Home Machinists Handbook (AVIATION)

Probably the best primer for a prospective model engineer to have in their library. Most books of this nature that I have read have failed to take into consideration the feeling almost of fear that the absolute tyro has when first introduced to a lathe with its assorted possibilties of doing you a nasty if you press the wrong button.The writer of this handbook does not waste words. He is calm, succinct and does not hurry the reader. The illustrations and sketches are clear and well chosen.If you propose to set up a workshop then buy this book first. You won't regret it. Ignore the fact that the lathe and ancillaries are based on the Sherline lathe. It is largely irrelevant

This is a great book for a beginner or intermediate machinist especially on a tabletop machine like a Sherline which he uses for examples. He also has lots of good material on materials (pardon the pun) how steel is made and the different kinds of steel and other metals that the machinist may come across. Its a book that you can reread many times and also use as a reference.

This small book provides some help in getting started in a new hobby, that of using home workshop a metal lathe.

handy book, not got through all of it yet but it is informative and will help me with my home machining for years to come no doubt

Excellent resource. It's basis on the Sherline system isn't a perfect match for me (I own a Taig), but the writer does his best to link the knowledge to other lathes. The description of tools and accessories is excellent.

I had rudimentary training in machine shop work from when I was in grad school. I rather missed making machinery, so I bought a small Unimat-3 lathe. Great, I started grinding stuff out, and realized I forgot a lot of my important lessons, and didn't have Wayne-O the machinist scowling at me from the back of the room to remind me how to do things properly. This book sort of fulfills the role of a helpful pal who will remind you of how the machine shop works. It is a reminder of all the basic stuff, the advantage and disadvantages of various kinds of tools, and what all the parts are called.As others have noticed, it is oriented toward the Sherline. My lathe is actually smaller than the Sherline, and has different properties, but the book is still tremendously helpful in remembering stuff I forgot, and learning things nobody bothered telling me about. I particularly liked the little tooling projects; they all look doable and like they'll make my lathe more useful.This isn't a book for the experienced machinist. If you work on a Hardinge in your day job, this will be laughable even if you bought a Sherline to screw around with at home. Still, for rank amateurs, people returning to the craft after a long absence, or other inexperienced types it is a pretty handy thing to have.

I am a hobby machinist. I have a small Chinese lathe and mill and am just learning about working with metal. This book covers just about everything there is to know about machining. The copyrights cover 1914 through 2020 so it is a great reference book.

Great information

I re-read the book yesterday. It has a lot of basic info on machining - how to read say callipers and micrometers. The author is British but does use or mentions imperial units. End of the book has some small projects mostly lathe related.Some cool tips such as how to advance lathe cutting tip just 0.0001 inch - the scale goes only to 0.001 so how can one increase lathe ability to take a cut 10x? Well, set the compound at an angle (small) and advance that. Great idea.The lathe author uses is on the picture - yes it is that small and yes the author does some good work with it. The lathe is similar to the popular mini-lathes such as 7 - 12, definitely smaller than 7 - 14.