Make: Tools: How They Work and How to Use Them (Make: Technology on Your Time)

This book is a gem. If you're lucky, you learned these skills by osmosis when you were young. Too many people (myself included) did not. This book is perfectly structured to teach a young adult, new homeowner, eager parent, or someone in search of an open-ended hobby. The chapters sequentially introduce new skills, with achievable projects that will lead to new ideas of your own. For the tools needed, specific manufacturers and part names are suggested, but the author freely admits there are several varieties, and favors none. There are well-written asides to add depth to your understanding, and direction for where you might gain even more knowledge. The style of writing is so good that you can picture the author sitting with you, talking you through a project and sharing what he knows--patiently, eagerly, and humbly.Children learn by playing--doing something, adjusting, trying again, not particularly concerned with the final result, just enjoying the process. It's harder for adults to learn. We don't like the embarrassment of being unskilled; we want the rapid good outcome, and we don't always have open-ended time to practice and explore. This book will make the most of your time, with a minimum of perceived embarrassment, and a make an achievable and respectable final product.This book is ideal for those who want these creative, constructive, and useful abilities. Maybe you'll work through these chapters and projects with your children. You can. Maybe you have dreams of making a wooden toy for your grandchildren. You will. Perhaps you have visions of attacking larger woodworking projects from those books that naturally assume you know your way around a shop. You'll get there. This book can be the beginning. I highly recommend it without reservation.

This book isn't what you expect from the Make! Series, because it's not really about high tech gadgets. It's not even really mostly about power tools (though it does give some information about a few). This is a book mostly about woodworking and hand tools. I do a bit of woodworking, though I am a tech geek at heart. Reading through the book I learned a few things I didn't know.Like most Make books, Make: Tools teaches you through projects. Most of the projects are simple: a few boxes, a book shelf, some puzzles and frames. However, even if you don't do the project, you can learn a lot by just reading through it.There is a little bit of information on working with plastics, which is kind of unique. They have a project that combines plastic and wood (a clock box) and then some plastic boxes.Since things like wood shop aren't taught anymore, it can be difficult to start woodworking simple projects. There are lots of hand tools, many different varieties of wood and then when you settle on a variety, there's 1/2 in, 1/4 in, etc. This book can help a beginner navigate some of this confusion.If you're looking for power tools or tech tools, it really won't help you. It gives about a paragraph description on most power tools, and it doesn't really give any advice on what to look for or how to pick them. That being said, it's a fun read. The author says the book is aimed at people aged 10-20 and that's a good age group for this book, but I would say if you are older and clueless about tools, but long to make something out of wood, this book would be a good starting point.

This book focuses on hand tools but has many tips which will improve power woodworking. There are also tables which show different relationships of nails, screws, nuts, and bolts.

It's a basic starting point for working with tools and media, including woodcraft. Great for a beginner or if your just rusty

Na

Nice book

This is a different sort of how-to book than i'm used to, for two major reasons:1) The philosophy is, basically, that power tools and fancy modern 3D printers and stuff have their place, but knowing how to use basic hand tools properly is a skill set useful far beyond building your own bookshelf or block-puzzle.2) It's snarky. Hidden here and there are lovely little quips, bits of dry humor that make the book so much more interesting than 'cut this to such and such size, nail to it that...' I'm not saying any normal person would just sit down and read it for the pleasure of reading, but if your goal is to acquire the skills this book teaches, i'm not sure i can think of a better way to do so than with this book.The projects start at a fairly simple level, just a dowel and a saw and glue (ok, fine, and clamps), and incrementally increase in complexity as they go. When each tool is introduced, there's a couple-page spread on what it is, how it works, common variations and what the differences are, and so on. Each project builds on the previous ones as well, so you're motivated to do each one well instead of just dumping the jagged mess into a corner and moving on to the next because it looks more interesting.