Machinist Library

[alanganes]

Not one of the more commonly cited books, but I have found "The Complete Metalworking Manual" by R.Cooley to be a pretty good overview type book that give you a bit of direction about lots of shop processes. Obviously written for trade school environment it does not go super deep into theory, but I always thought it gives one good idea of what some of the the possibilities are. Copies are still pretty easy to find and inexpensive:

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Metalworking-Manual-R-Cooley/dp/0668014067

The Machinist Bedside Reader series are fun and full of ideas if you can find copies anywhere.

[BCRider]

A checkbook.

I'd reluctantly have to strongly second that one... And I got a very good belly laugh at reading it....

I've dabbled at machining for much of my life. I was running small items on my fathers old 13" Southbend when I was in my early teens. And we had a lathe at work in a prototyping shop that I was one of the few to ever touch.

But I didn't really mature and learn until I took it on as a far more avid hobbyist about 27 years ago. And because the Interwebz is not what it is now I relied heavily on books for my learning to do things right. The books are not any that would be valuable to anyone in industry but for home hobby information I found them to be highly usable.

The Workshop Practice Series of books from Special Interest Model Books out of Britain has a number of good titles that helped me a lot at my local library and which I would not mind having as a home source. They only had a few but if that two or three were anything to go by you could not go too far wrong. Google the underlined phrase and it'll take you to the Amazon listings for them.

By far the most valuable was Lawrence Sparey's "The Amatuer's Lathe". I rank it up there alongside the "How To Run a Lathe" by Southbend.... which when I read much of it later on was also a good find. I believe he also had a companion book on milling in the lathe. But before I had to resort to that I ran into a deal on a smaller size mill/drill and that solved that issue.....

I also got a lot out of Guy Lautard's Machinist Bedside Readers. They read like helpful hints videos from some of the top YouTube machinist's. And with plans to boot! He's got a light and humorous way of writing which makes the books fun to read as well as informative.

I've got two of Rudy Kouhoupt's books as well. A highly interesting peek into table top machining.

There were a few other good offerings too which escape me.... Or at least this did trigger one memory. Reading George Thomas' book on the "Universal Pillar Tool" was interesting both for the uses of it and for the methods used. But I never really felt the need to build one. Lots of good ideas though. Not sure it justifies buying the book though.

There were a couple of books on Shapers but that's also pretty specialized if you don't have one of them.

[754]

Your dad had a lathe ..lucky you..
My dad had a bit and brace with a drill chuck on it, i drilled thru spring steel with it.
Later on he got a 3/8 Black and Decker drill, man that was something.. whoo hooo..
And saws , i was determined to build a bow. Carefully laid it out on a laminated hardwood ski, cut it 4 times over about 5 feet to get a bow shape. It took days.. with a hand saw..... could not figure out how to taper it. So it did not work.. damn..
Then in grade 8 we had lathes..,i was in Heaven, drill press too..

[Ohio Mike]

I came up with a list some time back for this exact question. I have all of the book below and several shelves more...
I would recommend any of these to someone starting out.


*Machinery’s Handbook

American Machinist Handbook – Colvin etal
(similar to Machinery’s Handbook but not published since the 1950s)

*Engineers Black Book “Pocket Size Machinist Reference Book”
(available in metric or imperial versions)

*Machine Shop Practice Vols 1 & 2 – Moltrecht

*Machine Shop Training Course Vols 1 & 2 – Jones

Machine Tool Operation Vols 1 & 2 – Burghardt

Virtually Any Text written Colvin & Stanley
(published by Hill/McGraw Hill Publishers)

*The Perfect Shop, Building Shop, or Randolph’s Shop all by J. Randolph Bulgin

*still in print

2nd Note...
Turns out the Moltrecht and Jones texts are both stocked by KBC Tools
Also the Bulgin books are stocked by Village Press, host of this web site.

[garyhlucas]

McMaster Carr catalog. I was over there today waiting for my order and browsing the paper catalog. It is amazing what you don’t realize is out there from the internet. Shaft collars, holy crap, round, hex, square, D shape, threaded, acme thread, one piece, two piece, weldable, heavy duty, adjustable! Pages & pages of just shaft collars!

[Dperdue]

McMaster Carr catalog. I was over there today waiting for my order and browsing the paper catalog. It is amazing what you don’t realize is out there from the internet. Shaft collars, holy crap, round, hex, square, D shape, threaded, acme thread, one piece, two piece, weldable, heavy duty, adjustable! Pages & pages of just shaft collars!

I not only still prefer real books, but also real paper catalogs. I just enjoy looking at them.

[Ian B]

Not a must have, and not a reference book, but wonderful to learn how, who and when machine tools developed:

Tools for the Job by L.T.C. Rolt: ISBN 10: 0112904335 ISBN 13: 9780112904335

Ian

[wdtom44]

Dperdue, I have to agree, nothing like a real catalog.

Garyhlucas, Yeah, one can learn a lot from reading the McMaster catalog. When I was working if I had a few minutes to kill I would do just that. Not only did I learn a lot but I looked like I was busy looking up something for my job/the company.

[rowbare]

These are somewhat tangential but offer great insight:

Setup Reduction Through Effective Workholding by Edward G. Hoffman

Handbook of Dimensional Measurement by Mark Curtis

bob

[tech610]

I recommend Machining Fundamentals or something in that class.

https://www.amazon.com/Machining-Fundamentals-John-R-Walker/dp/1590702492

It is a real textbook. "Machinery Handbook" is the most comprehensive reference, but it is not a textbook.
Also out of copyright book on google books 100 years old vintage are good too.

[Tim Clarke]

l
Setup Reduction Through Effective Workholding by Edward G. Hoffman

bob[/QUOTE]

I really enjoyed Ed's contributions in HSM