The overriding idea here is that woodturning is actually affordable. The cost of lathes, tools, and accessories has made the pastime seem expensive but Conover proves it need not be. A longtime author of woodworking books and a teacher at Conover Workshops, a craft school founded by his family, he compares woodturning with many other lost arts and proposes, through this book, that it needn't be lost to commercialism. He shows you how to set up an affordable workshop (three different budgets offered), have woodturning fun on a budget and how to do so with greenwood, firewood, and discarded lumber. Along the way, the craftsman achieves a heightened appreciation of the process of turning itself. The marvelous, and large, color photos seem to bring the reader right up to Conover's work bench. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)