Customer Reviews

Setting Up Shop: The Practical Guide to Designing and Building Your Dream Shop

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As a library administrator, and avid woodworker, I get to see and read a lot of woodworking and shop building books. This is among the best I have ever read. I even purchased a copy of this one for myself. I was really impressed with all of the common-sense advice for day-to-day problems encountered in any workshop. Many of the other workshop books on the market are either too simplistic, or serve only to showcase famous woodworking shops without detail. This book gives all the nitty-gritty that you will need to set up or rework your dream shop. It definitely helped me.

I have to disagree with the other reviewers that this book only
has info for folks with cash to burn. There are a lot of great
ideas that can be implemented at all sorts of investment levels.
And a number of the shops they feature are not crazy "dream"
shops -- there are several one-car garage and basement shops that
are quite reasonable for any person who is serious enough about
having a shop that they'd actually go to the trouble of buying
a book about setting that shop up. And I also have to say that
this book is much more practical than "The Workshop Book" in the
Taunton Press Workshop Classics series. While I love the latter,
this book has more information about electrical wiring, shop
lay out, bench ideas, and storage. If you are serious about
setting up your first real shop, this is the book you should have,
period.

I have always considered myself to be proficient at getting things organized and not having too many regrets afterward. I work more happily and efficiently when things are properly setup. This book answered several questions that I was considering in reworking my shop/2 car garage. The author provides you with the thought processes not exact layouts or locations for equipment. The author covers the advantages and pitfalls to various shop problems and locations. He effectively covers working with what you already have and does not necessarily recommend building a shop from the ground up. Mr. Nagyszalanczy does a commendable job of getting you to think through your needs and habits, along with his insight ( and examples of others' shops ) to set up a functional, habitable and not necessarily costly work shop. This book saved me time, money and some amount of frustration and embarrassment. Well worth it.

This is a nicely photographed book that is loaded with features. It has several profiles of shops from people you've probably heard of (Sam Maloof, James Krenov, etc.) so if you've ever been curious about the shops of top woodworkers this is a good book. It has some basics about electrical and lighting layout, but not nearly enough about machine placement and fitting the shop to your existing space. I wanted to optimize the use of space in my basement shop (with support pillars in the middle of the space) and didn't get much guidance. Given that most non-pros probably work in the garage or basement, there should have been more dedicated to this kind of space. Still, it's a good volume and probably more useful to someone looking to remodel or build new.

It is difficult to properly review this book. If one is used to the superb works usually presented by Taunton Press, Setting Up Shop is a disappointment. Not because the information is inadequate; far from it! Sandor presents solutions to problems you wouldn't have thought existed until they jumped up and bit you on the nose. How much insulation should you have in your new shop? How do you keep the cords from wrapping around your legs and dropping you into the whirring tablesaw blade? Did you even know it could happen? It can. Sandor Nagyszalanczy will help you avoid disaster.

Unfortunately, I cannot give a full five stars to this book because it's layout is, basically, odd. References to other pages in the book are wrong and you have to hunt before and after to find the chart, reference, picture, etc. you wanted. The text seems to disappear around a photo and reappear on the next page where you wouldn't expect it. Very, very annoying!

Still, I learned an enormous amount and so will you. There is golden data hidden here but it is well worth the search.

I am a beginning cabinetmaking student at a local community and technical college here in Minneapolis, and because I know I have much to learn before setting up my own work space, I decided to do some research on the topic. Setting Up Shop: The Practical Guide to Designing and Building Your Dream Shop by Sandor Nagyszalanczy is a lovely book on the subject. The photos are wonderful, and some of the shops are not so much places of work but an expression of lifestyle! Particularly beautiful, though by no means the most clever, are those pictured on pp. 15, 58-59 and 84-85.

On a more practical level, the book deals with important issues that need to be taken into consideration prior to putting a shop together. There were a number of points that had not occurred to me before I read the book, and that despite their fairly obvious nature-like dust control and ceiling height and the effect of hard floors on joints.

I already had a good idea of where my first shop will be-my basement--and the book provided me with some of the issues most likely to arise out of my choice of location. Of these noise control, dust control in the presence of forced air heating, ventilation during finishing processes, the limitations placed on movement of materials due to ceiling height, the effect of cement floors on my person, and the scarcity of space for large equipment were important to my situation. The book offers a number of clever suggestions to solve some of these problems, and I look forward to finding others for myself. Some of the designs for shop-made shelves for storage are particularly interesting, especially the pull out style wheeled clamp rack that can be stored out of the way in a narrow otherwise unuseable space.

The book makes me feel more prepared for some of the problems that I will face in setting up shop. It raised my awareness of specific issues, so that I can discuss with my instructor how he has solved some of them himself. That way I can deal with likely pitfalls before I have a basement full of equipment!

I bought this book while I was gutting a small garage and converting it into a shop. This book was a tremendous help -- it had practical suggestions for wiring, walling, layout, equipment, everything. Electrical advice, in terms of how much power to bring in and where to situate plugs and lighting, was really critical to me, and the book helped me avoid a costly and annoying re-do after other pieces had been laid in. It has photos of working shop layouts that are encouraging to the home builder, some of the shops are amazingly compact! Sandor doesn't advocate a fancy shop in any sense -- just one that is reasonably well laid out for the space you've got, and that accomodates the production process you have in mind. If you're about to set up a shop, I would highly recommend this book.

I bought a house with a garage that had been converted to a studio apartment. After a year of trying to make it work as a shop I gave up. I was about to completely gut it and start over (which would be more money than I wanted to spend by a long shot) when I spotted this book. The wide range of shop layouts described and shown in this book completely changed my perspective on the problem. Practical and comprehensive, this book is a gem for those looking to build a woodshop from the ground up or renovate an existing one. I have already put several of the principles in this book to work for me and will spend a fraction of what I would have on the remodeling. Thank you Sandor.

Yep, there are a lot of "dream shops" in this book. But ton's of ideas for those of us that are "monitarilly challenged". I found a lot of good ideas for storage and space utilization from the pictures and text. Admittedly the most of the shop layouts will not work for me, but I can sure use bits and pieces. I didn't buy this book, got it at the library, but I believe I will buy it just as a reference for ideas. Recommend it highly for just this reason.

I've owned a house for about 8 months now and am only dreaming of owning a shop, so I checked this book out of our local library to begin thinking about possiblities. This book was much better than I thought it would be, and I am considering buying it.

Let's face it, no one is going to be able to tell you how to set up a shop. Your situation will be different from everyone else. However, this book will give you a good many ideas and much motivation. It has everything from dream workshops to small shops (even a section on garage workshops, which I liked). It's going to give you an idea where to start and where you want to go. It has everything from the basic tool lists to advanced designs for electrical wiring and dust removal.

Using this book as a resource, one could really build a great shop, or get a lot of ideas on how to make your shop better. The only thing it won't do is tell you how to make the money for all those great tools you will want after reading it!