"Modern Toolmaking Methods" and "Accurate Tool Work"

You can buy the Modern Toolmaking Methods title through abebooks.com if you don't want to order it from Lindsay. I purchased a used copy for $8.75. This book is a reprint of a 1915 edition orginally published by Industrial Press which also published Machinery magazine. The articles are either reprints of articles that appeared in Machinery magazine or adaptations. I find the description of techniques to be interesting, but then I am just an amateur machinist. This book was published before the jig borer had come into use so it covers the accurate placement of holes primarily using a lathe. There is a chapter on laps and lapping that I found useful. It explained more about how to do it than I have found in other books. There is a good bit on grinding tools including reamers, cutters and taps. There are a number of photos of guys grinding without any sort of covers on the wheels and no safety glasses. OSHA wouldn't like this, but then it was 1915 and OSHA didn't exist.

All in all I think it is a good book to own for a modest price. I look at my copy more frequently than I do some of the others I have purchased.

I am not familiar with the Accurate Tool Works title although Goodrich and Stanley (the authors) did write other titles and this book is also not very expensive.

I'm not sure that gaurds on grinders are such an important safety feature. If the wheel goes, some cheap piece of flimbsy plastic isn't going to protect you. As for the dust, safety glasses usually take care fo that..

I have owned several texts on machining through college any my apprenticeship. They don't typically cover the old way as perhaps there is no modern industrial application. However, I do own a Taig mill and lathe and I don't have the space or money for a jig borer...

Thanks for the info on the book. I'm tempted to get both...

Regards,

Robin

There is no such thing as too many books.

They do both, but the value in them is that each treats any given subject in a slightly different manner, and using slightly different methods.

They are old methods, using things that may be gathering dust on a shelf in a modern shop. The beauty is that many times, what may look like a very expensive project can be done with those things that are gathering dust, without any added expense. They also give you ideas of nifty little gadgets to build, and the realisation that grandpa was no fool.

Try eBay's "half.com". That's where I always go first for used books and videos.

Trivia...Some of you may have noted that entertainer Spaulding Grey took his own life a couple of months ago. (A long term solution for what might have been a short term problem...)

When discussing Grey's demise with SWMBO she reminded me that she was a student at Emerson College in Boston the same time as he did in the mid

60s (Henry Winkler was a student there then too.) I asked her if she knew that before Grey gained notoriety as a legitimate entertainer he was one of the male actors in a very XXX movie titled "The Farmer's Daughters".

She refused to believe me, so off to half.com I went and picked up a VHS tape of that movie for under ten bucks.

She's a believer now...

You guys piqued my interest, so I just bought a copy of "Modern Toolmaking Methods" there for less than $9 with shipping.

I think it'll fit in nicely next to my copy of "How to Run a Lathe".

Jeff

My grampa certainly wasn't. Learned things from him that I apply often. The old techniques should never be lost or forgotten. Many times they can be directly adapted and applied to modern machininig methods and reap greater rewards. Old does not equate to stupid or useless, usually.

michael

It being a dull day, I decide to respond to what snipped-for-privacy@lycos.com (Lennie the Lurker) fosted 23 May 2004 09:06:08 -0700 on rec.crafts.metalworking , viz:

Only when you moving, or when you spend a lot of time and money to track down and buy a copy, only to discover you already have a copy on your selves. (or two ..)