I used a table or contractor's saw, a small drill press, a router with a circle cutting jig, a planer and a jointer to build my smaller telescopes. The smaller of the two is almost entirely red oak, the larger one has a tube made of cherry while the base is Baltic Birch plywood. If you are going to build a Dob with the usual Sonotube, you can skip the planer and jointer for now, but if you plan to do any woodworking with hardwoods or rough sawn lumber, you'll need them.

Along with those tools, my tape measure, steel carpenter's sqaures, biscuit jointer and a variety of clamps were essential to the success of these telescopes. I finished both of them first with a small orbital sander, then a final pass by hand with a sanding block. I finished them with exterior Polyurethane applied with a high volume, low-pressure sprayer.

I've done a lot more with these tools than build a couple of telescopes. I've made bookcases, TV stands, even a full sized dresser from Brazilian Cherry, Lyptus and White Oak. While I'm no Norm Abrams, it works well and cost me at most a third of what a similar dresser would sell for new at a furniture store. The materials came to about 600 dollars, including the supplies such as glue, sandpaper and paint thinner. Woodworking is a good way to make gifts for family and friends too.

Taras