Looking to buy a few books on basic milling and turning techniques. I have an elderly Bridgeport universal mill with a 2 axis DRO, and an eqaully elderly Harrison 11 inch swing, gap bed lathe. Both are capable of doing infinitely more than I know what to tell them to do, though, so i would like to treat myself to some decent reading material. I am in the UK, but would buy from abroad if necessary. Thanks
From Mr. Logan's excellent FAQ:
--Winston
The best shop texts you will ever find are the "Forth Edition (1962 and reprints)" versions of "Workshop Technology" by W.A.J. Chapman, Principal, Hatfield College of Technology, Hertfordshire.
There are three volumes (parts I, II and III) containing some 1300 pages of EASY reading and instruction.
Later versions are smaller but updated for metric and ISO standards, omitting inch units. Later version also sadly omit much of the handy shop techniques that were gleaned from what must have been hundreds of thousands of man hours of work distilled over a lifetime by the author.
These were the texts used by our Peace Corps in the 60s' for machine shop training and cover every possible use for any possible tool that might be found in the shop up to that time. They were meant to teach to the last man on earth who could read english, how to be a machinist.
After a little Google search I found this link for you (used book seller).
Matt
Excellent information, thanks sincerely for your trouble. I have found and ordered parts one and 3 from Amazon, with whom I have an account. All the best, thanks again :)
If you're just starting out, I'd recommend two books from the Workshop Practice Series, published in the UK. #34 Lathework: A Complete Course and #35 Milling: A Complete Course. Both are by Harold Hall, a former editor of Model Engineers' Workshop, and are collections of articles he wrote for MEW. They focus on building simple but useful accessories and small workshop tools, so you get both practice and something to keep. Camden Miniature Steam Services in Somerset sells them, as do, I suspect, many other places on your side of the pond.
Tove
I don't own one, but in the past, one of the most recommended books has been: How To Run A Lathe by South Bend Not hard to find, it's been reprinted many times.
You also might check at a university book store because there are college courses involving shop metalworking and machining. There is a category/class of formula-type car racing that some universities are involved in now.
According to a couple of TV programs I've seen regarding the race cars, many of the parts of the cars are made in the universities' machine shops.
$7.95 at Little Machine Shop
(snip)
Let me know if your Vol I contains about 30 pages introducing the shaper, if not, a used bookseller might work out better for Vol I&II.
Matt
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