WOODWORKING

ESSENTIALS

BY SCOTT GIBSON

Setting Up Shop:

Placing Machinery

In a much earlier era, cabinetmakers didn't spend much time worrying about where to put machines in their shops. They didn't have much to work with. A small shop might have had a communal lathe turned by an apprentice, but artisans worked mostly at their benches with hand tools. Period drawings of these old shops make it clear just how far we've come.

Anyone setting up shop these days can choose from a tremendous variety of stationary and portable power tools. Manufacturers from Pacific Rim countries, from the United States and from Europe, all competing in a world market, have helped to keep tool prices stable. New designs are safer and more innovative. It's good news for someone just getting interested in the craft.

Finding the right spot to set up shop, covered in Chapter 1 of this series (issue #156), has a way of helping us decide which tools are most important. Small spaces dictate a very careful selection of essential tools. A larger space invites more freedom. But either way, figuring out exactly where to put those tools is an essential next step.

No two woodworkers are likely to agree on how a shop should be organized. The "best" arrangement depends on a variety of factors - what's being produced, for example, as well as individual work habits. That said, no matter what the shop, machinery should be arranged to eliminate extra

steps and extra work while leaving enough elbow room for both safety and comfort.

Machinery Essentials For a Small Shop

Woodworking can cover anything from turning wooden pen bodies to building an armoire or a Windsor chair. What we make will help shape the list of machine tools we invest in

and how we organize them in the shop.

At one end of the spectrum are woodworkers such as Alan Bradstreet, a Maine professional who turns out a single product - bookmarks made from thin strips of cherry. Every machine in his shop is part of a well-organized progression that transforms blocks of scrap cherry into finished bookmarks. Every tool is devoted to this end, and all of them are precisely placed for efficiency.

One of the luxuries of a large shop is having plenty of room to set up woodworking equipment without feeling crowded. Smaller shops require more discipline in choosing and placing equipment. This is the nearly 3,000-square-foot shop of Scott Phillips of the PBS television show "American Woodshop."