Setting Up Shop: The Practical Guide to Designing and Building You - Softcover

Nagyszalanczy, Sandor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1561588385 ISBN 13: 9781561588381

Publisher: Taunton Press, 2006

Synopsis

To a woodworker, there is nothing more personal than the workshop. Creating your ideal sanctuary involves hundreds of practical decisions from where to locate the shop and which machines and tools to buy to where to put the lights and electrical outlets.

With the expert advice of professional woodworker and author Sandor Nagyszalanczy, you'll make the right choices to fit your space and budget. Detailed illustrations and useful tips help you handle every job, from insulating walls and organizing storage to installing dust collection. 'Shop Profiles' give you a look inside the shops of well-known woodworkers, so you can see how they've tackled common shop problems.

With all the ingenious solutions in Setting Up Shop, you'll never run out of ideas for improving an existing shop or planning the shop of your dreams.

About this title

Review

Setting Up Shop is designed both for professional craftspeople who often have the poorest and most sparsely equipped shops because they are too busy to make improvements, and for hobbyists and weekend warriors who need a shop for entertainment as much getting work done. Author Sandor Nagyszalanczy does a good job of pointing out the relative benefits and drawbacks to various shop configurations and locations. In fact, one entire page is devoted to a chart comparing shops located in attics, basements, garages, or a spare room in the house, and how each rates for various factors, including noise, dust, headroom, access, structural limitations, heating, cooling, and moisture. This is a great how-to book with very useful topics in each chapter, including upgrading your electrical system; making sure you have the proper lighting, heating, and ventilation for your shop; picking the right tools and brands; deciding where to place machines and tools, benches and work areas; ensuring shop safety; methods for collecting dust; and more.

Each chapter is personalized with a visit to the shop of one craftsperson or another. The journey is made better by more than 240 color photos, as well as a healthy dose of black-and-white photos and line drawings. In the end, of course, the definition of a good or a smart shop is fluid, depending on its primary use and the need to change things from time to time. And both professional and hobbyist woodmakers can have as much pride in their shop as they do in a handmade chair. Nagyszalanczy has worked out of the same shop for nearly 20 years and admits that he takes offense when someone refers to it as a "garage." "You have to follow your heart as well as use your mind," Nagyszalanczy writes, "when transforming a simple building that others might call a shed or a garage into what you proudly call your woodshop." --John Russell

About the Author

Sandor Nagyszalanczy of Bonny Doon, California is a professional furniture designer and freelance writer, photographer and consultant. With nearly 25 years of experience building custom furniture, he is a former senior editor of Fine Woodworking magazine and has appeared on The History Channel's "Modern Marvels" and ABC Television's "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings." Sandor has authored and photographed nine books published by the Taunton Press, including: Woodshop Jigs and Fixtures, Fixing and Avoiding Woodworking Mistakes, Woodshop Dust Control, The Wood Sanding Book, The Art of Fine Tools, Setting Up Shop and Power Tools: An Electric Celebration and Grounded Guide, The Homeowner's Ultimate Tool Guide, and Tools Rare and Ingenious.

Edition details

• Publisher: Taunton Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1561588385
• ISBN 13: 9781561588381
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 240