[anymouse123456]

Whatever you do, do not get suckered into buying a bunch of machines right at the outset. They're loud, expensive, often dangerous and there's no limit to how many you might need.

Start with small projects and hand tools. People have been building beautiful things with a small variety hand tools for centuries and the lack of noise alone changes the entire experience.

I spent a couple years buying books and watching YT, especially Paul Sellers[0] before building anything at all.

The reality is that fine woodworking is a craft and takes years to master (I certainly have not mastered it), but one can create objects pretty quickly that feel wonderful to hold.

When you do get down to buying machines, a decent track saw can be much more versatile (and space efficient) than a table saw for a first purchase. FWIW, I have both and use the track saw 2-3 times more frequently because it's easier (though much slower) to safely and accurately break down large sheet stock. It's also the only Festool product I own.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/@Paul.Sellers

[mattbrewsbytes]

I'm going to counter this with a simple "I ain't got time for that". The "that" being hand tools. I did take a course from Roy Underhill and loved the crafty vibe of hand tools, even bought a No. 4 smoothing plane in the shop above the classroom that I use occasionally. My personal preference is to use power tools for the majority of work because hand tools take too long to learn in order to get good output. Given that its a hobby for me, I don't have a lot of time for projects so I want to complete them and not spend all my time just getting better with a hand plane or a chisel. I am impatient.

Another personal anecdote is having a US software engineer salary provides for a tool purchase not being a big deal. There are tons of people that have expensive hobbies like photography, guns, drones, 3D printers, etc. so to me I'd rather buy a $600 planer than have to hand plane boards to make a desktop. I did discover a Milwaukee track saw recently which hands down I should have gotten years ago. So I will agree that should be the first purchase for someone starting... you can likely use that for almost all use beginner use cases that might call for table or miter saws.

[anymouse123456]

Yeah, thanks!

These are good counterpoints people should hear.

I definitely use both kinds of tools.

Part of my position is that I was surprised at how efficient and accurate I'm able to be with a Dozuki hand-saw and chisels for dovetail joints.

I'd say hand-tools are more about the process and machine tools are more about the outcome.

I'd encourage people to choose a direction based on their interest, rather than budget (which I didn't say before).