12 Of The Best DeWalt Tools For Woodworking

Over the course of a typical day in the workshop, a woodworker might reach for a dozen or more tools. Both hand and power tools frequently come together to support the needs of a woodworker's charge. Whether the task for the day involves a few cuts and gluing or the finishing touches on a new table, box, or chair, plenty of support systems feature in assisting the skilled hands of these creators.

The DeWalt catalog is one of the most comprehensive options for woodworkers seeking high quality gear in support of their aspirations. From precision cutting solutions to nail sets and layout tools, DeWalt offers a full range of equipment to get the job done. Some of the tools here, like DeWalt's 12-inch miter saw, will feature in DIYers' home tool kits, as well, but each of the 12 tools listed below deliver specific hand or electric power modification to help you rip boards, cut precise joints, measure critical dimensions, or hold your workpiece. Each of these tools offer essential functionality in the woodworking arena and can elevate your workshop significantly if you're currently working without one or more of them.

Starting with a chisel set offers an important foundational piece (and can frequently be found in sets for less than $50). No matter what kinds of projects you will work on as a woodworker, the need for a quality set of chisels remains high up there. Cleaning up joinery is a standard practice for woodworkers. Regardless of the tool you use to make an initial cut, there will virtually always remain a requirement to pare down the material further or clean the surface for a smooth connection in the joint.

The DeWalt 4-Piece Wood Chisel Set is a solid option here. The blades feature a chrome, carbon steel build that looks great and will provide long lasting durability. Carbon steel is ideal for holding a sharp edge for longer, and it can resist damage from routine use and even contact with other tools or drops better than other material options. The blade is also lacquered to resist corrosion, and the handles are built with a contoured grip to make using each chisel more comfortable over a long day of precision woodworking. The blades run from a small, ¼-inch chisel up to a 1-inch option and each one features a hardened strike cap so that you can use it with a hammer or mallet or with a controlled push stroke alike.

When it comes to power tools, there's perhaps no other solution in the world of woodworking as versatile as the table saw. Track saws offer a decent alternative, but the ease of this mainstay in the shop is truly unrivalled. Sawing boards along either the long or short length, in addition to some resawing tasks, can be accomplished with this single tool. Unlike the miter saw or even a circular saw, all manner of static cutting can be accomplished with a table saw.

The DeWalt FlexVolt 60V Max Table Saw features a 24-inch grip capacity that can be used to shear through 4x8 plywood sheets. This makes it a solid jobsite option and one that can support an expanded array of fine woodworking tasks alike. Unlike some other table saws in the category, the rip fence runs the entire distance from front to back, allowing you to lock in your width setting to support numerous repeat cuts. Running on DeWalt's FlexVolt platform, the table saw can utilize power from a variety of DeWalt batteries, while offering the same reliable cutting power as a corded alternative. Rounding things out, this table saw features a metal roll cage base that allows for greater stability when in use and improved durability over the standard plastic construction.

A pull saw is a frequent find in woodworking tool boxes, even if it might seem like a weird tool at first. The pull saw delivers a cut that is initiated on the pull stroke rather than the standard push that western saws typically orient their teeth in line with. The DeWalt 10-Inch Double Edge Pull Saw features two sets of cutting teeth, one with a fine finish layout for precision cutting and a coarse tooth build on the other for rough cuts and faster sawing speeds. The flexible blade allows you to make fairly flush passes and blaze through a workpiece with greater ease and less rigidity in your stroke. The saw offers a 10-inch length for ample cutting capacity across a variety of use cases from small board cleanup to larger ripping tasks.

A pull saw is a tool that many woodworkers gravitate toward because it offers a change of pace from the standard hand sawing routine, and because these saws often provide a greater range of functional application. Importantly, many woodworkers will have both types on hand to tackle specialized job requirements. However, the pull saw allows you to dial in a greater range of tooth orientation angles, tilting the blade up or down to cut on either end of the board or directly across its entire face. The natural geometry of this saw means that finding your line or making adjustments can be done on the fly and without hesitation or hassle.

Another saw that should catch your eye from DeWalt is the Double Edge Flush Cut Saw. Seemingly much like the pull saw above, this smaller iteration with a similarly flexible blade cuts on the same pull stroke, but offers a different approach to the task of making cuts in workpieces. While a standard pull saw is a solid addition to your toolbox for tackling all manner of hand sawing requirements, a flush cut saw is a much more precise instrument. This tool features a 23-point tooth build for clean, quick cutting. The double sided blade offers tooth geometry that bends in each direction, allowing you to make cuts from either the right or left side, depending on your handedness and other realities of any particular cutting demand you may face.

A flush cut saw is a critical tool that can't be replaced in cutting tasks that involve dowels, wedges, and other components that stick up above a flat part of the workpiece that you don't want to damage. With another kind of saw, tooth geometry and the overall build of the blade can end up marring the surface of your workpiece as the back end of the blade or the side of its face comes into contact with the wood. A flush cut saw is built differently, allowing you to trim off excess material without adding any extra damaging contact points to the equation.

The quintessential workshop tool, DeWalt's 13-Inch Three Knife, Two Speed Thickness Planer is a mainstay in any woodworking setting. The corded tool features a 15 amp motor that delivers 20,000 revolutions per minute. The tool's two speed gearbox allows you to shift the feed speed for faster shearing of boards that only need a slight plane or slower cutting for a more in depth process. The tool's three knife cutting head offers a 30% improvement to the life of this essential component, and changes are done easily and with great speed when a swap eventually becomes necessary.

Unlike a hand plane, a thickness planer is a power tool that can help you flatten boards quickly and deliver consistent parallel faces on the opposite side. When used in combination with your table saw and sometimes other tools (like a jointer, if your finances and shop are lucky enough to support this professional-level addition), planing boards to feature parallel sides and four 90-degree corners along the entire geometry is achievable. With the addition of a thickness planer, you can amplify the output of your workshop immensely. Confidently achieving immaculately planed boards allows you to impart extreme precision in your finished products, and the best tool for this change of pace is the thickness planner.

Glowing language about the thickness planer aside, a hand plane is an equally valuable asset in any woodworking shop. Naturally, DeWalt also makes a power tool that can augment or even replace the vintage Stanley unit you picked up from a garage sale. Of course, there's absolutely room in your shop for hand tools and electric variants alike but when working through a lot of board preparation, an electric planer is a welcome addition that can really speed up your workflow. The DeWalt 20V Max XR Brushless Cordless Planer features a 3-1/4-inch width and depth adjustments that are tuned to extreme precision. Adjustments come in 1/256-inch increments, allowing you to dial in the exact cutting parameters that you require for any board you may be processing.

The cordless planer is lightweight, clocking in at about 5.5 pounds, and operates on DeWalt's standard 20 volt battery system. Fast cutting and incredible efficiency across a lengthy day of planing stubborn boards can make your stock processing tasks far less tedious. Unless you are a committed hand tool-only woodworker, adding an electric hand planer to your arsenal is a no-brainer.

The speed square naturally finds a home in virtually every tool user's catalog of equipment at some point or another. Speed squares (also known as rafter squares, as is the case in the DeWalt product range) are primarily used to perform layout work on angled building components. From that purpose, the speed square has branched out into a layout tool that is relied upon for square cuts, angled precision, and marking up boards along their long edges and more. Today, just about anyone you meet on a construction site and in any woodworking shop is likely to have one in their tool belt or very close by.

The DeWalt 12-Inch Premium Rafter Square is a quality option among critical marking tools. Naturally, the square features all the hallmarks of a prototypical build. It offers a lifted edge that allows you to stick it flush against the end of the board. This helps create a perfect 90-degree angle to aid in straighter cuts when dimension lumber down to size. The measured notches that run along the 12-inch rafter square also allow you to quickly zip the tool across the length of the board, striking a line at one of many, tight incremental waypoints along its precision rule. This is a feature that allows you to accurately mark out where a rip cut along the length of a board needs to be made. The rafter square features an extra thick extruded aluminum body that can be confidently used as a saw guide and the base features an improved grip as a result of its enlarged size.

The DeWalt 20V Max XR Brushless 5-Inch Variable Speed Random Orbit Sander Kit is a natural addition to this list. Sanders are a key resource in any woodworking setting. Whether you're painting, staining, or leaving a board with an unfinished face to preserve its natural qualities, sanding the surface to smooth out the feel and take away imperfections that may have been added by your hand (or imbued in the wood during its growth) is a natural finishing step. There's not much that needs to be said about a sander, because it's a tool that truly speaks for itself.

Even so, not every sander is built to last. There are many types of sanding tools, including random orbit sanders, belt sanders, and even bench top units that require you to bring a work piece to the sanding solution rather than the other way around. A random orbit sander is one of the classical solutions that just about every woodworker will know and love. This DeWalt asset features a brushless motor and a variable speed control that ranges from 8,000 to 12,000 orbits per minute. The kit features a soft sided carrying bag and a battery and charger. This allows you to get started right away with the tool rather than needing to add a battery to your purchase separately.

Much like the humble sander, a router is a tool that can be found in a number of overarching builds, and it's a power tool that woodworkers frequently turn to when tackling the finishing touches on the project. The DeWalt 2-1/4 Horsepower Corded Router with Three Base Kit is a well-rounded solution for a range of router requirements. The kit features a hard shell case and a corded, 2-1/4 horsepower router unit. It features a 12 amp motor with an electronic variable speed control. The router is powerful enough to tackle softwood applications and dense hardwoods alike.

Rounding out the kit, DeWalt adds three base units to help support any application you might require with the tool. The kit features a fixed base, a plunge router accessory, and a D-handle base. Precision depth adjustments and a smooth movement in the plunge tool accessory make for a versatile cutting solution that can be used to tackle all kinds of requirements. From channeling grooves out of workpieces to rounding over edges, this router kit allows you to go about your tasks in any way that works best for your personal preference.

DeWalt's 3-Piece Bi-Material Nail Sets are an important accessory tool for all kinds of woodworking and other building applications. These are essentially punch tools that can frequently be used to mark boards for drilling purposes, but their primary function is for use in sinking nail heads beneath the surface of the board. Placing the nail set on top of a nail (or screw, for that matter) that has been driven into a board gives you an extension solution. Rather than having to strike the board at its flush surface in order to drive the nail deeper into the material, you'll strike the nail set which will transfer this impact energy directly through the solid steel core and blast the nail head with the full power of your swing.

That might not be useful to some woodworkers in their primary application. Many people operating in this passion space will use joinery and glue rather than nails and screws. However, their functionality as a durable punching tool makes them a useful accessory for a wide range of applications in marking and manipulating boards, well beyond their primary function as a basic setting tool for fasteners.

It's entirely possible to manage your woodworking journey with a table saw and no additional powered cutting tools in your stable. But relying on just a single powered cutting solution for dimensioning boards to support your build parameters is a great way to frustrate yourself and derail your adventure before it really gets off the ground. In many cases, woodworkers coming to the craft will be transitioning from other areas of the building landscape. No matter your entry point, one of the earliest power tools that many people add to their shop, garage, or shed is a miter saw.

But replacing the old, small-bladed unit that you may have grown up alongside is a great option when it comes time to get into hardwood utilization and more precise detail work. The larger blade allows you to cut larger stock, but it also can be a useful solution to deliver greater precision in your work and cut down on tear out and other problems that can introduce themselves. The DeWalt 120V 12-Inch Cordless Double-Bevel Compound Sliding Miter Saw Kit is a great solution, either as a first miter saw or a major upgrade to an existing unit you may have been using before. The tool features flexible power, sharing compatibility with corded operation and cordless use. The Cutline blade positioning system and miter and bevel scales allow users to dial in extreme precision in their cutting. The miter scale features eleven positive stops and the sliding functionality helps deliver smooth cutting through even large and wide boards.

Finally, there's always room for more clamps in your collection. Clamps are critical for everything from glue ups to holding a workpiece still as you cut off waste components. You'll always find a use for an additional clamp in a woodworking shop, even if you already have plenty of them. Regardless of your experience and the size of your collection, a set of clamps is frequently the best option when adding to this part of the shop. The DeWalt 4-Piece Trigger Clamp Set features two 6-inch clamps and two 12-inch clamps. 

It offers a great starting point for new woodworkers and a solid addition opportunity for those already sporting at least a few in their collection. The trigger grip functionality allows you to quickly clamp down on a workpiece, and the reinforced nylon body provides more than enough strength to hold a piece tight even when it's clamped down with extreme pressure. The medium clamps feature a 2-7/16-inch throat depth while the larger accessories offer a 3-1/4-inch depth alongside the wider gripping availability.

The tools and accessory solutions featured here include both hand and power tools. A number of featured tools, like the table saw and thickness planer, are often thought of as shop essentials for woodworkers who have grown beyond the early phase of their career. As a result, many hobbyists may not already have access to these kinds of power tools. In addition to crucial transitional gear like this, hand tools that form a foundational competency with wood stock are also highlighted. A flush cut saw is simply a must-have hand tool when working with wedges and other joint fastening solutions in this area. At their core, each of these tools deliver critical functional expansion to a woodworking shop that can help propel a practitioner forward on their journey.