Info you need and none you don't

As a beginner machinist this was exactly the book I was looking for. It's current (most machining books seem to have been written in the 50's) so it covers things like tool inserts but it also covers basics like setting tool height on a lathe. It was actually pleasant enough to read that I read the whole book in two days and even though I have several friends that are machinists and I've been around it for years I learned so much from this book.

The question and answer format is fine but it's the way the information is dolled out quickly and succinctly that is most appreciated. I learned what "climb milling" is and when it's useful even though I've been hearing the term for a while I never knew what it was (feeding with the tool cut instead of against) and it gives great rules of thumb like peck drill three times the depth of the diameter of the drill to start then for each diameter from then on. The basic depth for an end mill cut is 1/10th the diameter. These sort of things are just what you need to have a place to start from. Lots of tooling is explained too along with various setups and materials.

It's amazingly thorough and useful and not as outdated and dull as Machine Shop Practice. I wish there was a version 2 of this.

Back to Machine Shop Essentials