I like Tony's list-- good information, and good advice.

Here's another take on the "basic tools to get started", only more
project-oriented in nature.  This originally came off the OldTools list,
posted by Walt Barry (another guy I really miss from the "old days") about
6-7 years ago, and I converted it to HTML and added some basic CAD drawings.

http://www.brendlers.net/oldtools/table/table.htm