fine woodworking

[crewchief437]

so i'm looking at getting a sub of this magazine and also i am looking at the archive access. they sell a cd of 1st year through 2014 for 65.79. or through the site you get access for 80/yr + 20 a yr to upgrade to get the next year. seems pretty steep. when you get the online version is it downloadable PDF or only accessable through the site? same question with the CD. can i pull the plans off the CD or no? any info helps. thanks, Adam

 

[boiler7904]

I think they do a 14 day trial for the online access - at least they used to. Same for Fine Homebuilding.

I've done that in the past and it did offer downloadable PDFs of each article - don't recall entire issues being available as a single PDF. Some stories aren't available as PDFs but if you have a PDF writer on your computer, you could always print the article to PDF for the future.

I've never really read Fine Woodworking religiously but in my opinion Fine Homebuilding isn't worth the paper its printed on and hasn't been for 4 or 5 years. In the late 90s /early 00s I bought ever issue and subscribed for a couple of years. Subscription ran out and there were just less and less reasons to buy single copies. Just decided it wasn't worth the price of admission outside of the Houses and Kitchens and Baths issues. It feels like they're getting away from what used to be their core audience.

I did pick up this years Fine Woodworking Tools and Shops issue at Barnes & Noble but there were very few shops in it.

 

[PugetDude]

...but in my opinion Fine Homebuilding isn't worth the paper its printed on and hasn't been for 4 or 5 years. In the late 90s /early 00s I bought ever issue and subscribed for a couple of years. Subscription ran out and there were just less and less reasons to buy single copies. Just decided it wasn't worth the price of admission outside of the Houses and Kitchens and Baths issues. It feels like they're getting away from what used to be their core audience.

DITTO! I discovered Fine Homebuilding in 1982... was so impressed I ordered all the back issues. and subscribed for the next 30 years. Couldn't wait for each new issue to arrive, Read and re-read every issue front to back and back to front, then kept it for future design ideas. I built a custom lake cabin and did a couple of whole-house remodels, using a lot of ideas and tips I learned from FH. Concrete to finish carpentry, FH had it covered.
Alas, it was too good to last...
First the physical format of the magazine changed, followed by the content. Now it's all about how to tape a tyvek vapor barrier, blower door leak testing, LEED certifications, R-values, spray foam, "green" everything. Little or no fine homebuilding, just energy efficient home-sealing position papers and product plugs. The latte-slurping metrosexual econazis ruined a great magazine, I got so disenchanted with their self-serving editorial zealotry that when I moved in 2012 I cancelled my subscription and tossed 30 years of magazines in the trash.

 

[jgorm]

That's a lot of cash. Just buy a few magazines. I have about 10 I've picked up over the years that will keep me busy with ideas for a long time.