Post Your Latest Purchase

[RonClinton]

Wow, never realized that the Mitchem movie was based on a book. Should've figured! I'll have to track this one down at some point. I love that your copy came from Mignola!

Thanks. If you want a copy of a book from his collection (and it looks like he and/or his wife are selling a good deal of it off), the seller page is here:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?item...ssn=chrismig57

[dannyboy121070]

No pics as it's still on its way to me, but I picked up a UK 1st ed. (2nd pr.) HC of Davis Grubb's NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, a book (and an edition) I've been after for quite some time. One interesting thing is that this copy comes from the collection of Hellboy creator and writer Mike Mignola. I've actually never read any of the Hellboy comics, though of course I'm aware of the character and its popularity, but it's a cool little provenance, I guess.

Oh, you should read some Hellboy, Ron. Tastes vary, of course, but IMO Mignola has created some of the best Horror/Supernatural tales of the past 30 years.

[dannyboy121070]

Thanks. If you want a copy of a book from his collection (and it looks like he and/or his wife are selling a good deal of it off), the seller page is here:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?item...ssn=chrismig57

I was VERY interested in grabbing a signed and remarqued Hellboy or Dracula book, but those prices are insane.....They are not valuable or rare books, so you're basically paying hundreds of dollars for Mignola's signature and a weak little drawing of a skull. I thought Shatner charging $150 for an autograph was insane, lol. There's no bigger Mignola fan, but I guess I'll just have to admire him from afar.

[TacomaDiver]

At the end of August last year, I bought a house. You can see pictures here.

One thing you'll notice is all of the built-ins. That's just the main level. The basement has more down one of the hallways, albeit cheaper construction (more function over fashion.)

Something my wife and I have talked about since we moved in, was the possibilities of adding more shelves to this one area in the basement. Here's the picture from the appraisal to give you some idea of what we're dealing with.
basement.png

Here's the thing - I have next to zero building experience. The only tools I owned was a hammer that belonged to my, a cordless drill with two batteries that wouldn't take a charge, and a set of screwdrivers. I did take a shop class one quarter in high school, but that was in 1990 or thereabouts.

Fast forward almost a year later . . .

Armed with my masters degree from YouTube University, and a whole suite of tools now, I began what I call The Basement Bookshelf Project.
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Beginning in mid-April, it started with 18 sheets of plywood (12 sheets of maple, and six sheets of red oak) and 33 board feet of poplar (I had to go back twice and get more, so maybe 40 board feet or so when things were finished.)

My buddy from high school who lives in the area helped me for two full weekends and part of another week. I did the rest after work here and there and on practically every weekend.

And I officially finished this morning. Dee Oh Enn Eee - that spells moon. I mean, that spells DONE.

Lots of mistakes were made but in the end, I'm pretty damn pleased with how it all turned out. In fact, I'm VERY impressed with myself considering how little experience I had when I started, and how good the finished product looks.

Here's the short side (ducting gets in the way.) The shelves are just about six feet tall and they sit on a base of about 3.5 inches.
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(The holes are to account for the HVAC's return air vent)

And here's the taller side. Same size base, except this time the shelves are about seven feet tall.
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(bonus dog tail - Rocinante wouldn't move.)

The little short shelves at the end are to accommodate my surround sound speakers.

All of the shelves are adjustable. The lights are technically outdoor sconces that I turned into indoor lights. The bulbs are Alexa enabled so they're hooked up to the other lights in the basement.

All of the shelves are mounted to a strip on the wall that's attached to studs. Each individual shelf is connected to its neighbor and they're all attached to the base. Technically, they can be removed if/when we update the carpeting in the basement, but I honestly don't know when that'll happen.

In the future, we want to do the same thing to the little room that's connected at the end of this part of the basement.

I'll probably start adding books next weekend. I'm exhausted after finally finishing this up (Wednesday was a holiday, and I took Thursday and Friday off, and have been working non-stop all of these days.)

[Sock Monkey]

Dude, that is impressive. I have absolutely no woodworking skills and a friend and I built shelves for my movie collection for my previous home and it was a whole lot of work and nowhere as nice or impressive as what you’ve done.. You should definitely be proud of yourself! Love to see more pics when the shelves are full!

[RonClinton]

Absolutely beautiful job, Jason. I’m moving in a couple months and have one room in the new place I place to have built-ins installed. I know my limits, though, so will have to bypass trying to finagle a YouTube degree and instead need to hire it out. If I had half your skills, I might give it a shot.

[Dave1442397]

Nice job on the shelves! 

I cheated in this house. My job was moving to a new building in 2002, and it came furnished, so they sold off all the old stuff. I got 28 bookcases at $5 each, so that's what I've used for the past 22 years. 

[TacomaDiver]

Dude, that is impressive. I have absolutely no woodworking skills and a friend and I built shelves for my movie collection for my previous home and it was a whole lot of work and nowhere as nice or impressive as what you’ve done.. You should definitely be proud of yourself! Love to see more pics when the shelves are full!

Thank you! I did some really basic shelves for my movies (literally 1/4" plywood in a closet) when we first moved in. I did start the process of adding books last night. Nothing is in order yet but that should hopefully be finished this weekend.

Absolutely beautiful job, Jason. I’m moving in a couple months and have one room in the new place I place to have built-ins installed. I know my limits, though, so will have to bypass trying to finagle a YouTube degree and instead need to hire it out. If I had half your skills, I might give it a shot.

Thanks! Now that I'm an expert, I'm more than willing to offer my surfaces. I work cheap! Everything I did was a glorified box, so I believe in you! I do wonder what it would have cost if I hired someone though. I wish you the best at the new place and getting exactly what you want!

Nice job on the shelves!Â

I cheated in this house. My job was moving to a new building in 2002, and it came furnished, so they sold off all the old stuff. I got 28 bookcases at $5 each, so that's what I've used for the past 22 years.Â

Thank you!! Nice! A job two jobs ago was selling a bunch of furniture when they moved buildings, but I had no way to get bookcases from downtown Seattle to home while taking the bus.


The one thing we talked about that didn't happen was adding doors with plexiglass in them. I think I can still do that at a later date though - just might need some adjustments to the existing shelves.

Once I'm done loading these suckers up, I'll be sure to post some pictures!

[TacomaDiver]

It's a stretch to say that this is book related, but here's this weekend's purchase:
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And here's a progress shot of the assembly:
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I probably won't be able to finish the assembly until next weekend.

I don't want to say my wife "allowed" me to buy this, but she sees the benefit in having a saw of this nature. For those of you who aren't familiar, a SawStop is the only saw on the market with flesh-sensing technology, which means, if my fingers/hand/body touch the blade while it's on, in milliseconds, the blade is stopped and dropped out the way. It's the difference between amputation and a scratch. If I ever engage this safety system, it'll pay for itself immediately, especially considering that my medical deductible is $4k before my insurance even kicks in.

Coming up next - more bookshelves! And probably some cutting boards!

[RonClinton]

I don't want to say my wife "allowed" me to buy this, but she sees the benefit in having a saw of this nature. For those of you who aren't familiar, a SawStop is the only saw on the market with flesh-sensing technology, which means, if my fingers/hand/body touch the blade while it's on, in milliseconds, the blade is stopped and dropped out the way. It's the difference between amputation and a scratch. If I ever engage this safety system, it'll pay for itself immediately, especially considering that my medical deductible is $4k before my insurance even kicks in.

I've seen videos of this technology in action, and it's really something...a wise move on your part to get it. Enjoy that woodworking!

[TacomaDiver]

I've seen videos of this technology in action, and it's really something...a wise move on your part to get it. Enjoy that woodworking!

If the safety mechanism wasn't $100 and didn't wreck my blade, I would be tempted to try it out with a hot dog.

[dannyboy121070]

A holy grail that I never thought I'd see due to rights issues....a real favorite from my childhood.
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[mhatchett]

Happy New Year folks. Wanted share my latest find, Easton Press, 1965, Dracula. What a beautiful book. Got it for some trade credit and my local used bookstore.

Dracula 2.jpg

[RonClinton]

Happy New Year folks. Wanted share my latest find, Easton Press, 1965, Dracula. What a beautiful book. Got it for some trade credit and my local used bookstore.

Dracula 2.jpg

Congrats -- a beautiful book...but Easton Press only started publishing in 1975...?

[brlesh]

Congrats -- a beautiful book...but Easton Press only started publishing in 1975...?

That maybe the Heritage Press edition.

I think they did Dracula in 1965.

Still, a beautiful looking book!

B