Machine Shop Trade Secrets: Second Edition

by James A. Harvey

Written by an experienced machinist and plastic injection mold maker, this groundbreaking manual will have users thinking and producing like experienced machinists. Machine Shop Trade Secrets provides practical "how-to" information that can immediately be put to use to improve ones machining skills, craftsmanship, and productivity. It is sure to be used and referred to time and again. Praise for the First Edition" " "This is the first book I recommend for those who want to improve their machining skills."PAUL HUDSON, Senior Tooling Engineer, Hi-Tech Rubber, Anaheim, CA This manual is destined to be an essential aid to students seeking high-paying jobs in the manufacturing sector. "MIKE PAUL, Applications Engineer, Haas Automation, Inc. " "Dozens of 5-Star Reviews on Amazon speak for themselves" ""Users will discover ways to ..." Work faster. Select, make, and grind cutters. Surface grind blocks, pins and shapes. Cut threads, knurl parts and eliminate warp. Choose realistic feeds, speeds and depths of cut. Remove broken taps, drill bits and other hardware. Apply proven CNC techniques to maximize output. Improve surface finishes and hold tighter tolerances. Assist engineers with design and manufacturing issues. Improve indicating skills and develop a "feel" for machining. New to the Second Edition Now includes 4-color photos throughout. Features a reformatted layout which fully integrates the text and photos to make the book more accessible. Chapter 15, "The Incredible CNC," has been greated expanded and completely updated to reflect advances since the previous edition. Most chapters now have easy-to-use tables summarizing all of the tips, suggestions, and secrets from that chapter; enabling readers to see in a glance the detailed topics covered.

348 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 28, 2004

Reviews

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Harvey was kind enough to send me a copy of his book. I finished my first pass through this book recently, I say first pass, since I will refer back to it often. This book is a very dense collection of tips and hints by an experienced machinist. It reads a bit like some of the Guy Lautard and Dave Gingery books but there's a lot more content. It's aimed at the professional machinist and the machinist in training but it's a great book for home shop machinist types as well. It's close to 300 pages and every page has several tips on the average. Don't worry though, the author has broken these into 18 well thought out chapters, you will be able to access the different types of hints in a sane fashion.

In general the hints are of the following types:

Working faster and with less effort.
Getting good fit and finish.
How to properly setup a job.
Making specialty cutters.

One example of number one, use stub drills to avoid center drilling. Number two, machining a part so that it's easy to deburr. Three, THE BEST article on squaring blocks for beginners that I've ever seen. I wish I had this book when I was taking classes, because it's way better and more practical than any college text I've yet seen. Finally I've never seen the style of small cutters that he custom makes listed in the amateur publications, they are great if you need a small custom milling cutter and I think most of us have everything we need to make them in our shops.

I highly recommend this book to beginning and experienced machinists, especially if you are thinking of making money at it!

[Paul Nasca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great advice!

Some info I had already learned the hard way, other tid bits were a "face palm" producing moment in solving problems I have had for quite some time. Very helpful for my hobby of metal fabrication.

[Jarrod Hyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of tips and best practices. This book has helped a great deal in honing my machining skills and knowledge.

[Peter Reintjes]

Now that I have a lifetime membership in my local TechShop(TM), I thought I better read up on this.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Filled with tips and ideas. Though, if you have a tool and cutter grinder it can be more useful.

[Greg]

Some good advise to be had.