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Orth Furniture Apprenticeship Tool List

It will best if you can go over this list with David (catalogs in hand) to make sure you are ordering the right tool. Then hang on to your receipts and let David inspect your tools before you use them. This way we can make sure you have the right tool and identify the occasional bad apple before it is too late to make a return or exchange. If you already have a new or antique tool that might work, then discuss it with David before ordering something else.

 

Fine Woodworking tools (companies & catalogs: Garrett Wade, Woodcraft, Lie Nielsen)

#04 smoothing plane - one of the following: Stanley model #12-136 (this is from their new line of high-end planes and look good to me, but I have not tried one - about $150 from Amazon.com), or Lie Nielsen with high-angle frog (If you only buy one top-of-the-line tool, this is the one to get. Look down their options for the #4 and select the "No. 4 Bench Plane with HAF" - the iron version is just fine for about $300.)

Cabinetry chisels (1/8", 1/4" , 1/2", 3/4", 1", 1.25")

Hand scraper (about .031" or .80mm thick)

Cabinet scraper - Stanley #80 (good - about $35), Veritas (best - about $50)

Japanese Dozuki handsaw

Fine and ultra-fine sharpening stones (generally I recommend a soft arkansas and an ultra fine ceramic - 6 inches long is a good size for either)

Spokeshave - one of the following: Lie Nielsen-Boggs Flat, Veritas Flat

General Shop tools:

3/8" VSR electric drill & small set of high speed steel bits

Hammer(16oz)

Pocket knife

Calculator with trig, square root, pi, and fractional functions

Measuring & marking tools:

16ft tape measure

6ft folding ruler (such as natural wood Lufkin, not the white one)

Try square - 3" or 4" engineer's (or equivalent)

Folding bevel - approximately 10"

Marking gauge or mortising gauge

Vernier caliper (this should read in thousandths of an inch - fractions will be a bonus)

Scribe

Exacto knife and a few extra standard blades

Drafting and drawing supplies:

Basic drafting tools (adjustable triangle, architect scale rule, flexible curve, technical pen, compass)

Portable drafting board & T-square

Drawing supplies

12" x 18" newsprint pad

small pad of tracing paper

12" x 18" light sketch (Strathmore Drawing Medium is preferred);

medium sized technical pen

colored pencils

4H pencil

block eraser - art gum type

eraser shield

See below for digital alternatives to some of these design supplies.

Camera equipment:

Camera: A point and shoot digital is fine, but best is a digital SLR with a fast lens - zoom from wide angle to middle range. An entry level SLR will work well, but generally avoid the standard lenses. Lens quality is more important than pixel numbers.

Camera operator's manual - read it and know how to use your camera - preferrably in the Aperture Priority setting.

Tripod

Safety equipment

Disposable nuisance dust masks

Eye protection

Full face shield

Ear protection

Work gloves

Needle point tweezers (Since these are specifically for digging out splinters, don't share them.)

Work apron with pockets (the short type with the crisscross tie in back is recommended)

Respirator as needed (OSHA, for organic solvents)

Digital Alternatives:

If you have a laptop that you can carry around, you might be interested in some of the digital approaches to design, illustration, and photo editing that we can explore during the apprenticeship. Please do not be concerned if you do not have a laptop. Most apprentices do their design work by hand.

DesignCAD (about $70)
This is a powerful little 2D/3D drafting program that can do most of what the $4000 AutoCad can do. If you are interested in drafting on a computer this is a good place to start. I use it all the time for 2D line drawings, but it will also do 3D. Adding color to the printed out line drawings by hand-shading with pencils makes a very nice illustration.

Photoshop (about $600) or Photoshop Elements software (about $100)
Photoshop is an industry standard photo editor that can also be used as an illustrator for your designs. I use it mostly for tweaking my photographs, adding text, and the occasional illustration. Photoshop Elements can do much of what Photoshop does and is a very capable alternative.

If you are ready for a top shelf modeling program, look into FormZ with Renderzone at formz.com. This is the modeling program I use to produce photorealistic images of design ideas. I don't recommend this unless you have had success with CAD and photoediting.