Don't know if the original post is a sales pitch in disguise or if it is genuine but I will jump in and second Jon's statements about this being an excellent book.
I'm not a pro so my perspective may be a bit different than a trained machinist, but I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to improve their skills and be more effective in the shop.
BTW - Amazon.com has the book for only $26 and change instead of the $39 price most everywhere else.
Robert
when I started in the trade in 1993. The book is in a class by itself
> and the author deserves tremendous credit for using the approach he > does.
>
> IMO, this book should be purchased by *anyone* starting in the
> machining trade, by those who have not worked in *lots of small
> machining job shops*, etc. This book should be required reading to all
> those taking a trade school course in machining... vocational tech
> teachers do your students a favor and get this book in your students
> hands... it may very well be the best thing you ever do for them
> because it will equip your students for the real world in ways that you
> simply can't ! It's also good reading for those who make pretty
> pictures using a CAD system and who have come to realize that making a
> machinist happy might be a good idea and have some benefits. This book
> very well could save you some embarrassment by showing you have a clue
> and it might even help get you higher quality parts quicker.
>
> I do have some criticisms in that the chapter entitled Rotary Table
> Magic is too brief and is really just an introduction for an absolute
> beginner. Also, the approach to using a dowel pin as a CNC milling
> machine floating stop (something the author admits he has never done)
> can be done better by machining at tool rather than using a dowel pin
> which has drawbacks compared to the approach I / our shop uses.
>
> The focus on this book is manual machining but much can be applied to > CNC.
>
> The book is:
>
> Machine Shop Trade Secrets by James A. Harvey.
>
>
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> Mr. Harvey is a no bullshit kind of guy who doesn't tolerate people who
> have no practical actual hands on machining experience and post to
> alt.machines.cnc, etc. all day and all night.
>
> Mr. Harvey is exactly the kind of machinist I have learned so much from
> over the years.
>
> (See Google for the first posts in regards to this book.)
>
> This book should be the blueprint for anyone with lots or practical
> machining experience and who is thinking of writing a book for other
> machinists. It's writing style sets the standard to which I believe one > should adhere
>
> Unfortunately, I choose Borders Book to order this book and after
> getting jerked around for a long time I canceled the order and placed
> an order with Barnes and Noble and it arrived last Friday. I'm sorry I
> did not cancel the order earlier as I wish I could have reviewed this > book earlier.
>
> I'm not sure if I would recommend this book to someone with many years
> of varied small job shop experience unless they feel the books $40
> dollar price would be justified by picking up say 8 tips . Mr Harvey's
> book is a collection of well documented tips. (Lots of pictures of
> setups.)I happen to feel that that $40 is well worth it.... you may > not.
>
> My hats off to Mr. Harvey and hope his book continues to get the
> success it so richly deserves. I would love to see him write another
> one that does a much better job of covering use of the rotary table and
> perhaps publish tips and give credit to others for CNC related tips. >
> Very highly recommended.
>
>
>
> jon
>