Broaden your horizons! PopSci for Fine Woodworking.

[Jay Pique]

I've got *a bunch* of Popular Science magazines that I'd be willing to trade in part or in whole for "some" Fine Woodworking" magazines.

Anyone interested?

JP

[J T]

Sun, Dec 12, 2004, 10:23pm [e-mail] (Jay=A0Pique) sidles up, opens his raincoat, while looking for the cops, and whispers: I've got *a bunch* of Popular Science magazines that I'd be willing to trade in part or in whole for "some" Fine Woodworking" magazines. Anyone interested?

Dunno, maybe. I'm down to probably maybe a dozen FWW tho. But, I'm willing to part with all but one (an article I want). What years are they? If they're new, nope, I'm nicely covered by Popular Mechinics, which also has woodworking projects. But, if they're the older issues, with the interesting stuff, possibly.

JOAT We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.

- unknown

[Jay Pique]

They're all pretty new. I'm just a babe in the woods at 34 y.o.

I think I've got every issue since 1990. It's a great magazine - and I'm pretty sure I'll read it forever, but I just don't refer back to it like I thought I might. Plus, technology changes so rapidly - relative to woodworking technique and design - that they just don't have long term value (to me) like FWW might.

How's that for a sales pitch...

JP

[J T]

Sun, Dec 12, 2004, 11:18pm [e-mail] (Jay=A0Pique) asks: How's that for a sales pitch...

Not good enough. Thanks, but I'll pass, too new for my taste.

JOAT We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.

- unknown

[Charlie Self]

JOAT answers:

Same here. I used to write for PS, back in the '70s and '80s, but by the mid-1980s, they'd moved all the way to "What's New", sliding away from my interests. Al Lees (Home & Shop Editor) retired, and, IMO, the magazine became a slightly more interesting Omni (which may be why Omni folded). I don't think I've looked at an issue since about '88. Check the covers and see more on outer or inner space than I care to know.

Charlie Self "Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to." Mark Twain

[pray4surf]

I remember my dad getting all excited, we ended up ordering a set of plans from Dick Eipper (sp) for 10 bucks, a few trips to the hardware store, one road trip to Tube Sales in Los Angeles, and before you know it, we were flying like the birds.... Well, not quite - the rule was "Never fly higher than you are willing to fall" - LOL

I still have an original copy of Dan Poynters "Hang Gliding - The Basic Handbook of Skysurfing", complete with field notes...

Any current or ex hang gliders amongst us?

Rick

[Silvan]

I subscribed for a good chunk of the '90s, it must have been. It used to be my favorite magazine, but then I started reading PM, and I discovered that PopSci is just whatever was in PM three months ago, with different drawings.

[Charlie Self]

pray4surf asks:

It might have been, but the concept sounds more like something Tony Hogg and Wade Hoyt at Science & Mechanics would have loved the most.

Gah. I used to go up to the Ellenville, NY area to watch the sail planes...not quite as pretty as a hawk soaring, but not bad. In the process, I found the spot where the local hang gliders took off. No thanks. I ain't jumping off no damned spot that is above the tops of the trees!

Charlie Self "Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to." Mark Twain

[rcook5]

For me the most interesting ones are the issues before 1950. I've got a bunch of them from during and right after WWII and the stuff in just fascinating. _Real_ shop projects and tips you can seriously use besides all the neat stuff we're supposed to have today and somehow don't.

--RC

Projects expand to fill the clamps available -- plus 20 percent

[rcook5]

It definitely sounds more like a "Science and Mechanics" proposition. By that time PS was less reduced to pretty wimpy DIY projects and pieces for weekend auto mechanics. "Science and Mechanics" was more like PS had been 30-40 years ago with more 'serious' (which is not to say practical) projects.

A lot of the Science and Mechanics projects were gathered up and published as independent magazines. I've got a couple of them and I wish I had a lot more.

--RC

Projects expand to fill the clamps available -- plus 20 percent

[Charlie Self]

rcook5 responds:

I learned some reading skills with those pre-1950 PSs. I had an older cousin who got the magazine, and whenever we visited, I'd end up on the floor of his room reading PS magazines back before WWII. A lot of fun there. His dad was a machinist, while mine was an auto mechanic, so the genes were good.

Gus's Garage was the best part for me, for a long, long time.

Charlie Self "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." Sir Winston Churchill

[Pat Barber]

I recall a bunch of those nut cases jumping off the top of Grandfather Mountain in western North Carolina.

It looks really neat until somebody forgets about the basic tenets of flight...

Charlie Self wrote:

[Jay Pique]

Hmmmm.... It's funny, PopSci is all I really know - but it's the best I've been reading. In an effort to be melioric, I'm *willing* to sacrifice THREE late vintage PopSci's for JUST ONE "Science and Mechanics" mag. Or one pre-50s PopSci. Or one (1) popsicle stick. ....Who'll give me a dollar?....

JP

***************

[Charlie Self]

Jay Pique notes:

I think the S&M mags may be collector's items by now, and it's probable that the PS mags of that era are too. I've got a few article samples from S&M--Four Stroke: Once And Future King (motorcycle buyers guide)--from back then, but not much else. And that was probably 30 years ago. I seem to recall writing that one shortly aftger I lived in Albany, NY and I left there in '72. Might have popped in the mid-70s. Some of the bikes look a lot better to me than these underdone racers now on the roads.

Charlie Self "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." Sir Winston Churchill