Workshop Basics

Home workshop guides

Twelve practical guides, roughly in the order most people need them.

Each guide stands on its own, but they are written to work together. If you are starting from an empty garage or shed, read them from the top: planning, safety and the first hand tools come before power tools and the finer skills.

Planning and safety

Empty single garage with a concrete floor, a bare workbench along one wall and daylight from a side window

Planning a workshop

Space, power, light, ventilation and damp in a garage or shed.

Safety glasses, ear defenders and a disposable respirator mask hanging from a hook above a workbench

Safety and PPE

Eye, hearing and lung protection, dust classes, guards and push sticks.

A grey metal-clad double socket mounted on a blockwork garage wall above a workbench

Electrical safety

RCDs, extension leads, overloading and when Part P applies.

A random orbital sander connected by a grey hose to a wheeled dust extractor on a garage floor

Dust extraction

Capturing fine dust at the tool, extractor classes and clean-up.

Equipping the workshop

Chisels, a block plane, a combination square and a marking gauge laid out on a pale wooden bench top

Essential hand tools

The short list of hand tools worth buying first, and what to check.

A cordless drill-driver and a corded jigsaw resting on a sheet of plywood beside a coiled cable

First power tools

Drill-driver, jigsaw, sander, and choosing between battery and cable.

A solid timber workbench with a thick laminated top and a front vice in a daylit workshop

Workbench design

Finding your bench height and building a top that stays put.

Hand tools hanging on a wall of timber French cleats above a workbench, with chisels in a slotted rack

Tool storage

Cleat walls, drawers, edge protection and keeping the floor clear.

Skills and maintenance

A combination square held against the edge of a pine board with a fine knife line scribed across it

Measuring and marking

Reference edges, knife lines, checking squares and story sticks.

A chisel held in a honing guide on a flat sharpening stone with a film of water on its surface

Sharpening

Flat backs, bevel angles, microbevels and testing the edge.

Assorted wood screws, round wire nails and wall plugs sorted into compartments of a clear organiser

Screws and fixings

Screw sizes, drive types, nails, wall plugs and outdoor fixings.

A cloth wiping a light film of oil onto the sole of a steel hand plane on a workbench

Tool care

Keeping steel rust-free and lithium-ion batteries healthy.

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