The Workshop Book: A Craftsman's Guide to Making the Most of any Work Space (Paperback)

by Scott Landis (Author) "For years, the makers of period furniture have decried the lack of reliable information about the roots of their craft..." (more)
Key Phrases: outfeed table, workshop tradition, short stock, Roger Heitzman, Mac Campbell, Paul Silke (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Here are visits via text, color photos, and diagrams to a variety of woodworking shops that turn out products ranging from kitchen cabinets and chairs to window frames and guitars. In a chatty style, Landis ( The Workbench Book , Taunton Pr., 1987) describes locations, layouts of power tools and benches, machinery, buildings, and storage arrangements. Most of the shops visited are commercial (i.e., providing full-time, profitable work) and range in size from a single person to a crew operation. The professional woodworker planning to build a shop or to improve current conditions will find much of interest here. The home hobbyist owning mostly portable tools, or even a combination system like a Shopsmith will gain only a few ideas. For libraries with a large professional woodworking clientele.
- W.T. Johnston, formerly with Coastal Plain Regional Lib., Tifton, Ga.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description
"This may be the first and only (book) to take a hard look at the layout of the woodworker's workshop".--"Booklist". 301color photos. 70 drawings.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Taunton (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561582719
• ISBN-13: 978-1561582716
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #326,232 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing if you're looking for practical advice, May 15, 2001

By A Customer

I found this book disappointing, but perhaps I was looking for the wrong things in it. I was hoping for some guidance and information on setting up a home workshop, but that's not what I found.

The book is a sort-of survey, sort-of essay on workshops of various kinds, including historical shops dating back hundreds of years. There's a lot of discussion of how various workers have set up their shops, but the descriptions are overviews lacking in much detail. And many of the shops described are atypical in one way or another. For example, the author returns over and over to the couple who turned their entire two-story house into a guitar-making shop, with separate rooms for shaping, finishing, wood storage and the like. Interesting, but not very helpful to me.

If you're looking for a portrayal of, and a lot of discussion about, workshops in all their variety, then you may very well love this book. But if you're looking for something that will help you decide how to set up your own shop, you won't find much here.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a great book, December 10, 1999

By A Customer

This book is split into comprehensive chapters on layout, machinery, etc. Covers topics such as ergonomics, workflow, special applications, etc. A practical and useful guide, much better than the workbench book by the same author which basically amounts to a coffee table book with pretty pictures.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Read it in the bookstore before you buy it., November 19, 2004

By	Ryan McNabb (Ooltewah, TN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I did, and decided I didn't need it. There is good advice here - lots of input on space requirements and lighting, but page after page, I was just left wanting something more. The shops don't look "real" to me - they are obviously tremendously expensive and usually look sterile and impersonal. The men in them don't seem to particularly enjoy their work. They all look like a bunch of New York attorneys working in their hobby shops at their Connecticut hobby farms. I know that's not a fair characterization, and was certainly not the intent, but it was my persistent gut reaction. Too many of them looked like Norm Abram's infamous shop where there was a power tool for every purpose. None of them had the warm, inviting glow of Roy Underhill's shop, which draws you in for a cup of tea and joke by the woodstove.

"The Workbench Book" and "The Toolbox Book" were both joyful and gorgeous and pulled me along, but this one just made me feel like I needed to tear my shop down and start over, although that was not what the author was hoping to achieve. But look at it for yourself, at the library, and see what you think, before you buy it.