When I recently "inherited" my father-in-law's woodworking tools, I got really excited about the possibility of becoming a craftsman. I still am. But it's beginning to become very real to me that my dreams are much more dreams than reality. I like thinking about working with wood, but I haven't been doing much actual woodworking. That's why I really enjoyed this book.Setting Up Shop, by Sandor Nagyszalanczy (good luck pronouncing that one) came from our local library just because it looks cool. The subtitle is The Practical Guide to Designing and Building Your Dream Shop. It turns out that it helps if you already have a shop before you start working on your dream. Because I can do a whole lot of looking at pictures and dreaming, but until I have more than a pile of tools in my current garage, it's all fantasy.
As far as the actual book goes, it's fine. Nice pictures, a good description of everything you need for a shop from location to tool layout to storage to ventilation and dust collection. It's a fine thing to check out from the library, and if you're actually in the position with time and desire to actually build your dream shop, it's probably a useful book. For the rest of us, it's a nice way to dream.
