My shop over-floweth with woodworking books, tool catalogs, parts catalogs, etc. Of course, they are flimsy and won’t stand up by themselves making a general mess in my shelves.
What have others done to present a neat, organized appearance to their collections? Do you organize by manufacturer, subject material, or what?
Maybe I should just toss them all and rely strictly on the Internet?? One problem with that is that I generally have to look stuff up in the books in order to know how to find them on the Internet.
ps – I’ve dedicated this month to shop cleaning! Ask me in October how it went.
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy
PlaneWood
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I've had pretty good luck with fold-up cardboard magazine files on open bookshelves. Several companies make them. Fellowes #07223 is the first one I plucked off my shelf. They will hold 9x12 inch magazines and are about 3 inches wide, inside measure. I can get about 15 FWW in each one.
One tip: leave enough space between shelves so you can easily tilt the files out for access.
Ahhh, great minds think alike :-) I use magazine files also. All the catalogs together (I try to keep it to one file for these, fat chance). I subscribe to 4 magazines, so they mount up fast, but the mag files are great.
The trick with the catalogs is to toss out the old ones as soon as the new ones arrive. forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
>> The trick with the catalogs is to toss out the old ones
>> as soon as the new ones arrive.
Except for the Garrett Wade. They're archival. Actually, what they are is smut for toolheads, but either way I don't throw them away.
OhhKay, you caught me! But it was just a little white lie LOL!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Uncledunc,
But alas, the Garrett-Wade catalogs aren't the treasures they used to be. I used to eagerly await the bi-annual arrival of the G-W catalog. A hundred or so glossy pages of nothing but the very best woodworking tools; long descriptions highlighting various tools' history, use and maintenance; and exquisite photographs of the tools, shot as though they were precious objects of art. It was almost like going through a museum's catalog. Now the plain paper catalog comes every couple months or so; a measly few pages of decidedly evermore pedestrian tools. Jeeez, the first few pages now are gardening tools! for goodness sake. I now toss the previous one when the new one arrives; and it's no more fun to go through than Woodcraft's!
Alan
You're right. The last really tittilating one I have is from 1990.
But 'smut for toolheads' is such a good line. Whose catalogs can I transfer it to?
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