Packratting old WW magazines...a disease

[John Ricci]

I have so many old ww mags going right back into the 70s and can't bear to part with any of them. Some are mine some were my dads so there are doubles and even triples of some (he would subscribe but still pick up a copy when he went tool shopping) and they fill numerous floor to ceiling bookshelves around the house and even more in boxes in the basement. Then there are the ww books, another story altogether! I even have a full hight bookshelf completely full in the "reading room"...I can stay in there a realllly long time:D.

What do you guys do with them? Treasure them or trash them after a time? I just couldn't trash them:eek:.
J.R.

[Sandy Masquith]

I, for one, am just starting out. I've already got a pile of magazines that is threatening a table I stole for the shop!!! I've got to do something with all of them. Like you, I just can't throw them out. There's plans, tips, jigs....somewhere in there will be an answer to what I'm trying to do! I have to build a bookshelf (with plans from one of the magazines) to store all the magazines and books. Now...to get an organizational system that lets me find the information I need!!! Otherwise, it's gonna be a full day of "searching the stacks" to find it.

[Ken Werner]

I keep em. FWW is on a bookshelf, near all my WWing books. Home Furniture likewise. BTW, I have a complete original set, which is now worth something like $200. I woulda tossed them, but couldn't do it. Now I find out they are prized by some. The rest - old WW journal, shop notes, etc, sit in a box in the attic. Yeah, I'm a packrat, but I just can't recycle them...yet.
Ken

[Jack Hogoboom]

I bet I beat everyone. I actually went out and bought copies of magazines on Ebay. I have complete sets of FWW, Wood, Woodworking, etc. Unlike other hobbies, the old magazines are still as relevant now as they were when they were first published (although a lot of the projects are a bit "dated"). I used to keep them all in a closet, but now I have nice built-ins in my new basement so they are more accessible.

I have TONS of duplicates. Every once in a while, my wife will yell at me and I'll sell a bunch on Ebay. Honestly, though, it's barely worth the trouble.

You should definitiely keep what you have if you are going to keep woodworking.

JAck

[Ryan Cathey]

I bought this one magazine (can't remember the name but if anyone is really interested I'll find it) at a flea market for a dollar. It's from December 1990 (two months after I was born) and it's got this plan for these gigantic multi-colored wood earings and I'm flipping through it thinking, "Dear Lord! I'm a child of that decade!". Oh yeah, I've also kept every woodworking mag I've had my hands on since I started in sixth grade.

-Ryan C.

[Matt Meiser]

It's from December 1990 (two months after I was born)

Awe Man! Now even I feel old. :(

I've learned that whenever I throw out a magazine, I later wish I'd kept it so I keep them all. I bought a bunch of the plastic organizers from Office Max and keep them on a shelf in the office closet.

[Ryan Cathey]

I keep mine...uh...here (moves hands all around himself in a circular motion indicating location/placement):D

[Bart Leetch]

I file mine in a file cabinet.


I cut 2 pieces of 1/2" plywood to go in the front & back of the file drawer & dadoed them to receive 1/4" plywood to go from the front to the back of the drawer. The 1/4" plywood has a bevel cut on the top edge beveled with the edge on the inside. I also added some 3/4" pieces of wood in the corners to stiffen things up this may not be necessary. This makes a strong place to hang hanging folders which will nicely hold 1 year of a magazine subscription. I have 1 drawer of a 4 drawer cabinet set up so far with the other 3 drawers to go. Plus 2 2 drawer file cabinets that I will fill too.:eek: :) :D

[Jack Dickey]

Oh man we shouldnt even go there ..
I have one magazine that I subscribe to that I keep every issue ( 240+ and counting ).. I even have gone as far as putting the table of contents on the computer and printed in a binder , where instead of digging thru the old issues , I just go to the binder to look for the info ..
I have to go thru the others about once a year and weed them out , my rathole is full of magazines and books ..
My other problem is anytime I find an old firearms or ww magazine or book , they usually come home with me ..

[Scott Brihn]

I keep mine. To organize I've been buying "Catalog/Magazine" binders from Lee Valley for the last few years. The binders look good and only cost about $7 each.

[Fred Voorhees]

John, I can certainly feel your pain. I have been an auto racing fan since being roughly five years old. I began to get a subscription to a Northeastern auto racing weekly newspaper back in 1972 and I have every one of them. I now use them for research within the sport. Besides that paper, I also save another weekly auto racing trade paper and added to that, I have every issue of the Playboy subscription I started back in 1976. Now add in piles and piles of weekly racing track souvenir programs, the various woodworking magazines, monthly auto racing magazines and an assorted amount of other publications and it adds up to one heck of a stock pile of paper product. I built floor to cieling shelving in my garage, back when it was built, for storing all of this ever growing melange, but within another few years, I'll have outgrown it and will need even more shelving. I just can't part with stuff. Oh, I have eventually thrown out some stuff, but what I currently now have, I can't see parting with.

[Randal Stevenson]

Years ago, my father took all his pc magazines, and started to tear out the articles he wanted to keep. A couple of years later and a move, and he started scanning them in and pitching the articles.


I need to be so organized. I tend to save them till one of those magazines with all the stuff, over the year, comes out, and then pitch the ones that are covered.

[Mark Pruitt]

Lately I find that most of the time I will go through a mag within an hour of picking it up and find very little that I don't already know or that ordinary "horse sense" wouldn't tell me anyway. When it gets to that point, it's time to pare down. So, this year it's goodbye to Wood, AW, and Woodsmith (which has become a complete joke--used to be a respectable mag). That leaves Popular WWing (which used to be a complete joke but has greatly improved) and WWers Journal (which continues to print some interesting articles). I plan to dump one of those as well. New mag for me is American Woodturner which is only quarterly and won't clutter up the place. I may pick up Woodturning Design which is also only quarterly.

As for the huge stack I have sitting in boxes and on the den floor, I definitely should throw most of them out, but like you I just casn't seem to part with them.:rolleyes:

[J D Thomas]

About 6 years ago, after a move from So Cal to the Pac NW, I was unpacking my WWing mags and I stowed them in a walkin closet just off the room that was to become my studio/office for my business. After about a week or so, I came up with an idea for something or other, and remembered that I saw something intriguing in one of my WWing mags. That set of the usual search dilemma for trying to find something and not knowing which issue or which specific mag it was in.

I got the idea to create a database in FileMaker Pro on my Mac. I set it up, and then spent the biggest part of the next 12 months meticulously entering in every article, tip, anything. Over the years it's grown to include specific URLs and my own comments. That effort was vastly worth it, big time. Now whenever I need to find something, it's a quick search string away and I can get my hands on it in seconds instead of days.

I have to keep it up, entering in each new issue that comes in, but it's worth it when I need a specific technique, idea, tip, inspiration, whatever. Additionally, I discovered that it's also important to keep the issues in a place where they are filed and organized.

Kinda redefines the term 'anal retentive'.

[Mike King, Sherwood Pk., AB]

Here's what I'm gonna do- Take my digital camera, photograph all the articles, tips and jigs I wanna keep out of three of my 4 ww'ing magazine subscriptions, and load them onto a DVD- with an index of course.. Then give the mags to my Chiropractor. Yep.

Have I started yet?

-no fair askin' that!;-)