Originally Posted by
Stew Denton
Hi Moses,
Chris Schwarz did much the same thing, and writes about it in his book "the Anarchists Tool Chest," a very interesting read. He kept a few of his power tools, but created a huge amount of room. He also put down wooden flooring and covered the block walls. The result was a really nice looking shop with an openness to it that really looked nice to work in.
Your shop sounds like it will be pretty neat, especially for folks like me that don't have a regular work spot set aside.
As stated above, he did keep a few of his power tools, and discusses which ones and why. For example he kept his thickness planer because he says that he can thickness lumber with planes only, but that there is no harder or more time consuming work in the shop than such. His philosophy, as best as I understand it, is to work smarter, with power tools where they make sense and with those that save a great deal of drudgery, but to have a relatively small number of high quality mostly hand tools, and to build high quality long lasting wooden items that will last for generations.
Cool read, I highly recommend it, especially for folks like myself that still have a lot to learn about fine woodworking.
Stew