Subject: The Workshop Book

From: [email-masked] (Mike Nickerson)
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1993 23:34:49 GMT

I am in the process of reading _The Workshop Book_ by Scott Landis, published
by The Taunton Press (ISBN 0-942391-37-3).  The book has some very good ideas
and layouts with lots of little insights for woodworkers.  The main point of
the book is not to find the "right" shop layout but to examine several
different types of workshops which are successful and talk to their owners.  
It is then up to the reader to pick and choose the ideas which will work 
best for them.  I am only about 1/3 of the way through and would already 
recommend it.  I ran across a section last night which I think bears 
quoting in this forum:

"Around the beginning of the century, such luminaries of the Arts and Crafts
movement as C.R. Ashbee and Gustav Stickley argued that basic machinery
should be employed to free the craftsman from drudgery and conserve his 
energy for more creative tasks.  By the close of the century, it could 
certainly be argued that machinery has got the better of us, amateurs and 
professionals alike.  Although many woodworkers begin with hand tools
(often in a junior-high-school woodshop class), they soon "graduate" to
table saws, jointers and routers.  Then after a few years of working as
the machines dictate, they find themselves longing for a smoothly planed
surface or a more flexible routine.

"The fundamental question about machinery is not whether a Powermatic is 
better than a Delta, or whether to buy an American machine instead of a
sleeker European or cheaper Asian import.  The question is rather how 
machinery fits with the kind of woodworking you do and the reasons you
do it.  Tools are seductive - every time you get a new one you wonder
how you lived without it.  But before rushing headlong into debt in search
of the machine that will make you a better craftsman (if you find it, let
me know), try to make certain that you won't regret your indulgence in the
morning.  Think carefully about the things you make, the materials you
prefer, the room in your shop, your proximity to neighbors, your tolerance
for noise and dust, and the size of your budget.  For every major purchase
you contemplate, balance the return against the investment - will it
increase your profit or enhance your pleasure?

"Finally, remember why you started woodworking.  If the process is as 
important to you as the product, think twice about the merits of any 
machine or production shortcut that promises to deliver the finished 
result in half the time.  As James Krenov notes in his book, _The Fine
Art of Cabinetmaking_, despite the small selection of power tools with
which he began, "I did get things done ... the pieces weren't primitive
because of the way the shop was equipped - it's just that they might have
been finished a bit sooner ... I learned more then than at any time before
or since."