Making It: Manufacturing Techniques for Product Design

by Chris Lefteri

There are many ways in which a product can be manufactured but most designers know only a handful of techniques. Both informative and incredibly easy to use, this bestselling book explains over 100 production methods in detail.

With specially commissioned diagrams, case studies and step-by-step photographs of the manufacturing process, Making It uses contemporary design as a vehicle to describe production processes. It lists their pros and cons, suitable production volumes, costs involved, speed of production, relevant materials and typical applications. The new edition of this inspirational book also evaluates each process in terms of sustainability and its effects on the environment.

Making It appeals not only to product designers but also to interior designers, furniture and graphic designers who need access to a range of production methods, as well as to all students of design. The expanded edition includes nine new processes and an all-new section of 40 finishing techniques.

Genres: Design, Engineering, Nonfiction, Business, Science, School, Technology

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 28, 2007

Reviews

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

How do I explain this book? It's just a compendium of the different ways to make things. Lathing (in the cut from block section), blown film (continuous manufacturing) , thermoforming, and on. It organizes techniques by high level category, introduced many methods I had never used, or seen in industry, and provides pros and cons for each. Readable for a layperson, and the kind of book I love to memorize, as it opens up a whole new world of wonder. We have grown too far from knowing how things work. This book will help me reconnect with the ways we build our modern world. Thanks to the author for organizing so much so well.

[Franz Schrepf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay read for anybody interested in understanding the diverse range of manufacturing techniques available today.

I picked it up to learn the basics of manufacturing. Instead of a coherent narrative, this book is collection of all types of methods loosely grouped around arbitrary factors (eg techniques which involve hollow components).

I learned a quite a bit about manufacturing of everyday objects, but the books simply lists all techniques with a few short bullet points around them. Many techniques are also niche, underdeveloped, and only offered by a single provider, so they have little application in reality.

If you treat it as a catalogue or coffee table book for inspirations it’s great. For beginners, there is too little context for it to be useful.

[Bazingo Bro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book by Chris Lefteri! I enjoyed the way the techniques were illustrated and the mulititude of high tech or specialist methods that I haven't ever heard of were shown.

I think the copy I have might be a bit older though; a particular page was talking about the hypothetical change and 'what if scenario' that would happen if designers had access to commercial 3D printers.

With that said I hope most manufacturing methods are still up to date, but I know that I probably won't even see most of them in my life anyway.

[Shreyas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was in dire need of a holistic book that covers all the materials right from its production process to its applications so that you could use appropriate materials for the problem statement. Thumbs up, Lefteri.

[Alexandre Gomes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good as a reference book but much detail

Good to have in your shelves as a quick reference book.

Not much detail regarding each one of the fabrication processes which I guess makes it easier to search for a specific process and look for the details elsewhere.

[Macy Sutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book would be difficult to understand without at least a little bit of background knowledge- but I’m real into this shit so I loved this. One of the most accessible manufacturing basics literature I have read.

[Peter Greaves · Rating 4 out of 5]

SIMPLE TO FOLLOW & EASY TO UNDERSTAND.

[Carlo Clores · Rating 4 out of 5]

We take for granted how stuff are made. This book gives us a really brief view of what and how things can be made with our current technology.

[John Gates · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice introduction to manufacturing techniques.

[Mykyta Ischenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Інформативна книга для різні методи виробництва. Захотілось передивитись «How it’s made”, щоб побачити всі ці способи виробництва в дії 🤩

[Ken Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Consider this a reference book. It's not readable from front to back as it has no narrative. Not really what I was expecting.

It breaks down families of manufacturing processes, and within those families has a 2-3 page overview of the process, listing pros, cons, uses, compatible materials, constraints, types of products made with it, speed, complexity, scalability, tolerances, unit volume, and interestingly waste/sustainability. The drawings and diagrams are good; they have a nice hand-drawn feel to them and are not too stiff like many unreadable blueprints and 3-views are. Pictures are useful and the book makes good use of color and font to communicate meaning.

If you read it back to front, you should be able to look at any object, commercial or industrial, civilian or military, and have a pretty good idea of what type of process was used to make it. Or have several ideas of options that the designer could have used.

It mentions cost qualitatively. I find this particularly odd, since some of these processes can be done in your garage or back yard for cheap, and others would probably cost millions to setup and are only available to massive industrial manufacturers. Cost is ALWAYS a consideration. It seemed to be glossed over in this book.

If you were teaching a class or lecture on the *theoretical* number of ways to produce a certain part or geometry, then this book would be an asset. If you had a college class where the professor said "you have to design this factory from the ground up to make these types of products, what machines/processes would you select?" Then this book would be useful. But that is a very limited application.

For personal or small businesses, it is merely informative of many processes that you will never be able to afford. I just want to get across that for MOST people, this will only be a reference book. That point doesn't seem to be well communicated anywhere else that I've seen.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a nice, designerly overview of production techniques. Unfortunately, the second edition came out just after I bought it, so I couldn't enjoy its comparisons by environmental criteria. I found that it gives great suggestions about the potential applications of each approach, but the pros and cons didn't seem to be comparable in a systematic way. This book is great for the design researcher looking to think about new techniques or find an approach that they might follow up on, but not for pursuing them.

[Gwyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought it was a good overview of the various manufacturing processes, particularly from a design perspective. The only thing is that since it was released in 2007, and being that it's 8 years old, there are a number of newer techniques, such as 3D printing that were not in the book. Would be nice to see an updated version.

[Pixelpusher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good reference for many types of industrial fabrication. ((What the heck is pulltrusion, anyway?") Shows examples of how its done, applicable materials, pros and cons, as well as reference companies and websites.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent reference book for some basic information on manufacturing.

[David Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ended up skim reading this as it is a very broad overview of the manufacturing processes available.

[Sébastien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good. No hype, just very good. Visual, practical, no dumbing down, fantastic overview.