Better than GOOGLE

[sharperdill]

I recently put a wanted add in the local swap sheet for some older magazines. It read, "1930s to 1950s Popular Mechanics and Popular Science magazines Wanted." I was not expecting a phone call for a few weeks and figured that I would have to submit the add when it expired, a couple times any way. I chose this era because when I buy equipment, I like it to be from this time period. Things were built tough and 99% of everything is standard parts, like bearings and bushings, ball screw nuts can be fabricated by a tool shop or myself.

I received a phone call the following week and set up a time to pick up the magazines. To my surprise the guy worked at John Deere as a machinist. I picked up over 150 magazines and a few books that he offered (because I showed my interest in the subject). Mostly all printed in the 40s with most of them having a ton of "how to" articles. Received a few mechanics illustrated too.

Some of the books and articles in the magazines.
How to bore rebabited Connecting Rods. a book by south bend lathe works
getting the most out of your abrasive tools.
getting the most out of your lathe
jig and fixture making
tool making
tool dressing
grinding practices
Dies and Die making

Now I just have to find the time to read through the nonsense and get to the meat of the articles.

 

[phrige]

Sounds Like you found a gold mine, Congrats on the snag

if you had the time it be great if you or anyone really put up a blog or website posting some of these articles. I'm sure there must be something similar out there, havent looked enough personally to find one.

good luck reading through em! Cant wait to read about the kinds of uses you get out of it.

 

[Tim]

Heh - not better than Google - maybe the same, but not better:

Here's pretty much every copy of Popular Mechanics ever published, courtesy of Google Books:

http://books.google.com/books?id=RdMDAAAAMBAJ&dq=popular+mechanics&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=3&atm_aiy=1900#all_issues_anchor

Don't get me wrong - I love old magazines, and have a few old motorcycling mags from the 60's, but Google Books is pretty sweet.

 

[noahdog]

Heh - not better than Google - maybe the same, but not better:

Here's pretty much every copy of Popular Mechanics ever published, courtesy of Google Books:

http://books.google.com/books?id=RdMDAAAAMBAJ&dq=popular+mechanics&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=3&atm_aiy=1900#all_issues_anchor

Don't get me wrong - I love old magazines, and have a few old motorcycling mags from the 60's, but Google Books is pretty sweet.

That is awesome! I'm gonna have to bookmark that site for sure.

 

[dielectric]

OOOHH! Lookee here!

American Motorcyclist archive:
http://books.google.com/books/serial/QPkDAAAAMBAJ?rview=1

 

[sharperdill]

Heh - not better than Google - maybe the same, but not better:

Here's pretty much every copy of Popular Mechanics ever published, courtesy of Google Books:

http://books.google.com/books?id=RdMDAAAAMBAJ&dq=popular+mechanics&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=3&atm_aiy=1900#all_issues_anchor

Don't get me wrong - I love old magazines, and have a few old motorcycling mags from the 60's, but Google Books is pretty sweet.

It's hard to put a google book on a bookshelf. I like solid things. The feeling you get from thumbing through an old book is much different than clicking on links, and in my mind, better.

Google books is good, if all you want is information. I use it, if all I want is some answers. Sometimes this information needs to be kept in a hard copy form.