Setting Up Your Own Woodworking Shop

I found this book very helpful for me in setting up my woodshop for the first time. It is well organized, easy to read, and I find that as my range of skills increase, I go back to it again and again looking for new ideas. It offers both in price and function, a wide variety of examples of workbenches, shop layouts, storage alternatives, and shop equipment. I found the many pictures throughout the book, enlightening, interesting, and instructive. If you are just getting started and don't have a good idea on where to begin, this book is a great choice and an excellent value.

This author has a wonderful writing style - provides information with style and humor. Diagrams, photos, drawings and a superb depth of knowledge from Bill Stankus made this book a great resource. Highly recommend.

I recently read this book and was pleased with its content. It covers all of the basic decisions one must make in setting up a woodworking shop. I particularly liked the way the photos depicted both store-bought items as well as woodworker-created ones. This trend allows one to see fancy expensive benches made in Europe as well as fully functional, creatively constructed benches built on a budget! The only real downside to this book is that its 1993 publication date means that it is starting to look a bit dated. While the photos are of excellent quality, they are all black and white. The tools in the photos were all top of the line in their day, but many are very dated now. All in all though, this is still a viable source of information for the beginning woodworker, or anyone who is looking to outfit a woodworking shop for the first time.