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What books got you diy-dreaming?
I can remember reading DIY books as a child and feeling empowered to build. Plans and dreams suddenly seemed within my reach. Ultimate forts, robots, go-karts, chemistry experiments of rotten-egg gas...
Online searching is replacing the hunt for hard bound how-to's. However, I still love finding instructions in used books or old library stacks. A lab partner in college found an old schematic of a vacuum-tube amplifier at a flea market. The clarity of that diagram convinced us to make the amp for his guitar.
Along those lines, I see some books have been mentioned in other forum postings Two books I have found to be inspiring are The Art of Electronics by Horowitz & Hill and Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons. Art of Electronics pulled me out of "the bush league". As for Stalking, I had never before read a cook book which paid so much attention to the preparation of the ingredients, as wild dishes require. Classics.
Care to share what set you free / inspired your creativity?
Online searching is replacing the hunt for hard bound how-to's. However, I still love finding instructions in used books or old library stacks. A lab partner in college found an old schematic of a vacuum-tube amplifier at a flea market. The clarity of that diagram convinced us to make the amp for his guitar.
Along those lines, I see some books have been mentioned in other forum postings Two books I have found to be inspiring are The Art of Electronics by Horowitz & Hill and Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons. Art of Electronics pulled me out of "the bush league". As for Stalking, I had never before read a cook book which paid so much attention to the preparation of the ingredients, as wild dishes require. Classics.
Care to share what set you free / inspired your creativity?
Comments
10 years ago
The DIY section in popular science, and popular mechanics.
11 years ago
The Foxfire series and the related Salt Book are really nice resourceful-living books. They are in the wonderful context of lives of "old timers", which adds much of the warmth and color.
Anyone else read any?
11 years ago
Def, the American Boys Handy Book
Also- RUSTIC RETREATS from David and Julia Stiles
Cracker Ingenuity's half decent as well- although its got a ton of bizarre filler (which still makes for interesting reading)
-Deek
http://www.relaxshacks.com
MY NEW INDIE-ULTRA-TINY HOUSE/SHACK/FORT/TREEHOUSE BOOK IS OUT NOW!
Lloyd Kahn just blogged on it too!
Reply 11 years ago
Nice books Deek D!
I like the look of your book, any Instructables forthcoming?
Reply 11 years ago
Thanks CrLz-
Once I get some book-shippin', and cabin-completin' done over the next few days, as well as 2004 other things, I'm def gonna be posting some stuff- and will properly post the "Wine-Lovers Cabin-Door Stopper" submission that I have (improperly buried somewhere on the board).
Thanks for the feedback!
-Deek
http://www.relaxshacks.com
11 years ago
Because of my health issues, I learnt litle in school, except read, write and some maths. And I only worked 20 years total, in 4 jobs.
No training, but I always ended up in in very responsible positions.
Everything I know and can do, is based on about 150 assorted used copies of Popular Mechanics and Popular Science I bought after leaving school, as well as learning DIY skills I also learnt heaps on how gets get done, made, invented.
They taught me problem solving, to think out problems, work planing and I learn about other countries.
Based on PMM and PSM I went looking for more knowledge at the Library.
My happiest day was when Google Books put every edition of PSM and PMM on line, free to read. At 53, I am so busy, I may never finish reading the whole lot.
Reply 11 years ago
Reply 11 years ago
books.google.com/books
That link is for Popular Science February 1946,.
books.google.com/books
That is Popular Mechanics, January 1940
All the other issues can be accessed via those two links
Tips for reading PMM & PSM on-line, and a work around to save single articles to your PC.
On their reader, there is a click box with arrows pointing outwards at each corner, there removes a lot of advertising, then click on the + to widen the magazine page.
Next press F11 to make your browser go full screen, thats great, BUT it slows down the page scrolling, I use up/down curser keys to scroll. (I might have to make separate buttons for that, otherwise my keyboard will quickly be a goner.)
I have a 4-3 LCD screen, PC screen driver allows to to rotate what's on the screen by 90 degrees. That's best for reading PMM on line, I am soon making a bracket alowing me to tip the LCD onto its side. Be aware that it rearranges your desktop, and resizes all open windows. Resetting the screen to normal, does NOT restore your desktop and windows to what it was.
Should you want to save an article from PMM, reduce each page so it fits the whole screen, hit the "print screen" button, which puts it into your clipboard, paste into a photo editor, crop away everything bar the PMM page, and save as a JPG. Open MS Word (Or Open Office) and insert the JPGs in correct order, then click on each JPG to bring up a resizing box, resize each JPG one by one to fit the page, then save. Or print to a PDF.
Okay for one article, but a lot of work to do the whole magazine, let alone ALL the magazines.
Peter
Reply 11 years ago
Thanks for the tips and clarifications Lateral Thinker!
You've got a good idea- bracket that will allow 90 degree rotation of LCD. Love to see the Instructable some day.
Reply 11 years ago
I prefer quick and dirty, my LCD is already on a swing arm, and the end of the arm swivels. So its viewable over my bed (TV and DVD watching as well as reading and PC stuff) and workstation where I have a CRT and another PC.
Quick and dirty means a simple door hinge as the base of the LCD is already attached to a wooden base.
The swing arm was meant for a 14" CRT TV, I used to have a 14" CRT monitor on it.
Quick and dirty is what Instructables is all about.
Peter
Reply 11 years ago
Resources
I posted links for The Boy Mechanic (by PMM) and the Boy Electrician (similar but not by PMM) Both are on the Internet Archive
These books are FREE to download as PDF. The Boy Electrician is not a good scan but readable and is not on the Archive, but I will be scanning as copy I have, to post to the Internet Archive
Reply 11 years ago
Wow! Thanks for these awesome posts Lateral Thinker!
Reply 11 years ago
Thanks for posting a cover for people to see.
11 years ago
Mostly any klutz book. From time to time, my parents would buy me a "weird science" book, which had experiments along the line of "gelatin-izing chicken bones", to the corn starch and water goo. I also had the type of "fun electronics" kits, like the personal room alarm system, which included a buzzer, a battery, and some tin foil.
Reply 11 years ago
I learned to juggle using the Klutz book. Meet my wife because of the juggling, definitely good books.
Reply 11 years ago
You and your wife both juggle? That's awesome! (assumption)
I too learned to juggle from Klutz, unfortunately, I haven't juggled in so long, that I seem to have lost any hand-eye coordination for the sport. In fact, I used to be a jester at folklife festivals.
Reply 11 years ago
Actually my wife does not juggle- we met in college at the dinning hall. I'd grab some fruit to practice juggling after lunch every day. My wife started giving me apples to juggle...the rest was history!
I once heard a comedian say, "If you are going to be a hitch-hiker, learn to juggle, because the guy that juggles will get picked up first." He was right.
11 years ago
Though I'd add one of the best alcohol books I ever had the chance to read:
The Alaskan Bootlegger's Bible by Leon Kania. Before reading this, I'd never understood what "jacking" was (apple-jack, etc.) and I definitely never heard of corn-squeez'ns.
Also, this book and a former acquaintance of mine mentioned a clandestine pamphlet that circulated in the middle east during the 70's, that had expat instructions for making alcohol. I've never seen or traced this, but I'd love to find it some day. Apparently the author Kania included many of the "secret-still" designs from the pamphlet.
11 years ago
Thought I'd add another great book-Henley's Formulas , which you can access at the link. The book has all sorts of DIY recipes, glues, paints, alcohols, etc.
11 years ago
None. It was from my family. Father used to DIY (including home-dentistry...), A grandfather was an engineer with BRM
L
Reply 11 years ago
DIY dentistry -> Ouch! Definitely a pioneering soul.