Plans from ShopNotes/Woodsmith

[bigsteel15]

I'll just do what I had planned.
Borrow for free from library for 3 weeks and scan/copy the articles of interest.
I know if I need the hard copy for any reason, I can always borrow it again.
There are only about 10 years worth of issues for each magazine to go through.
I was hoping some of you had particular jigs that you found very useful from these poarticular magazines and would have a dog-earred copy around that would be identifiable.

[JimD]

It is not a jig but I really like the WoodSmith plans for a bedroom set out of cherry. I used red oak instead but I found the design to be good in terms of not using an excessive amount of expensive material, good final appearance, and not too difficult to build. I am also finishing a bedroom set that they had as a bachlors chest plus matching headboard, mirror, and night stands. It is OK but uses more material and is somewhat unnecessarily time consuming compared to the other set of plans.

Woodsmith also sells their plans over the internet as pdf files. I had back issues for most of the cherry set but not the nightstands. I bought that one for a few dollars.

I have a bookcase with lots of back issues in it. I still enjoy pulling them out and reminding myself what I already knew. When I want to make something new, I start with back issues and if I have a plan that looks interesting I stop there. If not, I start looking on the internet. If I knew of a local library with back issues, I might start on the internet but only to identify the issue with a plan worth researching at the library.

Jim

[bigsteel15]

I see LV has magazine binders that will hold 12 issues or up to 2-1/4" thick of material.
They are $8.50 each, so looks like a good way to store magazines.

Jim,
I actually have that sieries of issues in one of the volumes I borrowed.

[ironhat]

What't the benefit of scanning and then saving as a PDF rather than a document? Apologies if the question is blatently dense of me.

TIA,
Chiz

[JimD]

Chiz,

I do not do this yet but the space required to store things in the form of a pdf file is tiny compared to the space required to store paper. Electronic documents are also more easily searched. That would be two advantages.

Jim

[dlminehart]

The electronic searching would require either adding keywords to the PDF file or using a scanner that did OCR (bitmap to text) as well as image capture to PDF. Manual keyword editing isn't too difficult, but at even 15 seconds per article it could take hours when added to the scanning. The OCR+image as PDF is not as flawless as one might hope, and usually takes extra time and effort.

That said, another advantage of PDF is that virtually everyone has the free Acrobat Reader and can easily print regular pages from it, scaled to whatever size you need.

[Luckbox]

I have started to scan the articles that I am interested in and then tossing the old mags. I need to set up a simple little database that will allow me to search for articles easily. Never thought of selling them on ebay. I only have about 2 years worth of magazines right now and to search for an article one at a time is very time consuming and they are just taking up to much space.

[sacherjj]

Scanning to PDF allows me ot fit all of them on one CD's worth of space. I don't worry about doing proper document management with a database and indexes. All I really need to store them are two levels of directories and a good strong filename.

Tools\Bandsaws\Pattern Following Jig.pdf
Plans\Shop\Drillpress Cart.pdf

This then follows with the organization that I already have for the free and purchased downloadable plans or electronics plans I have created.

[dlminehart]

Looks good, Joe. The KISS principle in action. Just out of curiosity, what are your top level directories, besides Tools and Plans?

[tribalwind]

actually. if youre a bit savvy at web searching you can find websites containing every issue of many woodworking mags already PDF'd.
theres bit-torrents going around for this also..
im not advocating "stealing" but if you cant buy it at a fair price, you can download it...free~
full sets of shopnotes and woodsmith are 2 among many that i've seen floating around..i subscribe to both as i like the stock they print on and lack of advertising.

[mac_daddy]

What't the benefit of scanning and then saving as a PDF rather than a document? Apologies if the question is blatently dense of me.

TIA,
Chiz

scanning to a PDF file would allow you to save space and quality digitally (I don't think any silverfish have evolved to digest plastic). If your acrobat has the plugins, you can also convert the scanned text into searchable text. So indexing would be a boon.

on the negative side, you'd still need to print out the plans, unless you have a computer in the shop and don't mind squinting and mousing to see the measurements.

[tribalwind]

for all those who'd asked for the website i found the books ,.mags on etc.

http://woodtools.nov.ru/

enjoy

[Ken Weaver]

for all those who'd asked for the website i found the books ,.mags on etc.

http://woodtools.nov.ru/

enjoy

My Russian is a bit rusty but this guy has an extensive collection of magazines in PDF we'd recognize plus a whole library of Russian language woodworking books (for sale). Also stashed away in there are what looks like patterns for setting up dovetail jigs, and a dictionary of wood working terms. I'm missing some fonts in my system and apparently can't get all the cyrillic transliterations. On top of all that he has Russian langauge tool manuals (need the DjVu reader for them), which probably isn't much use to us but its interesting to see the US tools available (i.e. Black & Decker, DeWalt, etc.)

Interesting web site.

[JSUPreston]

on the negative side, you'd still need to print out the plans, unless you have a computer in the shop and don't mind squinting and mousing to see the measurements.

Okay, I'll admit. I'm nuts. I've been considering taking an old celeron machine I have laying around, putting a wireless NIC in it, and taking it out to the shop. The main thing keeping me from doing it, besides space, is the fact that I don't have a DC set up, so dust would be inside the case and probably burning out components in no time.

[mac_daddy]

GREAT WORK! Just use babelfish to translate from russian to english! Awesome!!!! Now, all I need it more space, more time and good local lumber supplier!