# Penguin Donkey



## Terryjb

Has anyone ever made something similar to the Penguin Donkey bookcase and kept the plans?

Perhaps I am being a bit lazy as it is essentially very simple, but reinventing wheels does seem the ultimate waste of time.


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## SketchUp Guru

That's an interesting bookcase. Have plans been issued for it? It doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to reverse engineer it. I imagine it's a few minutes worth for this one. Do you have any other photos?


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## Harbo

Using the height of those old Penguins, must be quite easy to scale off the dimensions?

Rod


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## SketchUp Guru

I found dimensions for the one in the OP's photo. I think I could fairly easily create drawings for it from those and some other photos I found.


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## SketchUp Guru

Nevermind. It was a waste of my time. :roll:


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## monkeybiter

It looks more useful now, seeing the tops are horizontal. Just needs a little table top on it.


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## bugbear

Ouch. I see that a "real one" lists for £410. I'm not surprised you want to make your own!

http://www.isokonplus.com/isokon_plus_price_list.pdf

The design shown is the Isokon Donkey 2, from 1963. The Original donkey design (1939) is bent plywood, and pretty unsuitable for making in one-off quantities.

A GIS for Isokon Donkey gives MANY images, which should suffice to reverse engineer the design.

BugBear


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## Alf

Okay, someone point out what a numbskull I am, but why would I want to store my Penguin books on their sides like that? The Inner Librarian rebels. Other than that, I like it. 'Specially the earlier curvy design.


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## AndyT

Alf":1hqwmvx0 said:


> Okay, someone point out what a numbskull I am, but why would I want to store my Penguin books on their sides like that? The Inner Librarian rebels. Other than that, I like it. 'Specially the earlier curvy design.



Tsk tsk Alf; you're thinking of your books as useful things which store information or stories. These odd little curvy things are to impress visitors with your good taste in interior design. You will of course have to choose your books by the colour of the covers in future, not whether you are interested in the contents! :wink: :wink: 

(But having said all that somewhat sarcastically, I happened across a Penguin 75th anniversary exhibition in our local Oxfam bookshop a while back, and it looked great. Really strong visual designs which have worn well.)


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## Alf

See? I was a numbskull. D'oh! #-o 

Actually I do love and appreciate the design aspect of the old Penguins very much - Edward Young really laid excellent groundwork for the brand. But, well, a book's a book, and the cover is famously not the important bit.


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## Eric The Viking

I'm with you on the shape, Alf.

It's very elegant and form follows function well. The later ones just imitate the shape and the angular corners spoil it, IMHO. On a practical note, the original makes keeping newspapers tidy relatively easy, whereas the later one just wouldn't work as well.

The DC is a crossword addict (one of the main reasons we subscribe to Bristol Evening Post!), and by Saturday, we usually have newspapers all over the dining room in various stages of dismemberment. I think she'd love it, as, Penguins notwithstanding, the upper shelf would be ideal for pens pencils and scissors. It would be a big mould though, I guess, and I can see it's not really a one-off project.
Could you get the curves by kerf-cutting, or are they too tight a radius?

What do the team think about the legs on the original design? I see how they probably work (extension of the back of the shelves), but they wouldn't stand rough handling - too easily splintered or split. Might be an issue here!

E.


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## AndyT

Eric The Viking":2e45bq0a said:


> What do the team think about the legs on the original design? I see how they probably work (extension of the back of the shelves), but they wouldn't stand rough handling - too easily splintered or split. Might be an issue here!
> 
> E.



I see what you mean, Eric, they do look a bit like lolly sticks:






If you can't train your unruly household to be more respectful of your work, I suppose you could try just doubling or tripling the thickness of ply on the legs.


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## Eric The Viking

Fair point Andy - they're getting old enough now...

That looks old enough to be an original, and it appears they used the end cheeks to support the curve. 

You've got me thinking...

E.


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## AndyT

Yes, it is an original - from the V&A website which explains that 1939 was not a good time to be introducing new bookcase designs:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/p/isokon-penguin-donkey-bookcase/


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## SketchUp Guru

Here's a model drawn to dimensions taken from an original of the MkII Penguin Donkey. Looks like a nice little piece to put next to my reading chair. It's really not very big.


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## marcros

dave, what length x width x height is it?


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## marcros

oh, it really is quite small. would look great in a childs corner, with a beanbag etc.


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## marcros

lol


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## robgul

I know this a very old thread but I'm thinking of trying to make one (the Mk 2 version with the white boxes) - has anyone ever found any plans? - or even created some? I would make it in 12mm birch ply and leave it unpainted with bare edges . . not authentic but it's a look that we like and will match a console table I made a few months ago.

It doesn't look too difficult - the tricky bit is knowing the angles for the cuts to create the boxes.

Back in the late 60s I bought one of the Mk2 version when they were being made by John Alan Designs in London, with a licence from Isokon.


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## marcros

Penguin Donkeys and Eames Chairs possibly


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## robgul

marcros said:


> Penguin Donkeys and Eames Chairs possibly



I stumbled across that a few minutes ago - just need to have a crash course in SketchUp to to see whether it makes sense. Having had a donkey I have a pretty good recollection of how it looked, and I have the dimensions - it probably just the angles that I need to know and be able to cut everything. If I can find an "end-on" drawing I may be able to take the angle from that.


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## TheUnicorn

this site makes reference to plans, but no obvious links, signing up as a member might give more options Penguin Donkey • sketchUcation • 1


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## TheUnicorn

Penguin Donkey Mark 2


Isokon Plus Isokon Penguin Donkey Mark 2




spectacularpenguin.blogspot.com





has a large collection of images, including some side on, seems like the A frame legs are the hardest part of the build, after that it is just a couple of wonky topped bookcases screwed on, and a (freestanding?) board, with cut outs for the legs placed in between


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## TheUnicorn




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## robgul

Thanks - I've screen-grabbed that and made a large print - the angles are, I think 15 degrees so i may be able to scale up and work out the component sizes.

.. but I'm still looking for plans!


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## J-G

robgul said:


> Thanks - I've screen-grabbed that and made a large print - the angles are, I think 15 degrees so i may be able to scale up and work out the component sizes.
> 
> .. but I'm still looking for plans!


I would suggest drawing your own but I see Barry Bucknell is your hero


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## robgul

J-G said:


> I would suggest drawing your own but I see Barry Bucknell is your hero



 - the thing I remember most about Barry Bucknell was his sawing ..... the timber had obviously been sawn part-way through off camera and the fuzzy black and white picture didn't show the cut very clearly - his saw went through the cuts like a knife through butter. I must see if he's on YouTube

I've got a large sheet of paper and am scaling the measurements of the ends of the boxes - hopefully that will enable to take measurements off it to make a cut-list. I have the 12mm ply but will probably make a prototype/proof of concept box in MDF first.


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## HOJ

Have you seen this thread.

Penguin Isokon Donkey wip


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## robgul

Thanks!!! - That's just what I need - have to admit I seldom look at Projects otherwise I would have seen it.

I acquired* some lengths of beech today that will be pretty good for the legs - I intend to make the boxes with 12mm top grade birch play and leave exposed edges rather than paint it all. Having looked through the build-thread I'm going to try and mark out all the parts to cut rather than building the boxes and then cutting off the tops.

*A double bed and a single bed had been fly-tipped on a country lane - saw them when I was out on my bike so went back in the car with the cordless circular saw and liberated all the "real" timber - the classy chipboard and smoked glass headboards were ignored! I also got a stack of beech-faced plywood laths which will be useful for something.


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## HOJ

Is this of use, you may have to tweak it as its only a draft.


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## robgul

HOJ said:


> Is this of use, you may have to tweak it as its only a draft.


Thanks! That's brilliant and a great start - I'm going to make one from MDF to start with to see if it works rather than risk the birch ply cost. I assume that the marked dimensions are as the original item?

Progress may be slow as I'm backed with "orders" for stuff made from pallet timber that people want as Christmas presents! - I'll report back in due course.


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## Illy

With the end on diagram and the dimensions also quoted you can use sketchup to scale up to size and then read the various angles and other dimensions directly from sketchup. I did it for a designer chair design I wanted to copy. Step one is to import the picture into sketchup, I then traced over the components with the straight line tool on a new layer. If you tell sketchup the actual measurement of one dimension it will scale the whole thing up. You can then hide the photo layer, just leaving a fully dimensioned plan.

I'm not an expert with sketchup and there was a bit of trial and error (and consulting the internet) but the end result worked a treat - the chair looked exactly as it should. This sketchup technique is a method well worth learning on a wet and windy day when you don't fancy the garage !


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## robgul

Illy said:


> With the end on diagram and the dimensions also quoted you can use sketchup to scale up to size and then read the various angles and other dimensions directly from sketchup. I did it for a designer chair design I wanted to copy. Step one is to import the picture into sketchup, I then traced over the components with the straight line tool on a new layer. If you tell sketchup the actual measurement of one dimension it will scale the whole thing up. You can then hide the photo layer, just leaving a fully dimensioned plan.
> 
> I'm not an expert with sketchup and there was a bit of trial and error (and consulting the internet) but the end result worked a treat - the chair looked exactly as it should. This sketchup technique is a method well worth learning on a wet and windy day when you don't fancy the garage !



I think I'll need a lot of wet and windy days as my SketchUp knowledge is below zilch! - I shall persevere


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