The Pro Timber Framing Tool Kit + Power Tools is our full timber framing shop in one order. It has everything in our Pro Kit plus the three Makita machines we use in our own shop: a chain mortiser, a 16-5/16 in circular saw and a 12-1/4 in planer. It comes in four versions: an imperial or metric framing square, with a clamp lock or magnetic lock combination square.
You save over $195 with this kit as opposed to buying the tools individually.
The Makita machines do the heavy cutting. The Makita Chain Mortiser 7104L cuts mortises up to 5-1/8 in long, 1-1/4 in wide and 6-1/8 in deep, and turns the slowest part of joinery into minutes of work. Its vise clamps onto timbers from 3-1/8 in to 12-1/8 in thick, the plunge depth adjusts in 1/8 in steps, and a quick lever shifts the chain sideways to widen a mortise. It was the first chain mortiser we bought for our shop, and with good maintenance the original is still in use. The Makita 5402NA Circular Saw (16-5/16 in) cuts 6-3/16 in deep at 90 degrees, through a 6x timber in one pass, and has an electric brake and a 32-tooth carbide blade. The Makita KP312 Planer dresses a full 12-1/4 in width up to 1/8 in deep per pass, so one pass per face handles most timbers. All three are corded: 10.5 amps on the mortiser and 15 amps on the saw and planer.
Two MHG Messerschmidt Timber Framing Chisels (1-1/2 in and 2 in) and the Wood Is Good Mallet (30 oz) do the chisel work, from cleaning out mortises to cutting joints by hand. The MHG chisels are German framing chisels with 7 in blades, 18 in overall, hardened to 61 HRC over the full working length, on oiled ash handles in steel sleeves. The 30 oz mallet has a lead-plugged urethane head that absorbs shock and will not split a chisel handle, and it is the mallet we recommend to nearly everyone driving framing chisels. The MHG Timber Framing Slick (2 in) pares wide surfaces flat. Its canted blade gives your knuckles clearance, it is made in true inch sizes, and like every slick it is pushed, never struck. The Robert Sorby Bevelled Skew Framing Chisel Pair (1 in, one left and one right) handles detailed paring and fitting. The chisels are made in Sheffield, England, with 9-3/4 in blades on ash handles, and their side bevels let you undercut.
Two hand planes trim and finish the joints. The Stanley No. 60-1/2 Sweetheart Low Angle Block Plane is 6-1/2 in long with a 1-5/8 in A2 iron bedded at 12 degrees, the low angle that suits end grain, and an adjustable mouth. The Melbourne Tool Company Low Angle Smoothing Plane does the final surfacing. It is a bevel-up plane with a 9-5/8 in sole, a 2 in M2 high speed steel blade on a 12 degree bed, and a fully adjustable mouth.
The Wood Owl Tri-Cut Auger Bit (18 x 3/4 in) bores with a drill, and the Centering Mirror helps you bore square without a drill press: sight the bit against its reflection, and when the two form one straight line you are at 90 degrees. The circular saw makes the big cuts, and two Japanese pull saws finish them by hand. The Gyokucho Ryoba Saw (300 mm) has rip teeth on one edge and crosscut teeth on the other on an 11-3/4 in blade. The Z-Saw Universal Kataba Saw (300 mm) has no back spine, so it cuts to any depth, and its teeth handle rip, crosscut and angled cuts.
The Shinwa Japanese Framing Square (16 x 24 in, imperial or metric) lays out the joints. It is stainless steel with deeply etched graduations and carries the rafter table, brace table and octagon scale, and we put it in our kits because it is truer than the common hardware store square. The Kapro Combination Square (12 in) checks square and sets depths. The clamp lock version (Kapro 352) locks the blade with a traditional clamp, and the magnetic lock version (Kapro 325) holds it with magnets so it stays where you set it. A Stanley FatMax Tape Measure (35 ft, 1-1/4 in blade), a Lutz 357 Utility Knife, the Olfa 34B Stainless Craft Knife for precise marking, and three black Shelter Institute carpenter pencils finish the layout tools.
When it is time to raise, the Lug-All 2 Ton Cable Hoist Come Along gives you the mechanical pull to draw joints tight. It is rated 4,000 lb on a double line with 10 ft of lift, and it is made in the USA with an aluminum frame and a handle that bends before the hoist is overloaded.
For sharpening, the kit includes our Shelter Sharpening Kit, the setup we teach in the Purely Post & Beam Online Course and our in-person courses: a glass plate with sandpaper, a Veritas Mk.II Standard Honing Guide to hold the bevel angle, and a leather strop. We add 12,000-grit aluminum oxide for the final polish and a cleaning rag. Kurobara Japanese Camellia Oil (245 ml) keeps rust off the chisels, slick, saws and other carbon steel, and it will not dry or gum. The hand tools pack into a Bucket Boss Extreme Big Daddy Tool Bag: 26 in long, 30 liters, with 25 pockets and a PVC-reinforced bottom. You will need a drill, or a hand brace with an adapter, to drive the auger bit's 7/16 in hex shank.
It pairs with our Purely Post & Beam Online Course. For the hand tools without the machines, see the Pro Timber Framing Tool Kit. For a smaller set, see the Complete Timber Framing Tool Kit, the Starter Timber Framing Tool Kit or, for a first weekend project, the Weekender Timber Framing Tool Kit.
Pat and Patsy Hennin founded Shelter Institute in Bath, Maine in 1974 to teach people to build their own homes. They built their early frames outside on their farm, and Pat recalls that their most important tool was the framing square: they used it to scrape the ice off the beams.
