WW Mag Back Issues - Overwhelmed!

[John F. Gates]

I have nearly all of the back issues for:

Fine WW
American WW
Shopnotes
Shopsmith
Wood
Woodwork

And many other misc. magazines. I've been enjoying having them around, but frankly, searching for projects is easier online.

Has anyone made the switch to electronic back issues? I've contacted the various companies and they range from $50 to $99 to buy their DVD.

thoughts?

Thanks,

John

[Pat Barry]

I have a ton of them too and can't recall the last time I looled at them. I think its a good time to toss them into recycle bin

[Al Weber]

Some woodworking clubs maintain libraries for their members. You might reach out to local ones before recycling.

[Don Jarvie]

I did some purging recently and went through each issue and cut out the articles I wanted to keep. Then I organized them in binder by project or turning, hand tools, etc.

[Gary Ragatz]

I recycled a bunch of back issues of Woodsmith and switched to their electronic archive on a USB drive. I wish the search function were a little more versatile, but otherwise, I think it's pretty handy. Definitely takes up a lot less space than the hard copies! I prefer a USB drive to a DVD, as I have no built-in DVD reader in my laptop. I'd like to make the switch for Wood magazine too, but their archive is a little more expensive - $150. Think I'll hold off for a while and see if they might offer a discount at some point.

[Brian Behrens]

I have been looking to buy old woodworking magazines since I'm just getting started in the hobby and don't have much reference material. If you would be willing to ship them I would be interested in purchasing them. But please don't toss them, maybe your local library or animal shelter would take them for yard sales.

[Frank Pratt]

I unloaded all my old mags on my son, who has not learned to just say no.

[Mike Manning]

I unloaded all my old mags on my son, who has not learned to just say no.

That's funny Frank! Enjoy it while it lasts! ;-)

[Brian Henderson]

Before we moved almost 3 years ago, I donated all of my magazines to the local library. I never looked at them, I had hundreds of them and they were just taking up space. They didn't mind taking them off my hands.

[Frederick Skelly]

Ive made the switch. I bought the FWW collection on CD and the Woodwork collection. I will get Shopnotes at some point.

Whether it works for you might depend on the device you use for viewing. A full size iPad or a laptop is probably nicer than the tablet I use. Viewing magazines on a cell phone would be a showstopper for me. YMMV.

Fred

[Dick Brown]

Had over 200 mags so put them on CL for $20. Fellow came and bought them, found out he lived just up the road from me, interested in wood working, tools and yard sales. Have become best friends. I'm 84 and he is mid 60's so if I need a helping hand all I need to do is ask. Introduced him to another 84 y-o friend of mine and they have become great fishing buddies. Have acquired a lot more value from the mags after I sold them than I did when I owned them!

[Frank Pratt]

That's funny Frank! Enjoy it while it lasts! ;-)

I did manage to unload quite a bit of junk on him. It got to be a bit of a game to see if he would take something that I'd have otherwise had to take to the dump.

He's caught on now though :(

[Frank Pratt]

Had over 200 mags so put them on CL for $20. Fellow came and bought them, found out he lived just up the road from me, interested in wood working, tools and yard sales. Have become best friends. I'm 84 and he is mid 60's so if I need a helping hand all I need to do is ask. Introduced him to another 84 y-o friend of mine and they have become great fishing buddies. Have acquired a lot more value from the mags after I sold them than I did when I owned them!

That's a nice story :)

[Dan Rude]

I got lucky when Woodsmith, decided to end Shopsmith. They sent me Woodsmith to finish out my subscription and gave the me the Shopnotes online archive for free. I like it, I now save my current issues of Woodsmith each month. on my network. If you subscribe to Woodwork's Journal, you have access to their entire archive. Woodcraft archive is also economical to buy. I still like to re-read many of my hard copies though. Dan