This may sound a little silly, but one of the reasons we bought the house we did is because it had a room in the basement right off the garage that I could use as a shop. It's not big enough (they never are), has no windows, and isn't hermetically sealed from the rest of the house, but all in all even after almost 10 years I get along just fine down there. Got speakers in the shop and the stereo in an adjoining room - and there is almost nothing I like better than going down there, putting on a some weirdo music with a big dumb beat that is generally banned in the rest of the house, and building things.In terms of tools, I know there are lots of folks out there who are incredibily picky about tools. Not me. I have reached a certain station in life that allowed me to some time ago declare a strict moratorium on cheap tools, but for the most part if it gets the job done I'm happy with it.
I got a generous head start in both this hobby and my tool collection through my grandfather (and in some cases his father before him). He'd worked in construction when much younger, and always had an abiding interest in carpentry even into my adult life. I remember being thoroughly entertained as a young child taking his tools and the scraps of wood he'd give me and trying to bang something together. The odd thing was that nothing was off limits - anything I wanted to mess around with he'd be happy to let me mess around with - and when I think back on what I did to his chisels, planes, etc. I cringe. What a doting and generous granddad! (I'd have smacked me into next week myself) When he died none of his heirs expressed much interest in any of his tools, so I pretty much inherited the whole mess. Over the years I've added substantially to what he left me, and replaced a great deal of what he had - but still, many of the tools I use today were his. He was one of my favorite relatives, and a real gem of a human being, so I derive no small amount of pleasure from putting his tools to good use. I like to think he'd be happy too.
The most important tool in my shop has got to be my rather mature Craftsman table saw. Many thanks to my childhood neighbor Margot Fowles for bequeathing it to my family, and many thanks to my father for schlepping it all the way from New Jersey to Colorado for me. Next most important is my radial arm saw, followed closely in recent years by the band saw and both the thickness planer and the jointer.
The introduction of random orbital sanders about a decade ago revolutionized the way wood is finished - and I love mine. But in recent years as the quality of my joinery has improved (and the fussyness of the pieces has expanded), I find myself relying less on the wholesale reduction of wood fiber to dust that a power sander represents, and much more on a simple sanding block and varying degrees of fine grade sandpaper.
Other power tools that see lots of use are a router, drill press, and belt sander. I also have a lathe, but that's a whole 'nuther skill set that I have yet to really explore. To my way of thinking, that sort of thing is what retirement is for. Actually, I can't wait.
I can't speak highly enough of what one can accomplish with a set of sharp chisels. Other hand tools that see lots of use are an ancient combination square (always, always at hand), an equally ancient compass, those same hand planes I beat the hell out of all those years ago, various smaller squares and triangles, a vernier caliper, and of course, reams of paper, lots of sharp pencils, and a calculator.
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