J&L are offering the 'Engineers Black Book' for eleven quid. Has anyone here seen it? It looks as though it could fit the bill for something small enough/inexpensive enough to have kicking around in the workshop, hopefully with a bit more info than the usual Zeus tables or drill makers' pocket booklets but not as expensive/cumbersome etc as Machinery's handbook and the like. I'm concocting a small order from J&L & am wondering whether to add this to it.
Cheers Tim
Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service
I meant to reply on list but sent Tim an email instead. I bought a copy a while ago but it's too Amerikanized to be useful here. All 6-40 NC threads, imperial keyways that don't follow our standards of imperial, 1/2 x 13 tpi [ what pratt dealt that one up? most US lathes can't thread 13 ]
Best to stick with the older copies of Zeus and a copy of Newnes Mechanical Engineers pocket book.
What you have to remember with the yanks is if they can't get three phase wires across Amerika why do they think we don't believe Capricorn 1 was true?
I struggle a bit with Newnes pocket book, partly as some of it seems to be in a sort of code that I'm not party to - what little formal training I had in these things was 35 years ago, with a big gap when conventions have changed quite a bit before coming back to it - and partly because the printing (done in India) is absolute cr*p in my
1997 edition, bought new a couple of years ago. Reading the small print (ie most of the book) is a real struggle. Plus there's 100 pages at the end specific to Sandvic inserts & tooling - presume Newnes got paid for that! I tend to go to Machinery's handbook instead, despite having to hunt for the bits you really want and some of them not being there at all, but it's not suitable for keeping in my workshop. I do have an old Zeus chart and a Dormer pocket book (that has a
*strange* selection of stuff in it but it does cover some gaps in the Zeus) in the workshop, plus a big Presto wall chart for tapping drill sizes but there's no wall space for it so it gets thrown about the place . If the Black book was just a bit better than these combined I'd buy it, but it sounds to be worth a miss,
Cheers Tim
Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service
The printing in my 1941 edition is fine, and no mention of Sandvic inserts . From the publications you have I doubt there is anything in the black book you won't already have.
On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 17:30:39 +0100, Kevin Steele wrote: wnes got paid for that!
It's not a question of info I don't have, it's having it in a handy form, & not so expensive that I wouldn't want it kicking around in the workshop getting oily thumbprints, that seemed like a good idea.
Cheers Tim
Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service
There is no doubt that the Zeus book is handy. Nice size and wipe clean. The problem with any general workshop book such as this it can't cater for everyone. Look at what Machinery's handbook has become over the years as it has to play to all players.
Contents need to be type and subject related and also geographically related, hence a lot of the Americans book not being much use here.
Even if someone was to set to and produce a set of tables etc say just for this UK group it still wouldn't please some. No disrespect here.
Some while ago in Smiths or Preedy's I found a small clear holder wallet, the type where you slide a sheet into the fixed wallet as opposed to a loose leaf binder type but this was in A5. They are better than the loose leaf type as they are a lot thinner. This was a 20 sheet version but I have since seen 30 sheet versions.
20 sheets will allow you to back to back 40 pages which is quite a lot.
Over a period of time I have scanned in and inserted various sheets that are relevant to me and my work. A lot is general tap sizes etc but some is special to me but still handy for everyday use.
One of my most used sheets is one on specs of electric motor shafts and mountings, not in any of the standard books it was taken from an Italian motor catalogue but as I work a lot with motors it's in use quite often.
Another good point about this is you can order the sheets as you find out just what you need and in what order.
You could market these with a fancy cover & half filled with basic info that everyone's likely to need, with pointers to where they can find stuff to fill their particular needs. You would sell millions with the right sales pitch
Cheers Tim
Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service
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