Page 2 RAIN December 1976 RAIN access BUILDING Stone Masonry, Ken Kern, Steve Magers, Lou Penfield, $6 from: Owner-Builder Publications Box 550 Oakhurst, CA 93644 First of a new series of guides for beginning builders being prepared by Kern's press. Beautifully illustrated with clear photographs, this volume covers the basics of stability; choosing, fitting and shaping stone; laid, faced and formed stonework; and details of steps, arches, fireplaces, scaffolding and other operations. At the same time, it gives a sense of the beauty of different kinds of stonework and how to think ahead to how what you're doing will turn out. A beginner's, not a stonemason's, guide, but good for that purpose. Private Water Systems, $2.50 from: Midwest Plan Service 207 Davidson Hall Iowa State University Ames, lA 50011 If you're going to do your own water system, this is the guide to get. Detailed information on determining how much water you need, pros and cons of different water sources, choosing pumps and equipment, planning and calculating a water system, and various water treatment techniques. Handbook for Building Homes ofEarth, free from: Office of International Affairs Department of Housing and Urban Development Washington, DC 20410 A real bargain, even if you had to pay· for it. Goes on your bookshelf right next to Middleton's Build Your House of Earth. Simple, clear, how-to information for building earth homes-soil testing, site preparation, details of adobe, pressed block, rammed earth, earth roofs and floors, and surface coatings. Excellent illustrations. Better how-to than Middleton's book but fewer design examples and case studies of problems. It's a strange route that highway engineer's soil mechanics takes back into knowledgeable building of earth homes! More details on oil-stabilized earth floors and some other techniques can be found in the earlier Earth for Homes, 1955, from the same office. Don't Go Buy Appearances, George Hoffman, $2.95 from: Woodward Books Box 773 Corte Madera, CA 94925 A manual for checking out and evaluating a house before purchase. A lot of good specific advice on how to find out if the.furnace boiler is about rusted out, wha-t the electrical capacity of the house is, whether the leaky faucet is a major or minor problem and how to tell quality and what it means in your pocketbook over 40 years. More i'mportantly, how to figure if fixing the problems are major or minor undertakings. Velux Roof Windows Velux-America Inc. 80 Cummings Park Woburn, MA 01801 Roof windows are a good approach to pulling a lot of sun heat and light into a building, renovating and using attics in old houses for more efficient space use and not having to build complex and expensive dormers into a roof. Get the information from these folks-showing a lot of varied applications, how to flash to prevent leaks and how to deal with the new problems of sloping windows! Whether you use their products or make your own, it's a good idea. If they would come out with a sliding insulating shutter similar to their decorative one, I'd give them our four-dandelion award. Plane Iron Adjusting ~f!W·-~ Double Plane Iron Assy .---1 Regulator Tension Adjusting Knob Woodcraft Catalog, 50¢ from: Woodcraft Supply Corp. 313 Montvale Ave. Woburn, MA 01801 A connoisseur's guide to woodworking tools-if you think you need Cadillacs. You'll have to pay for it. Sometimes, though, you want to find out if the tool or the person makes the difference. From here you can get and try out Swiss carving tools, Japanese saws, shipbuilder's adze, bark spuds, broad axes, German/French/English/American drawknives-you name it. Next time you will make it yourself. The catalog is a learning experience in itself. Minnesota Woodworkers Supply Co. Industrial Blvd. Rogers, MN 55374 Woodcraft supplies tools, Minnesota Woodworkers supplies all sorts of hardto-find specialty hardware-plans, upholstery supplies, lamp parts, furniture trim, carvings, hinges and locks, veneers and inlays. -Tom Bender
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