12 Woodworking Tools Under $20 That Are Great For Beginners

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Woodworking is one of the oldest professions around, and a surprisingly exciting modern hobby. Plenty of people have found themselves sitting at home in recent years pouring over new content online and on TV. Across the pond, British television has seen a longtime interest in restoration projects beyond the auto garage and recent additions of woodworking shows hitting the airwaves have augmented that. And plenty of YouTube channels dedicated to the craft are equally (if not more) prominent both in the U.K. and across the United States, driving plenty of new and eager woodworkers to the craft. Working with your hands to create something is always worth your time, but for many people, time and money act as sometimes overbearing obstacles.

Fortunately for those interested in woodworking, there are actually quite a few solid options at low price points that can help breathe life into this rewarding hobby. Whether you're coming to the craft in awe of the recently deceased Thomas Moser's iconic chairs or as a practical matter as you look to build something for your living space with your own two hands, a variety of tools will help set you on the path of a crafter. Woodworkers will need some equipment that might cost a bit more (although a selection of tools under $50 can get you started), but plenty of crucial gear is actually quite affordable. These pieces of gear set the tone for your journey, and they don't cost much at all!

Carpenter pencils are a little different than the typical pencil you might use sitting at a desk. The Nicpro Carpenter Pencil is a mechanical pencil specifically designed for while woodworking. The elongated barrel allows you to use the pencil as a marker in recessed areas, and it features a sharpener, so you can keep the tip as a neat point to always deliver precision marking on your workpiece. The set features two pencils, a black and red option, and the package features 26 refill cartridges in three colors.

Being able to mark your workpiece is vital for basically every sort of woodworker, and without a purpose-built pencil for this task, you may actually be hindering your ability to perform exacting measurements and specific cuts. A pencil that isn't sharpened properly or a bulky, traditional carpenter's pencil can offer up a decent starting point here, but when it comes to precision measurements and cutting requirements, an elevated tool is critical to getting the task done right. Fortunately, this pencil set is available at Amazon for just $9.

Anytime you work with MDF boards and other unrefined, softwood materials, there will be a tendency to finish the outer faces with a veneer that elevates the whole project. In many cases, these veneer materials will mimic hardwood like oak, walnut, or teak. If you ever built a piece of IKEA furniture, for instance, you'll understand what these veneer materials can accomplish. The chipboard construction of IKEA gear is finished off with these laminated veneer sheets to provide a visual styling that's much more appealing than a basic coat of paint slapped on top of the basic construction material.

Whether you're refurbishing an old IKEA piece or building something on your own with plywood, MDF boards, or even chipboard materials, edge banding is often an important final step. This stylistic veneer solution is frequently applied with the help of an iron, but to get the job done right you'll frequently want to leave a little bit of material overhanging on the edges. The alternative is likely to leave you undershooting the edge and leaving some of the underlying build material exposed. To clean up this additional wastage, you'll need an edge banding trimmer. Fortunately, this finishing tool can be found at Amazon for $8, providing solid value at a low price.

Irwin is a tool brand many woodworkers trust implicitly. It's certainly one of the best hand tool brands around, and it's a unicorn of sorts, in that the manufacturer (one of many brands owned by a larger conglomerate) offers both low prices for most of its equipment and a high quality standard that professionals and DIYers alike can rely on. A combination square is a critically important tool for woodworkers for a spate of reasons. The Irwin 12-inch Combination Square is made with stainless steel and features an easy sliding rule with a level built into the handle. The nut at the bottom of the slide allows you to lock in a measurement so that you can make repeated marks on multiple boards (or the same board multiple times after a series of cuts).

The tool is critically important in getting precise 90-degree and 45-degree marks on boards and other work materials you may be using. A combination square can even be used as a depth gauge in certain circumstances, expanding its functional range in the process. Irwin's combination squares come in 6-inch, 12-inch, and 16-inch varieties. A short combination square has its place in your workbench, but a longer tool is also important for plenty of tasks you might face. All three are available at Amazon for less than the $20 price cap here.

A bench plane is one of the core pieces in a woodworker's toolkit. If you're just starting out on your woodworking journey, you might not want to splash out on something from, say, Lie-Nielsen for almost $400, for example. Instead, sticking with a low cost option aimed at entry level woodworking is your best bet. The Amazon Basics No. 4 Adjustable Bench Plane costs $20 and is a fantastic choice as a cheap tool to get your bearings with. The tool features a 4.3 star rating across more than 3,300 reviews. This suggests that the tool is more than capable of acting as a starting point for your woodworking journey. The adjustable frog and open handle design make this plane an approachable option for novice woodworkers and a customizable solution that can work in a pinch if you need a temporary stopgap replacement.

It's worth noting that many woodworkers will want to invest in better quality tools as they start to get a handle on their process. It's entirely possible to find a vintage Stanley hand plane at a garage sale or flea market for around the $20 ceiling guiding this tool exploration (although some setup should be expected). Old Stanley hand planes are the gold standard when it comes to this type of woodworking tool. They were produced in largely the same basic blueprint for over 100 years, and lots of cost-effective, stunningly beautiful old examples remain viable to this day. I found my own 1930s era Stanley No. 5 (a slightly larger plane) on eBay for a bargain years ago.

Much like the humble combination square, a 3D Multi Angle Measuring Ruler is a vastly underrated woodworking tool that you can pick up for cheap. This tool is available at Amazon for $14 and delivers tremendous performance across three dimensional measurement demands, and then some. Naturally, it's a phenomenal tool for transferring lines around squared edges of boards. It also features 45 and 90-degree functionality to help in precision layout tasks. Etched measurement scales along each of the edges give it the ability to deliver precise measurements no matter which part of the tool you're working with.

Because it's laid out with 90-degree angle moving around the corner, this tool can also be used to square up boards as you're building cabinets, walls, or installing a range of other integrated pieces of furniture. This makes it a high quality solution for doing finish carpentry as well as precision woodworking. Often, DIY enthusiasts will wear multiple hats and tackle jobs across a range of segmented specializations. With a tool like this, you can tackle a wide scope of project with confidence and the tools that will help you get the job done right.

Safety equipment should be high on your list of tools and accessories. Keeping yourself safe and healthy throughout your workflow will help you to keep coming back to the workshop for more. Whether you are professional who tackles jobs on a daily basis or a weekend warrior who only gets out to the garage to build something every once in a while, safety gear lies at the heart of performing whatever task you're eyeing up.

Offered by one of the random letter brands on Amazon, the "Gzfdyw" Respirator Mask and Safety Goggles Combination Kit brings nearly all of the essential safety equipment you need for your face (the only thing left to cover is your ears) at a great price. Listed for $18, this kit includes safety goggles that will help protect your eyes from flying debris and a respirator mask that will prevent you from breathing in chemicals that you may use in your standing process, dust from sanding or cutting tasks, and more.

Woodworkers who frequently build things for their own homes will often need to venture into the carpentry world to finish off their project. You might be building a coffee table or bookshelf, and find that you want to add drawers or doors to the finished product. Woodworkers often fashion themselves as problem solvers, and the crossover into a territory that often features heavily in cabinetmaking and other carpentry tasks isn't a big deal. But a task that isn't typically involved in woodworking comes with the need for a bit of practice — or a jig that can help minimize costly mistakes.

This is where the Punch Locator Drill Guide Jig for Cabinet Hardware comes into play. Listed at Amazon for $10, this jig helps you find the centerline on your workpiece. Instead of measuring and calculating, the jig does all of the work for you. Sliders and locking screws help dial in the perfect positioning for your drill markings. Then, with the included drill bits or your own, creating the pilot holes necessary to fit hardware or expand upon your creation with doors and other implementations becomes far easier.

A glue bottle is an incredibly important woodworking accessory tool. It makes jobs orders of magnitude easier, no matter what type of woodworking project you've dug into. Alongside cutting and fitting joints in boards, gluing components together is the backbone of woodworking. Utilizing screws and other fasteners can sometimes be warranted, but in many cases, woodworkers try their best to avoid these kinds of solutions when building their creations. Instead, using mortises, dovetails, and other intricate joinery is both a practice in securing boards and the representation of a skill that a woodworker has developed in their craft. But no matter how solid a joint might be, it requires glue, and sometimes a wedge, to hold the pieces in place for the long haul. 

A precision glue bottle like the Milescraft GlueMate 450 Precision Glue Bottle helps prevent messy work that has to be cleaned up later on. It's available from Amazon for just $6 and will help save on material costs by limiting the amount of waste and glue you use and keep your pieces cleaner.

The PowerTec Abrasive Cleaning Stick for Sanding Belts and Discs is another tool accessory that's easy to overlook. An abrasive cleaning stick doesn't seem all that important, but it can be a game changer in your workshop. The premise is obvious once you understand what your sander and sandpaper discs do to the wood they come into contact with. Sandpaper features a rough grit that cuts into the wood, extracting what ultimately becomes dust particles from the surface of your workpiece. These particles get trapped in the sandpaper, clogging the pores of the gritty surface in the process. After you've used a piece of sandpaper for long enough, it will feel fairly smooth and stop cutting into boards altogether. Instead of throwing this sandpaper disc away, using a cleaning stick remove the debris from the paper allows the grit to become unclogged. As long as you don't tear the sanding disc, an abrasive cleaning sticks can refresh each one as many as three or four times.

For $8 per stick, you can extend the life of your sending discs by a huge margin. Rather than spending a large portion of your woodworking budget on new sandpaper material, keeping one of these cleaning sticks on hand allows you to reuse old disks far longer than you'd ever think they could stretch.

A card scraper works much like a hand plane, draw knife, or spokeshave, but it takes up very little room in your toolbox and is typically less expensive, because it doesn't include any precise detail work in its build. A card scraper looks much like a business card or debit card, but is made from steel and features a precise edge on the bottom. The DFM Tool Works Precision Card Scraper can be found at Amazon for $14, and features a 2.5-inch width and a 5-inch length. It's made from carbon steel and delivers excellent cutting power in a tiny, precise package. The scraper features 0.032-inch thickness and can be easily sharpened to retain the edge through long term usage.

A card scraper is often a better solution than using sandpaper when taking a minimal shaving off the surface of a board is required. It can also be advantageous to use a card scraper rather than a hand plane in some instances, especially when tackling short boards that might be hard to navigate even with a little block plane. Keeping one of these in your toolbox adds versatility to your work finishing capabilities. They're easy to use and a cost effective and durable solution to a range of requirements.

Woodworkers using power tools often prefer corded power over battery-operated solutions. Instead of running out of juice and having to recharge your battery or swap one out (leading to the need to keep multiple on hand), corded power is reliable and consistent, no matter how long you use your tools. It's also an unavoidable power source for larger, floor tools. Because a woodworker isn't as likely to tackle jobs on the move, frequently keeping to their workshop while performing their craft, portable power can actually be a hindrance.

The Wen 15-Amp Momentary Power Foot Pedal Switch acts as a power interrupter of sorts for your tools. In the same way that a guitarist might introduce a volume pedal to their board to create hands free volume swells in their playing, a woodworker can utilize a power pedal switch to keep their tools in an always-on state and then step on the pedal to initiate its use when necessary. When used with a standard power tool, it can prevent unwanted tool initiation, even if you pick up a drill or saw in a way that would otherwise accidentally activate it. However, its primary function is for use with hands-free tools like a drill press or scroll saw. Rather than having to hit the switch to activate the tool, you can simply step on the pedal to start your device.

The Jorgensen Mini Surform Shaver Plane is different than the typical hand plane you might have experience with. This type of plane features precision ground teeth and is stroked across a workpiece in the same way that you might use a rasp or file. Surform planes take a thin shaving and are frequently used to clean up edge pieces. A standard bench plane can serve as a quick remedy for a cupped board or an uneven plank with one or more large high spots, the mini surform shaver, however, is a tool used to shape small segments of a workpiece, and particularly around curved edges or intricate patterns.

This surform shaver is $10 on Amazon and can expand your finishing capabilities in a meaningful way. Traditionally, the only way to get around corners and curves is with a draw knife or spokeshave. But these tools take off material much faster than the surform shaver. They also require a bit more skill and finesse, making them less than ideal in the hands of a novice woodworker. However, whether you're experienced or new to the craft, there is a place for the surform shaver in your toolbox.