“The first one is the sanding machine, which is a huge part of the job when you're building a table,” Liam says. “One thing is you have to be able to sand flat. If you have a really small sanding machine, not only is it going to take you a really long time to sand a big surface, but it's also going to turn out more wavy. This one has a nice big head and is packed full of power, so you can sand through a lot of material in a short amount of time.”

“The main feature is a random orbit sanding pattern, which is good for sanding up to a fine level,” he explains. “But it also has a second function where it just spins in a straight circle, which allows you to be quite aggressive and take off a lot of material quickly.

“In the beginning, I was working with a lot of rough timber and making live-edge tables, which is why you need to be able to remove a lot of material fast. So that was the most important tool in the workshop.”

“If you want to make a tabletop, you have to be able to cut boards with a very straight line to be able to glue them together,” Liam says. “That's where this one comes in. You have the saw with a metal track that it runs down.”

“Again, it's got a lot of power. Saws and moving blades were the scariest things for me when starting woodwork, but with this one, the power distribution is very stable, so you don't get the jumping around and aggressiveness that you experience with some other machines.”

“This one is just practical: the dust collector,” Liam says. “You don't think about it at the beginning, but if you don't have enough dust collection, the job becomes not only dirty but unhealthy because you're constantly breathing it in. Having good dust extraction is key.”

“It's always the same with Festool—it's about the amount of power and the durability. It gives you incredible suction out of a small machine, allowing you to work cleaner and to a higher level.”

“DeWalt is a good company. They make strong products, so that's the one I went to,” Liam says. “This one is a very entry-level planer,” Liam says. “If you're taking rough boards, you need to be able to flatten the top and bottom surfaces before you do anything else. That's the machine that does that.”

“As soon as I could afford to, I upgraded, because the job of cutting a large surface that's 12 inches wide takes a tremendous amount of power,” he adds. “This specific product is better suited to thinner boards. The other problem is that we only work with hardwood, and that wood is incredibly tough to get through. This machine is more suited to construction, softer woods, and thinner boards, so it has its limits. For setting up on a budget back in 2012, it was a good go-to product.”

“Bessey is a good company that makes clamps,” Liam says. “Once you've done all the work to the boards and need to glue them up, you need that compression to squeeze the boards as closely and tightly together as possible.

“These are very good because they're flexible. You can basically buy the tube that connects the two clamps at any length, so you can glue very wide tabletops together as needed.

“They can be kind of difficult to operate when you're a single person in a workshop because they are all individual clamps, but it's a very strong product.”