Machine Shop Trade Secrets: A Guide to Manufacturing Machine Shop Practices

by James A. Harvey

“…James Harvey has written an excellent book that fills a void in current metalworking instructional books. Most textbooks are aimed at the beginner in the machining trade and cover basic work practice admirably. What textbooks do not do is sit you down with a veteran of the trade who can fill you in on the tips and tricks that allow working faster, accurately and intelligently. What amazed me is at how all these tips are not recycled versions of the ones we are all familiar with (as published by Lindsay's books and others) but are new tips, all useful and pertinent to the tools and methods of today.”
Nicholas Carter



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. You 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.

320 pages, Paperback

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.