Hello,
My name is Mark. I just registered. I've been lurking for a while, and this is obviously a very special forum. Happy to be here. I'm a 50 year old suburban (NY) menace, now practicing law, used to be a carpenter and cabinetmarker (had my own business). I never stopped doing woodworking, but am now ramping it up a bit. More below.
I've been reading Matthew Crawford's "Shop Class as Soulcraft", and it hit a nerve. I have an 8 year old daughter and a 5 year old son, both of whom love to do wood or mechanic stuff with me in my garage. It's mostly a mechanic setup, so the wood machines are secondary. I have a space in my basement that is 16 by 10, with a window, that I decided to turn into a small dedicated woodshop. I know it's small. I will make it work.
The plan is to have a bench on one wall with either a miter saw, a RAS, or both. Probably a benchtop 4 inch jointer at one end. A drill press, a band saw, and a lathe, on the end walls. A benchtop disc/belt sander. And a mobile base small table saw in the "middle" (to one side) (I will make the mobile base.) Lunchbox planer to slide under a bench when not in use. Probably a "top" to afix to the table saw setup as an assemble platform. Lots of hand tools. Etc. DC system running the tube into a separate space. I'm having it all rewired for this.
So here's the question. I love old tools. I have a few -- an old (50's) small Delta table saw, old lathe, etc. I love the idea of a shop set up with 30's to 60's era power tools. And I can do it, it will require some additional "futzing" to get everything set up. The quality and feel of old tools, and the "soul" they impart to the work, is meaningful to me.
On the other hand, new tools, with modern safety features and "out of the box" readiness, are also appealing.
I can't decide which direction to take. I would welcome any thoughts on this. And please, I do not mean to start a "safety" debate. I don't mean to foreclose the subject, but just to be clear -- I am keenly aware of safety issues, having badly hurt myself more than once with power tools. I love my children more than life itself, and whatever they do, they will be closely supervised at all times and made very much aware of safety. Indeed, sometimes I think the older tools without blade guards and so forth teach us more about the meaning of caution and responsibility.
But that aside, really, there are a lot of other "considerations" here. For example, the old tools require some attention to the tool. The newer ones less so. The old ones convey history, the new ones not, etc. And it's a matter of the aesthetic of the shop, and the context of what we will do there.
Any ideas, guys?
Thanks (and sorry for the long first post),
Mark