I think to start off you can do the work without having the power tools. If you have wood or acrylic pieces around there's no reason you can't shape those into scales with a little coping saw and sandpaper. This'll save you a lot vs. buying premade scales. For the pins you just need a small hammer, pair of dikes and a file, just like pfries showed.
Wood is easy - a piece of 2" rosewood or equivalent (and already 1/8" thick) will cost you a few bucks for a few feet. You can make a lot of scales from that. Look for acrylic in clipboards or just about any other plastic item thats long enough for what you need. Someone metioned sign companies have scrap lying around.
At least doing it like this you can practice (as I do) with very minimal outlay in money. Also take a look in the restoration area of the forum and there's a sticky on where to get all restoration related items...