Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Using Woodworking Tools

Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Using Woodworking Tools

Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Using Woodworking Tools (Complete Illustrated Guide Series) (Hardcover)

by Lonnie Bird

Quote from Book: "THE MATERIALS we select, the tools that we use, and even the space we work in combine to dramatically shape our woodworking..."

Topics Include: router lift, sawing curves, pinch rods, distance your hands, lateral adjustment lever, grind angle, wing cutters, quirk bead, cap iron, scratch stock, miter gauge, socket chisels, infeed table, quartersawn lumber, bench chisels, molding planes, outfeed table, fine joinery, bench planes, winding sticks, curved stock, clamp pressure, vacuum press, dado head, benchtop models

From Book News, Inc.
In this step-by-step pictorial reference, Bird, a long-time contributing editor to American Woodworker, explains how to use all the tools found in a modern woodworking shop, and offers advice on choosing the right tools for the job, setting up a shop, and basic and special operations. Some 850 color photos and b&w drawings illustrate how to use hand and power tools and demonstrate effects and results.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Book Description
The author of The Shaper Book, The Band Saw Book, and The Complete Illustrated Guide to Shaping Wood, Lonnie Bird now brings us Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Using Woodworking Tools. Here the reader is given a step-by-step guide that covers the essential techniques for using hand and power tools. Along with over 900 color photographs and illustrations, a correct set-up, safe use of machines, and skillful use of hand tools is also included.

Starting Out Right

It's not like me to wax poetic over a an introductory how-to book, but Lonnie Bird's tome on Using Woodworking Tools really is one of the finest effots I've ever seen. Taunton continues to set the bar with their 'complete illustrated' guides, but this one is exceptional for even that series.

The book offers 15 chapters divides into parts - 1) Wood and the Shop, 2) Outfitting the Shop, 3) Benches, Clamps, and Assembly, 4) Hand Tools, and 5) Power Tools. Each chapter lays in the basics and then goes on to provide a good deal of insight into the less obvious things one can accomplish with a given tool or process. The end result is a book that works at a beginners level, but retains its worth well into advanced woodworking.

Excellent illustration and layout are the standard here. I have a long standing gripe with books that use good looking models posing around brand new equipment, usually in the wrong position to do what they are attempting without losing a finger. One look at these photos, and you know you are in someone's shop. Not a new shop, but one that has come together over time, with an owner who values good tools new or used.

The text is thoughtful, straightforward, and well-written. In fact the only flaw in Using Woodworking Tools is that it is a bit more costly than many introductory books. But it has far more lasting value than most of its competition. I would rate this a best buy for the both introductory and shop reference use.