Over time, as word of "what I do" spread amongst friends, I got essentially the same question. First about a lathe I went to the trouble of importing, then the workshop in general, and then what I did in that workshop. And all the questions could be summed up in one sentence, "We don't understand why?" They didn't understand because it was and is an irrational pursuit.
"Irrational" in this case doesn't mean crazy or dangerous, it means a something which isn't shared, and therefore identifiable or understood, by the vast majority of the population. So I thought a lot about how to describe it in terms they could relate to, and then it hit me how.
So depending upon who was asking, I began to explain it by saying simply, "Well, this is my Bass (or sail) Boat." or "This is my Harley.", or "This is my Winnebago", and immediately they understood.