How grampa might have done it.

September 9, 2005 10:42 AM

Vintage Projects do it yourself plans, vintage reprints and building ideas from the 40's, 50's and 60's for farm, workshop, woodshop, machineshop, kids and camping. Includes plans for a pop-up camper, toy excavator, snow blower, and concrete block machine.
posted by Mitheral (18 comments total)

This is really really really cool. I love that they have a whole section of archery projects. It seems like we've fallen a long way from the days when every archer needed something to do when they weren't shooting at stuff.

The knowledge gained through the experience of making your own bow makes this more than just a prideful accomplishment.

Sooner or later the enthusiastic archer gets a yern to make his own bow. His reasons may be economical or experimental, but whatever they are, his skill as a craftsman should be equal to his enthusiasm or his venture into bow-making could prove dismal and costly.
posted by OmieWise at 11:05 AM on September 9, 2005

I'm so gonna build me one of those concrete brick machines. 100 bricks per hour is my new motto! Thanks.
posted by safetyfork at 11:06 AM on September 9, 2005

Imagine quotation marks around the proper "motto" part of sentence number two (approximately the first 16 characters not including spaces) in the above comment authored by me on this fine afternoon, thank you.
posted by safetyfork at 11:08 AM on September 9, 2005

I love this stuff. I used to have a collection of "Handyman's Encyclopedia" and the like from the '20s, '30's and '50s, fascinating information from a time when, if you wanted something done, you did it yourself.
posted by Floydd at 12:00 PM on September 9, 2005

I love the pic of the mom standing happily next to her child with his homebuilt repeating crossbow...that's definetly not how my mom would look if I was armed.
posted by nomisxid at 12:15 PM on September 9, 2005

Great link. Reminds me of Saturday afternoons in my neighbor's garage pouring over his huge collection of pre and post-war Popular Mechanics.
posted by klarck at 12:20 PM on September 9, 2005

Now how could you point us to that site and not link to this?
posted by spock at 12:37 PM on September 9, 2005

Oh, spock, that is just beautiful.
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:01 PM on September 9, 2005

spock writes "not link to this?"

Well I don't fish and I don't smoke so I guess it just didn't catch my eye. 'Tis truely a work of art though.
posted by Mitheral at 1:19 PM on September 9, 2005

Awesome. "Build Your Own Shop Forge!" That's exactly the kind of thing either one of my grandfathers would have spent the weekend doing. "Kids, tell your grandma that I'm ready to make her those new curtain rods now!"
posted by scody at 1:58 PM on September 9, 2005

It's pretty clever how they have interspersed the Google ads, styling the colors of the links so it looks like part of the legitimate page content.

PS... home blacksmithing is still quite a going hobby in some sectors. I bought a nice holdfast for my workbench from Jake in Galena, Alaska. It's a thing of beauty. I can certainly understand the appeal, myself. I understand that finding a decent ANVIL is the hardest part, equipment-wise.
posted by spock at 2:45 PM on September 9, 2005

That fishhead ashtry makes me want to both smoke and fish! BEST OF THE WEB!
posted by ernie at 2:53 PM on September 9, 2005

Um, what ads? Am I missing something?
posted by RustyBrooks at 2:56 PM on September 9, 2005

You don't see "Ads by Google" on this page? You must have a ad-blocker or firewall or sumpin'. Not that you are MISSING anything.
posted by spock at 3:05 PM on September 9, 2005

This is good. Actually, I wish my DIY-fu was up to building some of these, like the car-powered arc welder or the motorized bicycle.

There's definitely something that's been lost in the modern era of cheap, abundant consumer goods. I doubt I'd wanna trade my position as a semi-economically priviledged 21st century slob to live in a time when this sort of know-how was a necessity, but there's something liberating about creating anything that can't be bought. Functionality be damned, you don't get that from tearing open a Wal-Mart bag and opening a cheap third-world built geegaw.
posted by arto at 4:36 PM on September 9, 2005

spock writes "You must have a ad-blocker or firewall or sumpin'."

Ad block iFrame in my case. Though the ads aren't all that bad.
posted by Mitheral at 7:53 PM on September 9, 2005

I really, really want the toy excavator.
posted by jrossi4r at 9:35 PM on September 9, 2005

Oh man, this is so my new favorite site! Yay!
posted by dejah420 at 9:53 PM on September 9, 2005