I don’t think you can go far wrong with the Workshop Practice series and some of the more up to date books from the likes of Harold Hall and yes still GHT.

Backlsh is an item that almost every one of us has to contend with.

Industrial nachines have backlash elimination, AT A PRICE!

Mere mortals like us just have to remeber to back off more than the backlash and thewn wind in again to where we wanted to be. Lock the slides, other than the one in use, if you want to be more certain.

As Hooper says, there are so many aspects to machining that it would be almost impossible to combine everything in one volume. (Which might be out of date before the ink has dried)

The books by Tubal Cain, Radford, Bradley, Sparey, Hall, Bray, Clark, Fenner and Wyatt will cover most of what model engineers wsant to do.  Not mamy of use have facilities for cylindruical or surfce grinding; hence very little on the subject in our environment.

Not all model engineers have cutter grinders, even.

Cylindrical and surface grinding are more likely to be covered by books aimed at industry and industrial apprentices.

Not all jobbing machine shops will have such facilities.

In the same way, very few model engineers will have capstan or turret lathes, so there won’t be books on their operation in our libraries!

Howard

There are I think 3 books on building an EDM, though they do not go into great detail on the industrial process. They are not difficult to build but if using a SN754410 NE chip this needs a heatsink or the use of TIP switching transistors to be sure it can take the current. Noel.

PS, my above post prompted me to get “Trade Secrets” down off the shelf and start re-reading it. It really is a treasure trove of invaluable tips and tricks on all sorts of machine shop work from a guy who has been doing it all day every day of his working life. Lots of good milling machine how-tos in there along with a bit of everything else. I don’t think you ever get to the end of learning this stuff.

Just searched for Machine Shop Trade Secrets, cheap it is not!

I am sure I did not pay that much for “Trade Secrets” when I bought it some years ago! I see that googling around for its title, prices seem to vary from over $100 at Amazon to a more sane $45 elsewhere. Of course shipping has to be added to that, which has also gone crazy in recent years.

Yes Workshop Practice Series are very good value. As are GH Thomas’s two books if you buy them direct from the publisher Tee Publishing. IT is worth browsing their website. https://www.teepublishing.co.uk/books/in-your-workshop/model-engineers-workshop-manual/

They are also the cheapest place to buy Workshop Practice books too, I believe.

Haha, yes good you will stick with the 5 year plan and up your productivity. Well done! That type of industrial training book from that era should be very useful though. When you are standing at a lathe all day every day for a living, it is a whole different level of work from tinkering in the home workshop, so many useful skills are developed.

The GH Thomas books contain many chapters on making specific projects, but even if you don’t make those projects they are worth reading because he outlines many methods and tips and tricks in the process. He was a time-served ex-apprentice who worked all his life in some kind of factory and undertook further training in engineering. His application of professional knowledge to the home hobby workshop is excellent. I made a version of his versatile dividing head which is precise to one thousandth of a degree, much better than commercial models and it was a very enjoyable project from which I learned a lot by following his instructions. His books seem to cover from beginner to quite advanced level. You never stop learning with this stuff!

I have quite a large collection of ‘ Model Engineering’ books covering just about every subject. The question of which ones are “best” has been covered here quite a few times. GH Thomas and Sparey get a lot of honourable mentions.

However, I was thinking about which of my model engineering books were my personal favourite and I don’t think there is any doubt in my mind that they are Kozo Hiraoka’s books.

Although I will never build any of his locomotives, I always enjoy paging through his volumes and reading short sections. There is a wealth of information and useful methods contained within them but more than that, they are just so beautifully written and illustrated.

Mr Hiraoka is a very talented engineer, writer and draftsman – a true Artisan in fact.

His books are a pleasure to own.

Regards,

IanT

At the other end of the cost spectrum, here is a free download from Archive.org of the very extensive “Model Engineering” by Henry Greenly. Published 1915 so now copyright free. Lots of good basic stuff in there specific to model engineering including some nice drawings of classic model engines to make. https://archive.org/details/model_engineering_1915/page/n1/mode/1up

There’s a good summary of Mr Kozo’s career here …. A Master at Building Steam Engines, and Showing Others How To Do the Same – https://craftsmanshipmuseum.com/artisan/kozo-hiraoka/

Blondiehacks is currently building his Pennsylvania A3 Switcher – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiAWsopdr0A&list=PLY67-4BrEae-xhrvZX33gPk4Q87S1ttae

Ches

On 20 April 2024 at 08:40 Ches Green UK Said:

There’s a good summary of Mr Kozo’s career here …. A Master at Building Steam Engines, and Showing Others How To Do the Same – https://craftsmanshipmuseum.com/artisan/kozo-hiraoka/

 

Wow. Just wow. A fascinating character and beautiful work.

I particularly warmed to the two below quotes:

“Mr. Hiraoka chose to hand-draw nearly all of his plans, because they have a warmth and personality that cannot be conveyed in CAD drawings. His drawings are an important part of relaying his steam engine plans to others—particularly because they act as a universal language.”

Luddite that I am, I too particularly love the old hand-done drawings. True works of art some of them.

And I thought this quote very wise:

To beginners, Kozo always says, “Think, and find a sure and easy way. The pro does his job in a way by which even the novice can do it—while the novice tries to do it in a way by which even the pro fails.” 

Totally unrelated, my favourite hand-drawn work of art:

The Village Press linked to in the Kozo article also has many good books. They have one of of Kozo’s at a more reasonable price than Amazon. They also have Guy Latard’s Machinist’s Bedside Reader which is quite famous and in-demand, having been out of print for a while. But I have never read it so cant say much about it other than it is there.

Soee mentioned the US Navy repairmans book, For those interested the Reprint of The US Navy Foundry Manual  is a book written for someone who may be doesn’t want to be there but needs to know ! A very good book on the subject ! Noel.