Last night I uploaded the files for the third press run of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” to our printing company. Production began this morning (our printer works crazy hours, too).
As mentioned earlier, this press run of the book will contain an index at the back. This is the index developed by Suzanne “Minion” Ellison, and actually is fun to read. In addition to the traditional index, Suzanne also developed an index to all the photos in the book, a list of people mentioned in the text and two pages of quotes from the book that she thought were notable.
I laid out the pages for the index this weekend and got to use some photographs in it I have been eager to publish – these are pictures I took of John Sindelar’s collection this spring. (No, my high-resolution photos of the naked mermaid brace are not among them. If you want a naked mermaid brace, drop me a line. I know the guy who makes them.)
You can download the formatted and picture-laden index using the link below. If you are especially anal retentive you can cut out the pages, bind them and carefully affix them to the back of the book.
Suzanne prepared this index out of the goodness of her heart. But lest you think us ungrateful, I sent her the walnut English Layout Square that I built while on Roy Underhill’s show “The Woodwright’s Shop.” I learned that tip from Minion Fancy magazine.
In addition to the index, the new press run will have a few minor typo corrections that slipped though the second printing, and I tweaked a paragraph to the section on plow planes to reinforce a couple of my original points. Nothing earthshaking.
Also, the linen cover and the stamp will be a different color. Books from this press run will be for sale in about four weeks (same price). We are likely to run out of copies of the second printing in about two weeks if sales continue at this clip. Just FYI.
— Christopher Schwarz
Christopher,
I really like the book, but I didn`t get why you didn`t say anything about clamps. I mean they are in “the list”. They should come right after your explanation on workbenches, (if you fallow “the list” order) but then there is none, the chapter ends. What is really weird is the fact that nobody noticed it. Was that a mistake, is my book missing pages, am I going crazy?
Otávio,
I wish I had more to say on the issue of clamping. I have my personal preferences, but when I teach I find that almost any clamping system works. I’ve used everything from pipe clamps, to parallel-jaw clamps to no clamps. In fact, one of the great joys of handwork is how few clamps you can get away with. When I dovetail stuff, I only use clamps to assemble it in certain situations. When I glue up panels, I use a spring joint to reduce the number of clamps I need — sometimes down to one clamp when I am ill-equipped. When I glue up mortise-and-tenon joints, I can drawbore the joints and forgo clamps if need be (I’ll clamp the joint if I have them available).
Clamps of all sorts are shown in the early texts, from iron screw-fed clamps to wedging schemes.
I’d really like to add a chapter on clamping, but I’m not fully educated on the history of the form.
Sorry this isn’t a better answer.
Well, it`s a pretty good answer. The lack of a chapter on them actually made me think if they were (huge shelves full of them) that necessary since you gave such a good insight on joints that can be a clamp-substitute.
Congrats on the success of the book so far! I’m happy to hear sales continue to be strong and hope it continues…I’m sure it’s on a lot of Christmas lists. I’ll send you some pics of the raised panel door I recently made for a bathroom cabinet (just put on the first coat of finish this morning). Inspired by the book (and smarting from a recent router table malfunction) I picked up a plow plane and made the whole door exclusively with hand tools. This morning, I used the router table as a finishing table…
Hi Chris, I am wondering if any of the corrections will be incorporated into the Kindle version of the book? That is the version I am planing to get, and I will probably wait until corrections are incorporated.
The Kindle edition is from the second printing and has virtually all the corrections it (except a couple typos). We are not planning on updating the Kindle version anytime soon.
Any chance of having the index printed as a separate item to add to the 2nd editions?
You can download the index — as formatted for the book — here:
http://lostartpress.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/download-the-pretty-edition-of-the-anarchists-tool-chest-index/
Printing it and selling it would be very expensive. It’s much cheaper for all of us if you print it out on your own printer and keep it handy.