Thread: Any Reviews? DC Prop Builders Handbook

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Anybody own a copy of the DC Prop Builders Handbook volume I or II?
http://www.dcprops.com/booksvids.htm



Self-published books at such a high price tag ($40) generally scare me off when there's no reviews or sample pages to be seen. I'm looking for a starting guide for animated props as a self-confessed newbie to pneumatics and animatronics.

I do, were given to me when they 1st came out, as DC cemetery / props are local to me. They have a lot of good info in both, if you are new to building & pneumatics.....
Some info a little dated, but overall good stuff for getting your feet wet.

Know of a few people that were not that happy with the books, but know of people that loved them....... 2nd book really covers pneumatics only, were the 1st book dips into it, but mostly on building certain props.

Personally at the time I got them I enjoyed the read & info. For me now, I am way past the info that is in there, with all the 3 axis skull,pc programing of & CGI vid stuff now,.....but at that time was very useful info for me !
Still useful stuff for those just starting out,especially #2 with the pneumatics info,of course these days there are plenty of sites to pull all that kind of info from.

I own Volume II and am very happy with it. I'm just starting in pneumatics and followed the plans for the coffin sit up mechanism and it works perfectly. The instructions are designed to be bolted together so you don't need to know how to weld to build a very sturdy prop.

Thanks for the feedback Dark lord & Halstaff. If either of you are looking to sell your used copies, please let me know.

I have both of these books. Built the grim organist from Vol 1 and the Mourner from Vol 2. As the others noted there is a lot of good info in each of these books, great section on penumatic valve and cylinders. Good info on controllers but a bit dated by now. My major comment on these is Brent did a great job capturing the details of the props he made his props but the books really needed a good technical edit. Second is that the picture quality is not the greatest but then again they are not presented as "professional quality". Watch out for some errors and conflicting or difficult to read explinations, again writting style and lack of editing. Overall a great starter set if you're wanting to get into prop building in particular animated props. These were very helpful in getting me started. However you still need to have a basic understanding of mechanics and will need to read the instruction several times carefully due to the way they are written.

I reviewed the set on my blog (http://unklesatan.blogspot.com/2010/...-builders.html) back in July. I love the set.

I have both volumes and they really are good books.

The descriptions for both books leaves a lot to be desired. Could someone please post the index from each one as a break down of what's included?