Highly Recomended Books About Machineing

[uncle pete]

I've asked a fair amount of questions here over the years and have always gotten very good help, So to return a little bit back, I'd like to recommend some books that I've learned a lot from. I'm hoping others will list there favorite machinist's books too. All of these books will help the beginner and the very experienced. So here's my favorites.
"The Model Engineers Worshop Manual" By George H. Thomas.
"Workshop Techniques" By the same author.
All three "Machinist's Bedside Reader" books by Guy Lataurd.
"How to Run a Lathe" By South Bend Lathes.
"Machinery's Handbook" Any current or older copy is a must in my opinion.
Also a lot of the hard cover books published by our host's here "Village Press"

So would anybody else like to list there own favorites? I'm sure a person new to machining would appreciate a list of books that are well worth buying.

Pete

[moldmonkey]

An oldie but goodie. Line shaft era but it all still applies. ANDVANCED MACHINE WORK by Robert Smith is very good. Unusual in that it gives step-by-step instructions and how long it should take.

The KENNETH COPE BOOKS are great for the history of the American makers of precision tools and machine tools.

The WORKSHOP PRACTICE SERIES books are good and geared for the home shop. I only have a few. #1,#19, & #28 by Tubal Cain are good. Spindles by Sanhu is also good. UK members correct me if I'm wrong but I believe they are a "spin-off" of articles for Model Engineer and Model Engineer's Workshop.

[Thomas Staubo]

Advanced Machine Work by Robert Smith is available for free here:
http://www.archive.org/details/textb...vanc00smituoft

Looks like a great book. You can download it in multiple formats or just read it online.


.

[Michael Edwards]

One of my favs is Machine Shop Practice by K.H. Moltrecht vol 1 & 2. About 500 pages each, covers a lot of different things including shaper info.

ME

[OLDHORSESHOE]

I would add to that list the following:
Machine Shop Trade Secrets by James A. Harvey
Shop Theory published by Henry Ford Trade schools
Both books by J. Randolph Bulgin --- Randolph's Shop and Building Shop

I have also found useful the books published by the United States Navy (and probably other service branches.)

I have a special appreciation for people who take the time to produce books which allow them to share their work experiences. I have never seen a book depicting the wrong way to do things but that would be interesting as well.

[Evan]

If you are in to designing your own mechanical systems whatever they are I highly recommend Elements of Mechanism by Schawmb et. al. I have the revised 1952 hardcover edition but you can download the earlier 1921 edition for free here:

http://www.archive.org/details/eleme...chan00schwrich

It's a 62mb PDF but you can preview it by reading online first. It covers everything from the design of Ackerman steering geometry to clock gear trains to Watt's linkage to camshafts to involute gears, all with analysis and formulae and drawings.

[uncle pete]

Evan, Thanks for the heads up on that book, Some good stuff there.

Pete

[lazlo]

Pete, I have (and read ), just about every machine shop text that I've ever seen mentioned here and on PM, and that's a great list. My favorite overall text is Moltrecht though, and Cincinnati "A Treatise on Milling and Milling Machines" is by far the best milling book I've run across.

Robert Smith's "Advanced Machine Work" is excellent, although very dated -- the version that a lot of folks have is Lindsay's reprint of the 1925 Edition, so all the lathe tool geometries, speeds and feeds, are for carbon steel tools, it spends a lot of time describing the Gooseneck and tangential toolholders because the lathes of the day were floppy. I found the 12th (last) edition, from 1940, for $4 on Abe Books, and it's been substantially modernized and extended.

If you like Geo Thomas' books (I do!), J.A. Radford's "Improvements and Accessories for Your Lathe" is outstanding, and Radford and Thomas cross-reference each other.

The best encyclopedia of practical/useful mechanisms I've seen is Sclater's "Mechanisms and Mechanical Devices Sourcebook." The cover of the 4th Ed shows servos and robot arms to imply that it's been modernized, but the majority of the book covers Geneva Mechanisms, eccentrics, linkages, reciprocal motion, ...

It's not cheap, but it's beautifully illustrated, and well documented. Since it was also sold in electronic form, I've seen the PDF floating around too:

[uncle pete]

Lazlo, Yeah I have the Radford book and forgot to list it. Also agree with you about it.

Pete

[lazlo]

Forgot to add: Tiffie and Sir John turned me on to the Engineer's Black Book -- a much more useful version of the Machinery's Handbook.