[How-To] Books in the shop

All workshop/service manuals for cars and motorcycles, along with diagnostic tools, are kept in the garage.

All machinist related books I keep inside. I do not have many as I am starting this hobby.

Plus I also have several in pdf format that I need to look at in the computer. I tend to print the page I need and discard when done.
 
I have cabinets in the old shop, packed full of all kinds of automotive, heavy equip, and tool manuals. Many of the tools, and vehicles are long gone. Anyone need a service manual for an XK120 Jag. Also have tons of stuff on the puter. Probably the most used is the little black engineers book. When I get fully moved into the new shop, I need to do some serious weeding out. Mike
 
A print book of any sort is precious by any measure. I have technical books from as far back as my teen years (~1966-68) that are all kept in secure(?) storage in the house. The only ones in the shop are those related to current projects. Plus a few that came out of the 'company' truck when I sold it and haven't gotten around to storing away.

I probably am over-protective of my books. But after watching libraries dumping books by the truckload simply because they haven't been 'checked out' for a year or two, and the people that tend them can't read. I hesitate to call them 'librarians' any more. . . I keep literally 4 libraries at my residence, 'carpentry and cabinet work', 'computer and electronics'. 'machines and machining', and 'fiction and other literature'. I have 2 partial sets of 'The Harvard Classics' from 1914 and 1915 that I combined to make one complete set. And gave away the duplicates, rare for me. And a 'First Edition' of Samual Clemens (Mark Twain), another by the author of 'Little Women', and many that are no longer available even on eBay. I keep watching but so far have only found one that I wanted in 20 odd years. I have never counted how many are here, but any time I get an idea I search for books on the subject. Many times it gets reduced to 'internet' searches, but that is usually a last resort.

I will say that anytime I compare an old technical book and something printed within the last 50 years, the old version always has nore useful information, although it usually is harder reading. I'm getting wound up in 'preach' mode, sorry. I'll go now. . .

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Bi11Hudson said:
I will say that anytime I compare an old technical book and something printed within the last 50 years, the old version always has nore useful information, although it usually is harder reading. I'm getting wound up in 'preach' mode, sorry. I'll go now. . .

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Absolutely, I go out of my way to find text books from the 1970s or earlier, the older the better. I find they have an odd mix of assuming a lower level of general knowledge from the reader going in, but also go into far deeper detail and complexity. Also more reliance on simple tools that are long out of use professionally, but still quite useful to a hobbyist. An added bonus they tend to be cheaper because old and obsolete.
 
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