This Thanksgiving, we’re thankful for many things here at Frank Shatz and Company. Our family, friends, co-workers, clients, to name a few. But there are just some things that we truly can’t live without; our tools. Without our tools, we could never make our vision and creative ideas become a reality. So this Thanksgiving, we are thankful for all of our tools, but mostly these 5.

1) The Chisel

It’s such an old school tool, yet it is so important to us. Cleaning out joints and saw cuts, cutting notches, mortise work, door hinges, it’s an extremely useful tool. The chisel allows for power and control because you use both hands when using it.  And by using a mallet or even your hand, you can add the necessary “oomph” for some extra power. We love the chisel because it allows our perfectionist tendencies to flourish.

2) The Block Plane

The block plane is key to being versatile in our woodwork. It can do so many things; flatten a piece of wood, curve a piece of wood, square your work, smooth, shape, the possibilities are endless. You can perform very fine work with the plane by measuring the blade at around 1/64″, or you can use it for more general work by measuring it at 1/16″. Either way, it’s an essential tool on our bench.

3) The Compound Miter Saw

We’re old school, but we also love POWER! And the miter saw is one of our favorite power tools. We produce a lot of crown molding and other such projects, so we constantly need a compound miter saw. Nothing compares to the precision of a miter saw for those combination cuts.

This saw saw can bevel up to 45 degrees, and can cut at a 60-degree angle in both directions. The bevel on the saw gives us the ability to tilt the saw when making a compound cut, which means that we can cut 2 angles with one cut. With many different saw blade sizes, the miter saw is one of the most versatile and powerful tools we have.

4) The Drill Press

While a power drill can do a LOT of things for us, sometimes there are situations that require something a little more precise and powerful, and that’s where the Drill Press comes in. The drill press gives us the ability to do precision drilling and make extremely accurate large-diameter holes. Our favorite feature of the drill press is how we can set the depth of the hole. This is especially useful when you have a number of holes you need to drill that are all the same depth. We can also use all types of bits in our drill press such as Forstner bits, hole saws, and spade bits. The drill press makes drilling wide diameter holes much easier than doing it by hand, and for that we are thankful!

5) Safety Equipment

By far, our safety is the most important thing to us. We all have families and loved ones that we want to go home to after our work day is done. Having a strict and very clear safety policy is our top priority. A lot of the work we do is extremely precise and dangerous, so we need to take the necessary precautions to make sure we all stay in one piece. Safety glasses, ear plugs, push sticks, saw guides, feather boards, proper lighting, and many more things keep us safe all year round.