I subscribe to his Woodworking Masterclasses. Paul is a guy who has been a woodworker for 50 years, has served out a traditional English apprenticeship, and has made a living and supported his family with his woodworking. He has pieces in the Whitehouse.

His approach is totally geared toward folks with average means doing excellent work with affordable tools.  He is not precious or pretentious like many "fine" woodworkers, but he is also not a, "slap it together with pocket screws and butt joints" type guy.

Veritas planes are massively overpriced compared to Wood River planes, which are overpriced compared to an Ebay Stanley #4...and they all do the same job just as well.

I used to hate finishing, because it took forever for Tung oil, Boiled Linseed oil, and even Danish Oils and wiping polyurethane to dry between coats, and then to finally cure thoroughly for the final sanding.

Now I almost exclusively finish with precat spray lacquer (Sherwin Williams) or sprayed shellac (since I have an HVLP turbine it is convenient).  Both of these dry in minutes. It is easy to apply 4 or 5 coats and be able to do the final sanding/buffing/waxing the same day. I'd suggest the Shellac since it is much less toxic than the lacquer, but I like the lacquer finish a bit better.

Also, shellac smells better than BLO, and as Charles Neil says, "You don't want no stinky drawers!"

Safety glasses!!

And a dust collector.

@planejane to the white courtesy phone.

Have you seen the prices on furniture grade lumber?

Get one of these and it will pay for itself in about a week. $2000

Go here:

Saw Mill Creek

Find woodworking specific forums.

And...drink the green kool-aid if you can afford to!

I've been doing woodwork for about 50 years now, everything from small carved boxes to chairs to large tables on to timberframe buildings. What you plan to build determines to a large degree what to buy. If you are making doll houses you will need a different set of tools than if you plan to make cabinets or other carcass items. If you want to build models of tanks you'll need different tools than if you want to construct backyard sheds or wooden boats.

Do some reading, Fine Woodworking for example. Look on Pinterest or other web site and get an idea which direction you want to go with your avocation before investing in a bunch of expensive equipment you may not need. What you want to build will decide what you should acquire.

This a chair I built for my grandson. I built it using only hand tools.
Attached File

Learn to use hand tools. Power tools were designed to do the job of hand tools only faster. An understanding of hand tools makes the employment of power tools an easier learning curve. One of the best books ever on the subject of hand tools is Aldren Watson's "Hand Tools, Their Ways and Workings" illustrated by the author. Tage Frid's books and James Krenov's are classics as well. Michael Dunbar's "Restoring, Tuning and Using Classic Woodworking Tools" can assist in tuning up any flea market or antique store finds.

One of my new hobbies is wood working. Just a rank beginner, but also doing it out of my garage and things have to be able to get tucked away and moved out when the car needs to come in for repairs or bad weather.  One of my best tools is my newly made woodworkers bench I built using a 6' X 2' Craftsman butcher block workbench top.  Got it on sale for $99 and used 2X4's for legs and braces and added a Rockler end vise and a cheap Erwin 6" on one corner.  Edged it all out with 1x4 red oak.  I've installed castors I can lock down to move it around.

Just got into using the old fashioned hand planes too.  Picked up an old Stanley #4 off eBay and a friend gave me his dad's old Millers Falls 140C.  I've learned that wood you buy is usually far from square or even flat. Most issues I've run into was because I thought my wood was flat and level. Also bought the cheap Harbor Freight hand plane to convert into a scrub plane. Check you tube for how to vids. Lots of great info on setting up an old or cheap plane.
Be warned though, it's a good upper body work out using one.

Some of my go-to specialty tools are my Kreg jigs, Porter Cable biscuit joiner and the router.  My Milwaukee M12 circular saw with a Diablo blade has been a great tool also. I'm running an old, cheap Delta bench top table saw.  Eventually I want the Delta.

Start with a great bench!

Lot of good advise here. As mentioned several times, a good quality heavy duty tablesaw is the heart. Spend the extra money and make sure it has a very good fence. It is a huge pain to have to measure the front and back of fence before each cut. On a budget, I used a circular saw with a homemade tee square for alot of projects. Slow , but works. I later got a delta unI saw with a 52" unifence. Put a 4×8 bench on back side and about a 2' bench on left side. Takes up alot of real estate, but I can run 4×8 sheets with ease.    

I wouldn't pass up used tools. Old delta, powermatic, porter cable. Most of it was bullet proof.I like old senco nailers/staplers, but they do wear out, even with rebuilding.

Clamps, clamps, clamps

Before you go spending lots of money on machinery, figure out what exactly you want to build or think you do.  
Unless you have lots of disposable money, there may be no huge need for certain tools, or the most expensive and top of the line of every type or class of tool.
Maybe you want to do woodturning, or making tables and small cabinets for the home.  Maybe you thiink it would be fun to make chairs.
Maybe you would like to rely heavily on hand tools - but don't get som wrapped up in only hand tools like so many hipsters - who fail to realize that woodworking shops in the 18th and 19th century used you apprentice boys to do all the grunt work like dimensioning boards.  They were the table saw and jointer or thickness planer back then.  One guy dudn't generally do it all.

Maybe think of taking a woodworking class or two.  Some last a weekend, others for a week.  I have been taking classes in various chair making for several years now.  To me, it is a relaxing week away from work.  And some are in some nice locations.   Too bad Mike Dunbar retired - I really liked visiting the NH seacoast.  And at the end, you will have a chair that ought to outlast you and maybe your great great great grandkids, at least.  

And always buy the best tools you can afford.  Save a little longer if you have to.  And there are lots of fine old hand tools on ebay.  You can't beat old chisels like witherby or buck cast steel, stanley 750s, barton, HI White, and more.  
If you want a good joinery saw, you cannot beat Bad Axe saws made by Mark Harrell.

Before going out and buying a bunch of tools (especially jumping in with $600 sliding miter saws or anything silly) figure out what you want to build. Then off to Youtube and watching some videos to see how things get done.

If it's furniture, that's probably one of the more expensive ways to start. While a tablesaw is quite nice to have, you can do a lot with a decent circular saw and some edge guides. Add in a router, simple miter saw and that's all you need to build a bookcase out of plywood and trim stock found at the local big box store. Add in a few cheap chisels and a cheap block plane and you're off to the races.

Once you start moving into the higher end of things you will want to start milling your own lumber, which is where having a jointer, planer and bandsaw come in quite handy.

For my tools, I started with a Dewalt miter saw, Ridgid table saw, and a cheap router and have gone from there. Some purchases I made intending to upgrade in the future but I needed a cheaper version of that tool to start (like my table saw) but if I bought a really nice one I would only have that one tool and nothing else.

I've been at it for 40 years, great hobby. Since the age of 13 I've learned much. Starting out by making end tables is a lofty goal I fully support.
I would recommend a low cost wood working course at local Jr. college, no credits, just good ol' boys who got it going on...I see them all the time near me.

Beyond that, lots of great forums online these days, I don't buy magazines anymore now that we have this thing called the interwebs.

Final note? Buying a table say you say? This is your second purchase , and this is the third...

By the way, it takes a good 15 minutes for the pain meds at the ER to stop making you sound like you have torrets

As long as it's a pre-WWII Stanley, yes.

I have a 3, 5, and 7 Stanley planes all tuned up. I enjoyed the restoration, so it makes it that much more rewarding when I use them.

Lie-Nielsen are overpriced? Partly agree. Same could be said with many rifle manufacturers too...

Alternatively, since you're just starting out, find a Craftsman table saw on Craigslist. I found an older cast iron '113' saw with a 1.5HP (marked as 3...) motor for under $200 - and that included a dado set. I tossed the old blade. I'm still under $250 with the new Diablo thin kerf combo blade.

Not the best saw, not the worst, and no plastic where it counts. Plenty of videos on youtube on available upgrades.

I figure I'll use this saw until I either get skilled enough to get a spendy saw, or I'll get past my woodworking phase and i'm not out a lot of money.

m

Thank you

I have 3 Stanley Bedrock planes, which is the design Lie-Nielsen copied  for his planes:





See how the sides are cut off flat?

If you're going to buy an old stanley plane, IMO you might as well spring for the Bedrock versions

I love my Wood River planes though. Coupled with my second attempt at a shooting board, they rock.

I like my Wood River block plane better than my fancy Veritas, I like the lever action cap better than the thumbscrew.

If you have black rifle disease tendencies, you'll eventually end up with Lie-Nielsen, Veritas, Wood River, Stanley (although I like the plain Bailey design better than the Bedrock), old wooden planes, HNT Gordon, and a bunch of others.

Eventually you will decide for yourself what you like, whether you like tapping with a hammer to adjust a plane, or prefer a mechanical adjuster. I also have an Scott Meek smoother I was sure I'd love, but the dark wood of the sole marks up any lighter colored wood like Holly or Maple, so it pretty much sits on the shelf like a Bren Ten without a magazine.

By flattening the sole and switching to a Ron Hock or Lie-Nielson blade, a common vintage Stanley plane can be made to perform very well.

They can be made to perform very well with the thin factory iron, as well.