So I'm watching the PBS thing on brain plasticity and how to stretch your mental glidepath, and I think "how can I do this through woodworking?"  And it strikes me:  what will motivate every/any true WWer?  A new tool of course.  One of my instructors advised that you should think of projects as excuses to buy a new tool.   Yeah, baby; sing me that song!  So, I'm going to extend that to making jigs, too.  Tools and jigs.  And maybe I even cut some wood, but the object isn't building things!!  The purpose is brain development through new challenges.  And I betcha the cost of new tools is a lot less than a stay in a hospital!!  (esp. the mental ward kind of place; been there, didn't like it)   And look at the REALLY bright side:  the right kind of tool with a little carelessness, and you don't have to worry about old age.  Just gets better and better.

Pete, I have never heard a better rational for purchasing woodworking tools! It makes total sense to me, especially when you relate the purchase of tool to day in the hospital, or the mental ward, it's a no brainer indeed! Making jigs especially, solving challenges and making something to fit another, great mental exercises.

Building jigs, learning a new tool, expanding the shop's capabilities...and your own...thinking way outside the box, keeps our old brains tuned up.

49 minutes ago, PeteM said:

you should think of projects as excuses to buy a new tool

I think I must have had the same instructor 

Edited August 19, 20187 yr by lew

I just buy tools when I want them.  Maybe that it why I'm twisted.  Too much plasticity.

7 hours ago, PeteM said:

you should think of projects as excuses to buy a new tool. 

As any woodworker/carpenter/construction guy knows. You can't use "do I need it?" as a criteria for buying a new tool. Whether or not you'll even ever use it is besides the point! For all you confused people out there, I will give you the listed reasons for buying a new tool straight from "The Man Bible" Chapter 35 Section 72 Subsection D Paragraph 23 states:

You simply buy a new tool because:

a) It's there

b) You can

I hope this has cleared up any questions any of you may have for buying new tools, and hopefully relieve some of the guilty feelings you may have about purchasing that new tool with the money you should have spent on a new dishwasher for your wife.

 

TWW_059_Tool_Buying_List_Blank.pdf

2 hours ago, Stick486 said:

TWW_059_Tool_Buying_List_Blank.pdf

SERIOUSLY, the form reminds me of a "vendor proposal analysis" that contractors use to evaluate the true cost/need of a vendor's equipment.  The only way to buy.

 

Unseriously, when it comes to tools, my version has a permanently-checked box "yes".