Machining

Machine Shop Practice

By: Karl Moltrect

Pub: Industrial Press, 1981

ISBN: 0831111267 (Vol. 1), 0831111321 (Vol. 2)

$20.95 (Vol. 1), $21.95 (Vol. 2)

            These books have everything anyone could ever need to know about manual machining.  It is logically arranged and in easy-to-understand language for the uninitiated, but not so basic that it wouldn’t be useful to a skilled machinist.  There are lots of tables and charts giving speeds and feeds for various materials and pertinent formulas as well as many excellent illustrations.  The first volume contains basic knowledge while the second pertains to more advanced operations.

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Machine Shop Training Course

By: Franklin Day Jones

Pub: Industrial Press, 1964

ISBN: 0831110392 (Vol. 1), 0831110406 (Vol. 2)

$18.95 (Vol. 1), $19.95 (Vol. 2)

            These books are very similar to the Moltrect books, but, I think, are geared more towards the beginning machinist.  It actually says that the book is for students in a classroom or self-taught setting.  It contains just as much pertinent information as the Machine Shop Practice set arranged a bit differently, but just as effective.  Franklin Jones was one of the editors of The Machinery Handbook.

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Machining Fundamentals

By: John R. Walker

Pub: Goodheart-Willcox Publisher, 2000

ISBN: 1566376629

$55.00

            This is a textbook for machining classes and provides an introduction to the various machining processes, setups, and procedures.  It is very comprehensive and covers traditional machining processes and CNC (Computer Numerical Control) and EDM (Electrical Discharge Machining) and some other non-traditional methods.  It also has sections on various fasteners, shop safety and setup, measurement and layout, reading blueprints and drawings, and hand tools.

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The Complete Metalsmith

By: Tim McCreight

Pub: Davis Publications

ISBN: 0871922401

$14.95

            This is a nice spiral bound book that's aimed toward jewelers.  It gives metallurgical information on all non-ferrous metals, as well as loads of techniques used in the jewelry making industry.  There is a very complete glossary and a supplier's list as well as a list of periodicals and organizations and lots of conversion tables.  This should be the first book any aspiring metalworker should buy.

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Metals Technic

Ed: Tim McCreight

Pub: Brynmorgen Press

ISBN: 0961598476

            This is a collection of articles by many different masters of metalsmithing.  There is a wide variety of techniques discussed from casting to patination.  It is aimed at jewelers but has relevance to any metalworker, especially instrument repair technicians and makers.  

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Metalwork for Craftsmen

By: Emil F. Kronquist

Pub: Dover

ISBN: 0486227898

$8.95

            This is a classic metalworking text that covers all the techniques from soldering to planishing.  There are loads of projects in the back, mostly vessels and ashtrays.  Like the previous two books, this has relevance to all metalworkers and teaches all the relevant techniques with lots of drawings and examples.

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The Pirotechnia

By: Vannoccio Biringuccio

Pub: Dover

ISBN: 0486261344

$16.95

            The Pirotechnia is a sixteenth-century treatise on metallurgy that gives insight into the techniques used in the day.  There are many detailed woodcuts showing the types of furnaces used in smelting ore and of the presses used for making the metal into sheet, bar, or finished casting.  There is of course the text which gives detailed descriptions of all of the processes.  This book is listed in the bibliography of The Art of the Trumpet Maker by Robert Barclay (reviewed in the Brass Instruments section) as well as several books on metallurgy.  The book is of historical interest only since these practices are no longer employed.  But it does give an accurate picture of how instrument makers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries would have gotten their metals.

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The Art of Blacksmithing

By: Alex W. Bealer

Pub: Castle

ISBN: 0785803955

$9.98

            Instrument making is often referred to as a mix between jewelry making and blacksmithing which is why I have included books on each subject in this review.  This book is an exceptional one on the subject of blacksmithing.  The author has studied it extensively, speaking with surviving blacksmiths and putting the craft down in words.  Virtually every technique is described in detail and there are over five-hundred excellent illustrations showing tools and forges and techniques.  If you are going to own one book on working the black metal, this should be it.

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Machinists’ Ready Reference

Compiled by: C. Weingartner

Pub: Prakken Publications, 2001

ISBN: 0970339801

Price: $24.95

            Here is an all-around reference for machinists, engineers, and toolmakers.  Inside is every formula, chart, and tidbit of information one could ever want in a handy, flat-lying, spiral-bound format.  While it is not as comprehensive as the Machinery Handbook, it is far less expensive and has all of the information most people would use in a normal shop setting.

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Pocket Ref

Compiled by: Thomas J. Glover

Pub: Sequoia Publishing, 2002

ISBN: 1885071337

Price: $12.95

            While this is not specifically a machining book, it does have a lot of useful information to machinists.  It also has a lot of miscellaneous things that are really quite interesting like planetary information, airport codes, conversion charts, morse code, birthstones, and a host of other information that you probably never thought you'd need all in one easy-to-read package for when you do.  The 3rd edition (2002) is quite a bit larger than previous editions.