Читать книгу The Minimalist Woodworker - Vic Tesolin - Страница 11

INTRODUCTION

The truth about woodworking is that you don’t need a single machine or power

tool to woodwork. There, I said it. What you do need is about 40 square feet

of space for a workbench and some hand tools. That’s all you need to start making

projects out of wood. You can work with even less space if you just want to make

boxes, spoons, or other small projects but 40 square feet is a good start.

And that’s a good thing. Some of us have little room to work with. Living in

apartments, condominiums, and town homes means that we don’t necessarily have

the space for a conventional wood shop. Even roomy homes have basements and

garages that share space with cars and family overflow. The typical machines found

in stand-alone shops are not possible to use in these smaller spaces. And can you

imagine the backlash you would get from a neighbor in an apartment building if you

fired up a router and a shop vacuum?

WOODWORKING VS. WOOD MACHINING

Machines have become a mainstream staple available to almost any consumer at

many different price points. They are so ubiquitous that you can find them at home

centers. And the common belief is that they are required to woodwork.

I must admit that machines are handy, but they aren’t necessary. Machines, to my

mind, are modern-day apprentices. They do the tasks that I don’t want to do. For

example, a thickness planer speeds up the process of dimensioning lumber . . . but

I don’t need one to get the job done. Machines are also quite adept at repeating

operations, which makes them well-suited to production work. If you have to make

25 tables it makes sense to spend the time to set up a machine to cut the joinery.

But what if you are only making one table? In many cases it doesn’t make sense at

all. Most of us are not production woodworkers so why have the production tools?