Unnecessary Tools
The most useful purchases may not be the most costly
Synopsis: Mike Dunbar advises the purchasing woodworker to ask questions first: Does your woodworking really require the tools you think you need? Are there less expensive and more efficient alternatives? Can you learn a skill and save yourself some money and space? Then he reviews four influences that mislead us into buying the wrong tools. One he calls the Tim Taylor effect; the others are the how-to TV-show effect, gadget fascination, and the good deal.
Is there any woodworker whose shop does not have lots of tools that have been used once or twice and are now gathering dust? That woodworker will not be found around here. Like everyone, I have bought my share of tools that I do not use—an often expensive mistake. When students ask me how to avoid buying such a mistake, I tell them this story:
In the mid 1970s I was the chair maker at Strawbery Banke, a Williamsburg-type museum in Portsmouth, N.H. However, I was not an employee, and I was allowed to work in whatever manner I chose. I did not have to re-create the past.
I worked in a one-room shop, about 14 ft. by 14 ft., where I made two chairs each week, always following the same schedule. Every Wednesday morning I cut out the seats with a 25-in. bowsaw. Without fail, one of the tourists would say to me, “You need a bandsaw.”
If I was in a good humor—about 50,000 people a year passed through my shop, and I had trained myself to ignore heckling and inanities—I would patiently explain as follows. “No, I don’t need a bandsaw. I cut out two chair seats once a week. The bowsaw is as fast as a bandsaw, so I am not going to need it for more than 10 minutes. After that, it is returned to a nail on a wall, where it takes up no space in this very small shop. If I had a bandsaw, it would take up about a square yard of precious floor space. My bowsaw cost me only $45. A bandsaw would cost about 14 times that much. So, as you can see, I don’t need a bandsaw.”
Today, my wife and I run a school with 16 people per class, all of them cutting out their seats at the same time, so we do need a bandsaw. We have a 14-in. Delta on the classroom floor. That is the key. Before buying a tool, ask yourself several questions.
From Fine Woodworking #139
For the full article, download the PDF below:
Fine Woodworking Recommended Products
Ridgid EB4424 Oscillating Spindle/Belt Sander
Festool DF 500 Q-Set Domino Joiner
Suizan Japanese Pull Saw
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