Joy Dutta’s blog

A workshop, even a small one, should be the heart of every household. Doing regular maintenance and building own furnitures is not only a way to save in the long run, it is one of life’s most important lessons combined with quality time and loads of fun.

Every visit to HomeDepot is a pain to me. Not only that I get stuck over and over again at the tools aisle, I somehow can’t come out without lightening my wallet. According to my friend John, this “common-with-men” behavior signifies I passed the manhood test. For the female species, the same is true with JCPenny/Macy.

I have more or less a compact and functional workshop now, packed within a 5′x12′ storage room. A portable table saw takes most of the space and is the king of my workshop. A powerful shop vac keeps the place clean. A homemade router table with dust collection system added a lot of utility. And just today I added a long awaited drill press.

My workshop is now the most peaceful place for me in the house. I can unleash all my creativity in that space and kill a bunch of time whenever I wish. The big difference of this and my other hobby of photography is that the latter has a lot of dependence on light/timing/events/subjects. In my workshop, any idea can materialize at any time.

I can’t wait to finish a small toy I am making for my 5yr old niece, the game of Abalone. The shape of the board begs to be made out of wood. There are so many gift items that can be made, and I hope it will keep me excited for a long time to come.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006 at 3:19 am and is filed under woodworking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.