Did I really need all those tools, or

[TGW]

I have notised that any human has an inherent need to cretate something or to shape the environment around you all while making some sort of progress. Some has is to a lesser extent and some to a greater extent but pretty much everyone has it.
I have also notised though this is not yet statistically proven yet that if that need isn't satisfied in any manner there is a significantly increased probability for collecting a depression or mental illness and for drug or alcohol abuse...... and for running like a speeded rabbit from one sex partner to the next in an endless cykle of unsatisfying relationships.

The modern urban consumerist culture often puts up barriers around us prewenting people from creating anything or changing anything or making any other progress than than moving from one boring neighbourhood to the next and from one unsatisfying job to the next all while you go deeper and deeper in debth trying to pay off bigger cars and bigger homes. Then consumerist society fills out the need for stimulation and change with mass produced entertainment services like computer games and television and facebook so you can flee from reality and with shopping where you can pretend that you change something by throwing away what you have and buing new...... and of cause with more or less ludicrous dating sites where you can make "progress" by finding your next temporary partner.

I confess that I sometimes spend too much time on online forums. Essentially wasted time but a human being needs some rest from everyday chores.
I confess that I found the wonderful woman with whom I live at a ludicrous dating site where we were drawn towards one another because we were among the very few who wanted a serious relationship and had at least some blured sence of what the important factors are when you want to get along with one another on a daily basis.
So...... I don't claim to be the perfect idealist. I just want to point out that you don't need to swim in the exact direction of the current.

I have quite a bit of tools and eqipment. Anything from a old 62 hp farm tractor to a 24" planer/jointer combination and a full size industrial stroke sander and a 200 ampere stick welder and plenty of Haki scaffolding and a 14" metal shaper and at least 50 hand planes. I have some land too. Excessive some say. The trendy minimalists say that property both land and movable stuff is just ballast because you can buy what you need when you need it and because your property prewents you from moving around making change in your life. So they say.

On the other hand........ all of my tools and eqipmen has costed me significantly less than the typical person at my age has spent so far on buying and "consuming" cars. All while I have driven the same 1984 model Opel Kadett for almost 20 years (It was my first car when I was 18) and been able to keep it rolling all theese years on the cheap thanks to my tools. With only very rare visits to professional mechanics.
Also in all likelyhood my tools and equipment have also costed less that the typical trendy consumerist of my age has spent on commercial entertainment.
First and foremost my tools and eqipment have earned me money. Without them I would have had less than two months work in all since 1999.
During the hardships that I have been throgh I would absolutely certainly have ended up either as a patient locked into a mental ward or as a homeless addict if I hadn't had the oppotunity to turn all frustration and destructive thoughts into creativity and progress using my tools.
During financially hard times I have been able to turn idle time into productive time making lots of stuff for the home and for the yard and for the workshop.

The difference between being a debth free landowner with tools enough to earn a living independent from bosses and a reasonably well fitted out (so far rented) home and the ability to build a home for us on very small loans is certainly a world away from a homeless drug addict or a patient in a mental ward or even from a destitute worker living from one paycheck to the next with debth way up over the head........
They say it is an unnecsessary burden.........

[hbmcc]

I scored about 30 WOOD magazines for a quarter each. It's a magazine geared strictly to serving its electrified advertisers. The trouble the authors go to in making as many power tools run in the individual articles is ludicrous. Any project smaller than a breadbox required 95% of the time be devoted to building jigs to prevent bits of wood from exploding into shrapnel while power tools attacked them.

No wonder so many woodworkers have a barn full of tailed tools.

[K. L. McReynolds]

I found woodworking really difficult because I was so impatient. I loved metal working, torches, hammers, welders, and so on. Really did not acquire the patience to do woodworking until I was in my 50's. And still too impatient for hand tools. Then formed a remodeling business where speed was a necessity. It was then I learned the value of sanding to a proper level, no matter the time required(but mostly with power tools).

So, most of my tools are tailed.

[®smpr_fi_mac®]

"I scored about 30 WOOD magazines for a quarter each. It's a magazine geared strictly to serving its electrified advertisers. The trouble the authors go to in making as many power tools run in the individual articles is ludicrous. Any project smaller than a breadbox required 95% of the time be devoted to building jigs to prevent bits of wood from exploding into shrapnel while power tools attacked them.

No wonder so many woodworkers have a barn full of tailed tools."


Of my subscriptions, Wood is my favorite. It always has plans that are in my skill set. Of any one source, it's what I've built the most from.

[hbmcc]

Of my subscriptions, Wood is my favorite.  It always has plans that are in my skill set.  Of any one source, it's what I've built the most from.

If I could find a use, some of the plans and projects in Wood would definitely be fun to do. For me doing a project often ends when the design (before cutting wood) is completed to my satisfaction. 

Noise hurts my ears, removes body parts, is dirty, and destroys my project in a fraction of a second. For some the zen moment is growing skinny sheets of toilet paper: shavings. The most pleasure I get in construction is sharpening a cutting edge to a couple levels beyond 'scary sharp'. From my first pocket knife that task always has been my cathartic moment. I cut myself constantly, even while sharpening, but a dull router bit turning at several k a minute turned a chunk of finger into hamburger. 

Hand tools forced me to slow down and perform the needed setup to complete a project task. 

My beef with Wood magazine is the necessity the authors find to justify a machine doing what a hand tool can accomplish so much faster and more safely.

[®smpr_fi_mac®]

I don't see it as you do. Wood is aimed at the majority of hobbyist woodworkers: Tailed tool users.

They have their audience. I hope they remain as such.

[bhh]

All my big stationary tools I bought about 35+ years ago, when I was first starting out.   What I spent on one of them, for example, Unisaw, cost about what some of my co-workers spent on their annual spring golf outing traveling south -- greens fees, drinks and meals out for a week, hotel, travel expenses, etc.  I have gotten much use and enjoyment from it.  Every room in my home and in most of the rooms in my three childrens' homes have numerous things I've made.   I've also built a lot of things for the churches I've belonged to.  I figure my Unisaw has cost me less than 10 cents a day since then.    I have acquired some more equipment since then and all of it used and a big discount or free from friends.  I have bought a few more portable power power tools since then, mostly new, but again some inexpensive used stuff.  I think every once in a while about what happens to it when I'm gone or unable to keep going.  I may have to make an inventory and price list.   Some day.