T i m wrote
Rod Speed wrote

I use the manufacturer's workshop manual myself, in pdf format.

I would too and do when I can find / afford them. As you say further
down, they are often produced by people with a copy of the genuine
manual and scanner and sold on the likes of ebay on a CD. ;-)

Yeah, that's where I got mine.

That works fine on the tablet. The iphone is a bit small screened for
that.

I think you have to zoom, scroll and pan when viewing a .pdf

Really depends on how well the original was done, what is on each page.

whereas if it was in 'Kindle format' as text you
could set the fonts (at least) to whatever you like.

Plenty of converters like Calibre.

Yeah, and I think you can eMail smaller
sizes of text to yourself or summat?

Yeah. Not just small sizes either,

Oh, I thought there was a size limit?

Not for authors.

not reason you can't use what book authors
use to get their books into kindle format.

Calibre I'm assuming?

Nar, I meant what Amazon provides for
book authors when they want to epublish.

My biggest problem is that I get lots of books that I want
to read from garage/yard sales for peanuts and have never
been crude enough to chop the spines off with a ****ing
great hydraulic guillotine

I've got one of them and it will easily cut the spine off
a fat telephone directory. The blade is horribly sharp.

Yeah, that would work fine and is how the books are done
in the first place. I just cringe at destroying the books like that.

As do I, generally, however, as you say lower down, if that isn't done
they could just end up getting thrown away *before* they have been
converted into something more flexible, portable and storable. ;-(

Yeah, still makes me cringe tho, illogical I agree.

Same here ... it's quite a big decision to put
a book / manual under the knife like that

Yeah, tho with its more of a rather silly reservation in
many ways given that the books would otherwise lie
around the house in massive piles or be rather
expensively housed in proper bookshelves because
there is **** all market for them and whoever has
to dispose of them when I have died will most likely
have to dump them on the Salvos and Vinnies etc.

Googles Ah, the Salvation Army (of course) and 'St Vincent de Paul'
(that I don't think we have over here). I have heard 'The Salvation
Army' referred to as 'the Sally Army' over here (just as an
abbreviation, no slur on them) but I can imagine an Aussy saying
'Salvos'. ;-)

Think they call it that in Britain too.

but with my thermal binder I can normally put them back
together again. But ho hum, if you want en electronic
version that is otherwise unavailable what can you do ...

Yeah, I have been tempted to try a DIY automatic page
turner with the book held say open at 60 degrees and
a decent high quality camera maybe with a robot and
an air pump to grab the pages but it's a lot of work.

I'm sure such has been invented by the
Victorians and if not, 'Heath Robinson'. ;-)

Yeah, there are some on the net, new designs too.

Google has one they use for scanning physical books.

I still haven't got off my arse and done the kitchen
cupboards and benches in a format you can't buy.

I often find it amusing just how many people
don't realise how much effort some stuff takes.

Yeah, I designed and built my house on a bare block of land and
did almost all the work myself. Lot of work, but well worth it.

A mate asked me if I could put a big mirror up in his newly uplifted
bathroom and I declined. Part of the reason (along with the thought of
the damage I could do if I dropped the mirror whilst fitting it or the
pipes / wires I might find with my drill etc) was the amount of tools
I would have to dig out, just to do the one job. Add to that the range
plugs or different sized and heads of screws and fasteners you might
need depending on what material is behind the tiles and it was just
going to be more than I was happy with, just to help a mate.

I screwed mine to the inside of the bathroom sliding door.

So, a 'builder;' would likely have all the required tools and material
on his van, insurance to cover any mistakes but I'm not sure if he
would have been as interested re using say stainless steel screws
because it was in a bath / shower room? Or not using countersunk
screws when round / pan heads would be the professional / optimal
solution?

The screws of mine are hidden by the mirror which slides onto brackets.