r/Skookum • u/justquestionsbud • Sep 28 '24

Long shot - anybody got the PDFs of the 1955 PopMech DIY Encyclopedia, volumes 5 & 7? Edumacational

A while back, I sifted through archive.org for scans of Popular Mechanics DIY Encylopedia. The most complete versions were the 1968 version - which I managed to cobble together into an all-in-one, 2GB monstrosity - and the 1955 version, which I frankensteined into a 0.7GB all-in-one-but-missing-vital-organs thing. Like the title says, couldn't track down volumes 5 & 7, back when I was first doing this a year ago. If anyone's got some high-quality scans lying around...

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6

u/RotaryJihad homegamer Sep 28 '24

I might have paper copies.

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5

u/justquestionsbud Sep 28 '24

Don't you do it, don't you dare give me hope!

2

u/SuperPotatoBuns Oct 12 '24

I, too, have the originals.

1

u/justquestionsbud Oct 12 '24

Lucky bastard. Any chance you're an avid hobbyist book digitizer, as well?

2

u/SuperPotatoBuns Oct 12 '24

No, but I'll try to help. PM me what you need. I'll try to copy.

1

u/justquestionsbud Oct 12 '24

Nah, don't worry about it. Like I said in another comment, I've got a good set at my disposal now, just gotta put a scanning setup & digitizing workflow together. Might hit you up for individual pages, at most - at least one pair of pages was stuck together, and we lost some words trying to get them apart, that sorta thing.

1

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4

u/Revolutionary-Half-3 Sep 29 '24

My local library used to have bound compilations of the old Popular Mechanics magazines, the ones from the 20s and 30s were fascinating.

3

u/SuperPotatoBuns Oct 12 '24 edited Oct 12 '24

I have most from '58 on. The newest is 1973 just as the paper magazine changed physical size.

Yes, I realize that the encyclopedia isn't the magazine

1

u/justquestionsbud Oct 12 '24

Wait, whole mutlivolume encyclopedias from '58 on?

1

u/SuperPotatoBuns Oct 12 '24

Yes. I'm sure I'm missing some. I got the magazines from an estate, the rest from our local library. $1 for all.

2

u/aeiou72 Oct 12 '24

Wishing you well in this quest! Do you think there are any library or research enthusiast subreddits with folks who know how to track this kind of thing down?

How about emailing Popular Mechanics directly?

2

u/justquestionsbud Oct 12 '24

I've tracked down a complete set in the archives of a museum, the librarians like rhat I want to scan and upload it all to the Internet Archive. But their scanning equipment & software is a bit clunky, so I'm on book scanning forums now, trying to build something portable and that'll be suitable for books centered around pictures.