Preface

What This Book Is About

If you’ve ever wished you could take all of the knowledge of a master machinist and pour it directly into your brain, here is your chance. Machine Show Know-How proves that there are no secrets in the machine shop, just information that is rarely documented—until now. This book focuses on manually controlled machine tools, but moves beyond the basics to present the problem-solving insights, shop shortcuts, and clever tips and tricks that normally take years of first-hand shop experience to learn.

Who This Book Is For

This book is for home shop machinists, industrial model and scientific instrument makers, R&D lab technicians, prototype designers, custom motorcycle and car builders, gunsmiths, teachers, students, and anyone who has a fundamental knowledge of machine shop practice and wants to advance to the next level.

How This Book Is Organized

Organized in an easy to understand chapter format, Machine Shop Know-How presents hundreds of imaginative shop solutions devised by top industry professionals, including how to really organize your shop; how to truly master your lathe, milling machine, bandsaws and grinders; how to fabricate ingenious shop-made tools and modify existing ones; how to make clever and useful jigs and fixtures; and how to use the valuable skill-building lessons learned in this book to solve your own shop problems.

Note From the Author

I hope this book answers your questions, stimulates your creativity, and improves your machine shop projects so you can finally eliminate the Oh, darn factor. To this end, the nearly 600 line drawings in this text were developed specifically for this book—no copies of copies of old Army manuals.
I am thankful for the generous help of the many individuals and companies who contributed their time and knowledge to the book. The greatest care has been taken to be precise and accurate, but naturally, I remain responsible for any errors.