You can even start with a 60 grit because the smaller the number, the tougher, the grit, and of course the bigger the number you're going to get into the more finer sand papers.

So 60 or 80, start there, sand it down and then switch to the 150. Generally 150 is good. And then for your last one, you will hand sand that. You can do a 220 grit sandpaper on your orbital sander. But a lot of times you might want to stop at the150 and either hand sand, or just stop at 150, because when you're restaining something, you want there to be enough grit and the wood, enough sanding and scratching for the pigment to be absorbed by the wood. So just a little tip for you. 

All right. So let's move on to the next tool. And that would be the brad nailer. I love the brad nailer because I've used it for trim around the house and in my bathroom and in my kids' bathroom, I did like a faux board and batten on the walls. 

I used a Brad nailer with 18 gauge nails and 18 gauge nails, it has to do with the thickness of the actual nails. So you'll notice like an 18 gauge brad nailer, the nails they're a little smaller than, let's say a 16 gauge nailer, which would be something that you're using for crown molding, right?

So we're not using the brad nailer for crown molding. You need something a little heavier duty for crown molding, but if you're doing some basic trim on the wall, like what I did in my bathroom and my kids' bathroom, the brad nailer comes in handy. 

Also, if you're doing any sort of trim or baseboards around your home, a brad nailer is perfect because when those thin little 18 gauge nails and pieces of wire go into your wall, you don't see them.

They typically just leave a small little hole there. And afterwards you can come through with some wood filler, put a little dab on there. Let it dry. Sand it out and paint it. And you don't even see the nail hole. So they're a great tool to have, and you can actually build with them too. Like if you're just making small little projects, maybe like a tray or something that isn't getting a lot of stress on the joints, or something, that's going to be used doors.

You can very easily use a brad nailer and put together some amazing things. So just imagine you've got your jigsaw. And now you're cutting out small pieces of wood with the jigsaw, and now you can nail them together with brad nails using your nailer. And the brad nails come in a variety of sizes. So I've seen them as small as gosh, should I say half inch, half inch, I think is the smallest that I've seen, but they also go up to, I believe two and a half inches. So, you know, depending on what project you're working on, there's a variety of nails that you would need for the nailer. And it's very simple to use, you just open it up, load it in there and start firing away.

The thing about the nailer, and this is something that if you've ever used a nailer you'll know, it's so frustrating. So when the nails shootout, they don't actually come out straight. No, no, they don't. And let me tell you why I know this because I have made many of projects in my day where I'm nailing something.

Let's say I'm making a little tray or I'm making some project where I'm nailing two pieces of boards together using the brad nailer. If you don't do it in the correct way, that nail tends to come out with a little curve to it. And so what happens is that you could end up shooting your nail out the side of your project or out the bottom of your project. And you don't know it until after you're like, Oh, I'm done putting these pieces together. Look how amazing this is. And you turn it over. And you shot your nail out the bottom of your project. So one thing I would say with the brad nailers, to just get comfortable using it. Do some scrap pieces of wood, combining them together to see which direction or how to hold your nailer so that it doesn't shoot out the bottom or out the side.

If that does happen, sometimes you can back the nail out, you can sort of tap it out, but other times you just have to, bend that little piece of wire and get it to break off and then try to hide it in the wood. So if you're new, this is probably over your head. You're probably thinking what in the world, but if you've used a nailer, you know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you? It's the most annoying thing.

It's like, Oh, Did I really just shoot a nail out the project. That's why when you're using something like a nailer, you always, I mean, you should always keep your hands out of the way but get comfortable in knowing your tools and know how they function so that you could know in advance what could happen.

 In terms of cost, you can get a brad nailer for about 120 last time I checked again. Probably with no battery but look and see if they come with batteries because the more batteries you have, the better. 

And, in terms of accessories, I mentioned get a bunch of the different sizes of nails.

I think they actually go up to two inches, but have a variety, cause you won't know which one you really need until that project comes. 

 All right. So the next one, and this is, I would say probably the most common power tool is the power drill.

This is something a lot of people have because, it's the least intimidating out of all the power tools, but also when you move into a new house, you generally realize, Oh, we need to put furniture together, or we need to drill holes, or we need to hang curtains or anything like that. But a power drill actually has a bunch more uses that you may not have thought about.

And some of those things are important when you're building furniture. For example, if you're putting pilot holes and if you're not sure what pilot holes are, the next time you try to drill a screw into a piece of wood that doesn't have a pilot hole, you'll see how difficult it is to get that screw in.

Sometimes you can actually crack your wood if you don't have a pilot hole, which is just a pre drilled little hole in order to get that screw started. And how are you even going to get the pilot hole? Well, you need to have some drilling bits. Those are a really important accessory.

I think RYOBI actually makes some sets that are not too expensive. And it's got a variety of sizes of drilling bit. You'll need some driving bits because at some point you're going to drive screws into your wood or into the studs of your walls, and you're going to need a way to get it in there pretty quickly, pretty easily without having to use a screwdriver going by hand.

So pilot holes, definitely for projects, but also too, there's a lot of DIYers, when they're building furniture, you will see them use something called the Kreg pocket hole jig, and it's this little inexpensive $100 accessory that is actually, it's kind of amazing because it'll create these pocket holes in your wood so that you can drive screws at an angle.

I'm not even sure what angle, let's just say it's at a 45 degree angle or whatever. But it allows you to drive these pocket screws into those little holes that you've drilled, connecting your wood with a really strong joint. And in order to create the holes, you need a power drill. So this is a tool that you definitely want to get. You can get a RYOBI one for probably about $70. And now I think a lot of their tools are brushless and without getting into all the details,

because honestly, I don't know all the details, but I do know that brushless tools tend to last longer. They might be a little bit more expensive, but they're generally just more powerful and last longer. So when you're buying your tools, if you can buy brushless, buy brushless. 

And the last accessory that I would definitely recommend that you get for the power drill is some hole saws. H O L E hole saw attachments.

These actually fit in just sort of like the driving bit or the drilling bit. And you tighten the chuck, but the hole saws will actually cut nice clean holes for you. Now, remember, you're going to have in your DIY toolkit, a jigsaw, which is great for cutting holes because you know, you could cut a hole in the middle of a piece of wood, but if you're trying to create a hole that's a certain size something that's not too big. That might be, let's say two inch or maybe one inch, you can create this with hole saws and your power drill. So I will leave links down below for those as well. I love them. I've used them in all kinds of projects. A lot of times people will use them when they're creating holes in doors for hardware.

So if you're putting in a handle, new handle, most doors will already have them cut. But if you don't have it cut and you need to create a hole for a doorknob, you can use a hole saw and a power drill. So it's definitely something that's good for your DIY toolkit, along with those attachments.

So let's talk about some of the accessories and some of the materials and other tools that I think are important for you to have in your DIY toolkit. Let's talk about dust collection. Oh guys, I cannot begin to tell you how much I hate saw dust. I mean, I love it because I love cutting wood. I love making things.

I love building things. But that stuff is very damaging to the lungs. And I don't think when I first got started with using power tools, I don't think that I really gave enough attention to what I was breathing or even the materials that I was using when I was stripping furniture or whatever. I just didn't pay much attention to that.

I figured, well, everybody cuts wood, you know, who is a woodworker. So if they're breathing it in, I guess I will too. So, it's so important to have proper dust collection and a proper mask. So I know right now because of the pandemic, it might be a little bit more expensive to get your hands on the N 95 mask, but I was able to find them online.

I'll leave a link down below. I was able to find them in stock and you want to get a mask that seals all that stuff out of your face. So it might have that little respirator thing on the front. So when you breathe in, you know, you're breathing in fresh air filtered air, you know, no dust. And then when you're expelling it, it's coming through the little flap on the front.

Try to get those. Those are the best for woodworking because you don't want to breathe that stuff in. Also hearing protection is so important. I can't tell you how many contractors that I see, I guess maybe after they've been in the business for a number of years, they're just like, Oh, I don't really care about my hearing.

I hear just fine. I hear just fine, you know, and they're yelling at you. But the little foamies are so inexpensive, it doesn't seem worth it to skip over them. Like for just a couple of dollars, you can get the little orange ones, whatever color they are, put them in your ears, every single time you go to use your power tool. Don't look at what the professionals are doing because they're not doing it properly.

They're all about time is money. Time is money. Got to get through this project quick. And they're not, some of them, are not doing the safety things that they need to do. So don't do like the professionals. Do like the beginner that you are and the person who knows that they're supposed to protect their hearing.

You're also going to need some safety glasses. Now you'll want to make sure that the safety glasses that you use have a, I think it's caught a Z, Z 94. It might say Z 94 on it. I can't remember the number off hand, but you'll see it on the glasses somewhere. That means it's been rated for protection.

So if a nail is shot from 20 feet away or something like that, it can sustain the force of the impact of that, nail coming towards your eye. So definitely have proper protection. If you're wearing your eyeglasses, you know, I have seen people just wearing their regular eyeglasses.

I mean, I think that's okay. I would just make sure that they're like shatterproof, right? Like I wouldn't wear glasses that have glass in them.  I would get some that actually fit over top of the glasses, but if it's plastic, I think it should be okay. But if, if you could get some that fit over your regular glasses or wear contacts when you're doing your DIY. 

So that's in terms of safety. Just a couple other safety things. Since I'm talking about it. You definitely want to make sure that you're wearing close toed shoes. I can't tell you how many times in my past, or even on Instagram, I will see blogger friends out there in their garage, cutting their wood in their flip flops. Don't do that because if you drop that power tool, if you drop a piece of wood, you're going to crush or cut off your toes.

So always use close toed shoes whenever you're working around power tools. Better yet, get some like steel-toed boots or something. One of my sponsors, their name is Ariat. So you might have heard of them. I love their boots. They sent me a pair of boots, I guess, last fall. And they're so comfortable.

It's like a composite toe boot, but they're like attractive. And every time I wear them out, like when it's cold and stuff, I don't wear them so much now because it's getting a little warmer. But every time I would wear these boots out, somebody would always compliment me on them. They're that great.  Don't wear any jewelry. Don't wear your hair down and, no loose clothing, Oh, one thing I will mention is whether or not you should listen to music and things

when you're working with tools, some people say, I listened to nothing. When I'm working with tools, me, I do listen to a lot of talk radio, but I think whatever it is that you listen to make sure you're still mindful of what you're doing. Don't be so absorbed into your audio book or the Golden Girls on your iPad that you don't pay attention to what you're doing.

And I'm only mentioning Golden Girls cause I love them. I watch them all the time. So those are just some safety things when working with power tools.

Now in terms of location, and I'll get back to the accessories in just a moment, because there's a few more things I want to talk about, but just in terms of location, this has to do with safety as well.

Make sure wherever you are working, it is a safe place for you to work. So if you've got scraps of wood on the floor, lots of sawdust, be sure to sweep that stuff up or better yet, have a wet dry vac, and just vacuum that stuff up in between cuts because you don't want to slip. Or trip. I have done that so many times, tripped on things that I've left on the floor.

So clean up as you go and make sure that, you have an adequate way to collect the dust. That's one thing that I had never really invested in which was dust collection. I mean, I was wearing the mask later on when I realized, Oh, shoot, I'm damaging my lungs here, but I did later invest in dust collection, but here's a great tip for those of you who do not have the money to invest in expensive dust collection.

What you can do is take a box fan, right? Maybe a little $25 box fan, and you can take one of your air filters that you would just buy to put in your HVAC system, tape it onto the box fan onto the back. So as you're working on. Cutting wood or whatever, you can put the box fan either in a window, you're in the garage and you have a window in the garage or set the box fan near where you are and blow it away from you, but it will start to take all those fine particles, as you're cutting wood, it'll take those fine particles and it will blow it out. But if you've got the filter on it, the filter will actually trap some of those particles.

So this was a tip that I heard someone tell me a long time ago and thought that is freaking amazing. But just recently, this man that I met, who does a lot of woodturning. He makes bowls and pens. He said he does the same thing in his workshop, right below where the dust falls, all the little particles,

he's got a box fan with just a taped on filter and has that blowing to suck up those little particles of dust that otherwise would just linger in the air. Now, of course it doesn't compare to a real dust collection, but it's something. So definitely keep that in mind because those particles will linger for a long time.

And I can tell you that I recently, in the last five, six months, maybe I have invested in a new brand of tool. It's not sponsored by them. This is called Festool F E S T O O L. It's a very expensive brand of power tool. And the reason why I invested in them is because I've gotten to the point in my DIY where I'm like, okay, I just need some accuracy.

I need some clean cuts. And they have, I mean, it's just an amazing brand, but don't start there because it's too expensive, but they make dust extractors that work with all of their tools. So a lot of times now I'll have a mask on, but I have probably 90% of the dust being sucked right up going into the dust extractor.

So, you know, it's a very clean system, but it's not perfect. And I think even when I get into my shed, I'm getting a huge shed in my backyard. I'm going to get a dust air filtration system in there just to get all the other little particles floating around. 

Okay. So let's move on back to the accessories and then I'll talk about the biggest problems and then, ooh, I'm sorry. These always turn into long conversations, right? Hopefully you're still listening. 

Okay. So the next tool, the next accessory, rather than I think you should definitely have in your DIY, toolbox is a speed square. This is something that's typically used in roofing and carpentry, but, and it's also called a roofing square, but if you say speed square, most people know exactly what you're talking about. This is a really cool tool because it allows you to hook the side of that speed square onto your piece of wood and get a nice straight line. Because remember when you're doing DIY, when you're doing woodworking, it really is about two things: making a straight line and getting a straight cut.

And so this tool is, really instrumental in helping you to get a straight 90 degree. And if, even if you wanted to do like a 30 degree, you could do a 30 degree angle with this. Of course, this is a podcast. We can't get into how to do that, but just know that you need to have this tool. It's highly recommended.

It's one of the, I think out of every accessory I have, it's probably the most important accessory in getting a straight cut. And they typically come in six inch sizes. I have seen some that are 12 inches. If you can, get both, sometimes you do have longer, or I should say wider pieces of wood where you might want to get a nice straight line.

But if you've got a six inch, you end up having to flip it over. It's just easier to have both. So put that on your list. 

Now let's talk about the biggest problems before we end this episode. Let's talk about the biggest problems that people have with DIY. And remember I said, it's all about getting straight lines and straight cuts because there is nothing more disheartening then putting your time and effort into a project only to get the wrong measurements to cut it. And it's supposed to be 13 inches and you do like 12 and a half, or, you know, or you're just a little too short and it doesn't quite fit. Right. It costs a lot of money to recut pieces of wood, and then you have to go buy more material.

So what I would say, and I don't, I can't put everything into this podcast, is when you're getting started with power tools, definitely invest some money into those accessories that are going to help you get straight cuts. And help you do even measurements. So for example, I just upgraded, I mentioned I'd upgraded my tools.

I just upgraded one of my tools to a track saw. And a track saw is basically a piece of metal, maybe it's like aluminum or something. A piece of track, piece of metal track that a saw runs on. Now there's different brands. I'm using Festool, which is one of the more expensive ones, just because, well, I wanted to buy myself a birthday gift slash Christmas gift.

So I invested some money for it, but Makita makes one that's very similar to the Festool. That's much more affordable. And I believe Kreg. Yeah. Kreg also has a track saw. So I would say, look into those two affordable brands. One thing that I've noticed in my work, my DIY work, and my woodworking since upgrading to a track saw is that I've been able to get more repeatable cuts and more accurate cuts. Back several months ago, I built a closet, a walk in organizer in my closet.  This was the biggest thing that I'd ever built before.

So I was a little nervous when I got started and I was afraid that I was going to have a lot of pieces that weren't going to fit and that it just wasn't going to come together. Well, it came together, but there were some parts that were maybe like an eighth of an inch difference in size. So there might've been a little gap here or a little wonky there.

And just trying to get those straight cuts, it was almost torturous. I don't have a table saw. I don't have the space for one. I have two of them actually, but I don't have the space for it to set it up in my garage. So a lot of the times I was using, when building this closet, a circular saw. And it was very difficult to get a straight cut.

I had to make, you know, these little wooden jigs just to get it to go straight. And it was just, it was crazy. You can look at the video down below and see some of the things I had to do to get a straight cut, but, and there's tools and accessories that can help you. But I would highly recommend that, if you're someone who wants to spend a little bit more money, I would definitely look into a track saw because they just help you get such an even clean cut that it almost makes it that you don't even want to use the circular saw to cut, or even a table saw, which you know, has kicked back.

And I feel could be a little dangerous, especially for beginners. So look into the track saw. Don't be afraid to invest in some accessories that help you to get more of a straight cut and just know that as you move along in your DIY journey, you're going to build lots of things into your workshop. So don't feel like you have to go and get everything.

Like I said, I've been working on with power tools since 2013 and eight years later, I finally decided to invest in a track saw with Festool, and now I'm buying into the Festool line and I love it. And I'm like, why didn't I do this sooner? Oh, that's right. They're expensive. That's why I didn't do it sooner.

But again, there are other brands that you can still get some good clean cuts and be able to get repeatable cuts when you're working on projects without having to spend a ton of money. 

All right guys, this is a lot of information that we have covered and, you know, I don't even know how many of you are still listening at this point.

Are you still listening? If you are, please send me an email or, you know what? You could even hit me up on Twitter or Instagram or anything, and just, Hey, I'm using your, your tips here, your tools. Or send me a message,

yes. I'm listening to the whole thing. It's good information. I would love the feedback. 

But you know, one last thing before we wrap it up. A lot of using power tools comes down to being comfortable with them and it's okay to be afraid of them. I still remember there were certain tools that I was afraid to even use like a miter saw.

And we didn't even talk about that today. We'll talk about it in another video. But I remember being afraid of a miter saw. I'm still nervous to use a table saw and we did use it in my carpentry class a couple of times, but it’s the fear of the unknown, you know, what are those little nuances of rules that pertain to this?

And that's why I say it's so important to read the manual. I should have said this early on, but I'll tell you now. Always read the manual because there's always things that come in the manual that come with the tool that you're not aware of.

So if you read that, it'll give you an idea of what you should be looking out for, or make sure that you always do this or don't do that. So read the manual, make sure you understand it. Watch a few videos before you actually use a tool so that you understand how it's put together. What are the different features of it, and you can utilize that tool to the full capacity and do it safely?

And also here's one thing I have to point out. If you are afraid to use something or let’s, say you're going to, make a cut and something doesn't feel right. And you're like, I don't know. I don't feel like this is going to be a safe cut. Listen to your gut. This one time I was using a miter saw trying to cut a piece of round PVC.

I think it was about a four inch pipe. And it was not pressed up against the fence. It didn't seem like I had a good grip on it. And my hands weren't close, but it wasn't, it just didn't feel right. And I tried to make that cut and it just. It's like flew out across the garage. And I thought, oh my gosh, like it scared the crap out of me, but I knew for a fact, even before I made that cut, you know what? This doesn't seem safe. I don't think I have a good grasp on this. It's not supported properly. So if you're going to do a cut it seems like maybe your hands are a little too close or it seems like it's moving too much and you feel like that's not a safe cutting position or whatever it is,

listen to your gut. Usually your gut will tell you, you know, I think I need to put another clamp down here, or maybe I need to support this a little bit more. So always listen to your gut when you're using power tools. Be safe. And once you understand the tool and you know what to do and what not to do, it's really not that difficult because as long as you're following the rules of that tool all the time, no exceptions, you'll be fine.

You'll be fine. And when you start to deviate away from that, or you feel like you're rushing, that's when you make mistakes. So I will tell you this, if you are brand new to using power tools, the first thing for you to do right now is to click the link down below, watch the video on how to use a jigsaw and, email me any questions that you have, you can email me serena@thriftdiving.com. Send me an email after you've watched it. Send me an email and let me know if you found that to be helpful in helping you get along with power tools. I'm going to leave a link down below with all the things mentioned, but this has been a really great episode.

And I hope that this is something that will spark you in your love of power tools, because I can tell you, I love tools so much. I love them just, Ugh. All the accessories, like just go into the home improvement store is just, I could be there for hours just looking at stuff. 

Anyway, for Episode 13, next week, we're going to be talking about, “she sheds”. That's right.

I told you before, I've got a huge "she shed" that I'm getting built in my backyard because I don't have enough space in my garage. There's bikes and lawn mowers and everything that I'm stepping over. So I am getting a 16' x 26' shed in my backyard, strictly for projects and woodworking and office space.

Can't wait, can't wait. So I'm going to give you an update on that next week, but also, we're going to talk about how to navigate this process of getting a “she shed” in your backyard. How do you do that? And what are the considerations that you have to keep in mind before you jump into adding something in your backyard?

All right, guys. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, go to the podcast on Apple. Go to Google, leave a review, leave a written review. Let me know what you think of this. And I will see you next episode.