Books for model engineers

[Jens Eirik Skogstad 1Participant @jenseirikskogstad1]

Posted by John Stevenson on 11/08/2011 16:16:19:

Impossible to have too many good books.

 

John S.

 

 

You will not be wise to search after the answer you already know the answer.

Edited By Jens Eirik Skogstad on 30/12/2011 13:58:58

[NilochParticipant @niloch]

Projects For Your Workshop Volume 1 by Graham Meek ISBN 1 85761 140 3 published by TEE Publishing

I have never met Mr. Meek but I am fairly sure he is the new G.H.Thomas. I look forward to the next volume.

Edited By David Clark 1 on 22/01/2012 20:13:56

[David LittlewoodParticipant @davidlittlewood51847]

Niloch,

 

Not found, either using their search engine or by a manual scan. Can you give a precise location?

 

David

[NilochParticipant @niloch]

It is a 2012 publication. It may not be on their web site yet. Neither is it available from Amazon – yet. I bought my copy at the Alexandra Palace show where, at the same time, I was given a copy of their paper catalogue and there it is at the head of the central column of page 2. If you are not in the UK, I suggest you e-mail them. The price in the UK is £13.95 + £2.10 p&p.

I repeat, I’ve never met Mr Meek, have no connection with him nor his publishers financial or otherwise.

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Posted by David Clark 1 on 10/08/2011 18:00:05:

Hi There

I have just bought a copy of Watchmaking by George Daniels.

……………………..

 

Edited By David Clark 1 on 10/08/2011 18:00:17

Hi David,

 

These are lovely watches but why would someone pay £90,000 for a watch when for a relatively small sum one can buy a perfectly good one made by cnc methods which we are told is the future?

 

Regards

 

T

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

It’s not really a watch.

It’s a unique piece of artwork made by the hands of a master craftsman, and it happens to tell the time too

 

A bit like the Mona Lisa vs a nice poster of the Mona Lisa

 

edit:

(now go and eat your fish fingers you working class oik)

 

Most of these things are “eye of the beholder” things

 

My favourite watch, can’t part with it, uniquely thin, 4mm, lovely bit of engineering

It’s a Timex about 1980

 

Probbly worth $50 tops, but a lot rarer than a George Daniels watch

 

 

 

Edited By Ady1 on 22/01/2012 22:48:17

[NJHParticipant @njh]

 

| ” why would someone pay £90,000 for a watch when for a relatively
small sum one can

buy a perfectly good one made by cnc methods which we
are told is the future? “

 

I guess the same reason someone would buy a Ferrari rather than a Skoda. ( Well that and being, maybe, a banker!***!   –  or something like that)

 

Norman

 

Edited By NJH on 22/01/2012 23:42:17

Edited By NJH on 22/01/2012 23:43:07

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi Terry

Rarity value.

It takes time to make so value is added.

regards David

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Hi Ady1, Norman and David,

 

I agree entirely with all of your sentiments, it’s a pity there isn’t an irony button or ‘tongue in cheek’ smiley that I could have used. The reasons you gave are exactly the same reasons that one might choose to pay £8,000 for a Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson dining table when a perfectly good, CAD designed, CNC machined perfect table can be bought for a couple of hundred from IKEA.

 

It is the artistry and skill required to make something beautiful by hand that is what some will pay for. But it is constantly being drilled into us that CADCAM and CNC is the way forward because these hand skills were, to quote a posting, “out of date by 1945”. We should just create a computer model, upload it and then sit back, have a cuppa and read while the part is being made. There is an irony somewhere that these ‘methods of the future’ should mostly be used to make models of ancient technologies.

 

Skilfully hand made and beautiful artefacts are still considered by some to be desirable and worth a premium and in fact of better ‘quality’. Otherwise why would a musician, for example, pay 4 or 5 grand for a hand made instrument when you can pick up a perfectly good computer designed and made, mass produced one for a hundred or so?

 

By the way Ady1, I love baked beans on toast served with a fine breakfast tea, freshly brewed in a pot. Almost as much as – when living in France for part of the year – I love Breton oysters (preferably Cancale flat, not ‘cupped’) served with a crisp, chilled Muscadet, or in the evening with a warming glass of distilled Lambig to follow (you should try some sometime), But then I might choose the Scottish smoked salmon on lightly scrambled eggs on gently crisped homemade bread that my wife serves for Sunday breakfast with a nice Sparkling white. Or I might prefer …………………. ,

 

Best regards all,

 

Terry

 

Terry

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Quite so Terry

 

William Morris had it right when he said :-

 

” Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be

beautiful.”

 

A good principle which I try to follow, both in the house and workshop, but unfortunately the beautiful and useful are surrounded by other ” might be useful sometime” stuff.

 

Regards

 

Norman

Edited By NJH on 23/01/2012 10:43:55

[John McNamaraParticipant @johnmcnamara74883]

Hi All

 

My wife a Morris expert reminded me of this:

 

“I pondered all these things, and how men fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name.”

William Morris

 

Cheers John

 

 

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Hi Terry

Rarity value.

It takes time to make so value is added.

regards David

 

 

But it doesn’t really go up in value, it’s a bit like gold.

 

Sold around 1970 for 2000

Which would buy 3-4 big houses

 

Sold recently for 200,000

Which would buy 2 scroggy flats

 

So it’s only an inflation buster, not a growth investment.

 

…and it’s a nice watch too…

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Posted by Ady1 on 23/01/2012 12:55:51:

Hi Terry

Rarity value.

It takes time to make so value is added.

regards David

 

 

But it doesn’t really go up in value, it’s a bit like gold.

 

Sold around 1970 for 2000

Which would buy 3-4 big houses

 

 

Hi Ady1,

 

I’m not sure where you live, but I was considering buying a house in 1968 and a 4 bed, ‘Executive style’ estate house near Sedgley (W Mids) was a tad over £4000. A 2 bed jerry built bungalow ‘starter home’ on a ‘development estate’ near Wolverhampton – £1950.00. I didn’t buy, but in 1973 my first house – an Edwardian Terrace needing complete renovation – was £5000, we had inflation then too.

 

By the way, despite my relative affluence now I am proud to be working class. I was brought up on a neat council estate with clipped privet, neat gardens and lace net curtains. The neighbours were decent, proud, hard working down to earth, no nonsense folk. My own semi skilled, factory employed parents sacrificed a lot for my education. I’m proud of their memory and again, proud to be working class.

 

Best regards

 

T

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Posted by Ady1 on 23/01/2012 12:55:51:

Hi Terry

Rarity value.

It takes time to make so value is added.

regards David

 

 

But it doesn’t really go up in value, it’s a bit like gold.

 

Sold around 1970 for 2000

Which would buy 3-4 big houses

 

Hi Ady1,

 

Just had a quick look on Google. Average House Price in the UK in 1970 was £4,900.00, I dunno where you get your figures from . The site make interesting reading, Prices more than doubled in 4 years to 1974.

 

Regards

 

T

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

“They know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

 

Neil

[Axel BentellParticipant @axelbentell]

Taking the plane or a bus to Gibraltar is easy, cycling there is work, that will be admired by many, and the cyclist will have time to “solve” the mysteries of the world while pedaling.

[Tony JeffreeParticipant @tonyjeffree56510]

Posted by David Clark 1 on 10/08/2011 18:00:05:

Hi There

I have just bought a copy of Watchmaking by George Daniels.

This book has long been out of print but has just been reprinted.

It is available from Amazon and is a superb book about high quality craftsmanship.

regards David

 

Edited By David Clark 1 on 10/08/2011 18:00:17

I just bought an interesting clockmaking book – “John Harrison’s Contrivance” by Stuart Harrison. This is an in-depth look at one of Harrison’s last clocks, known as the RAS Regulator, which he claimed would be accurate to 1 second in 100 days. Fascinating reading – details a good number of his inventions, including the caged roller bearing.

 

Regards,

Tony

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Posted by Stub Mandrel on 24/01/2012 18:43:00:

“They know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

 

Neil

Hi neil,

 

The quotation is:

 

“What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” – Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan, 1892.

 

There are plenty of cynics on these forums!

Best regards

Terry

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Thaks Terry,

 

A man of letters, I see

 

Neil

[andy cotParticipant @andycot69569]

Model Engineering: A Foundation Course
Model Engineers' Workshop Projects (Workshop Practice S)
Model Engineer's Handbook
Miniature Internal Combustion Engines
Building Simple Model Steam Engines

Education in London

[Martin LockettParticipant @martinlockett82419]

Hi

Anyone know were i can get a copy of The Model Engineer's Workshop Manual apart from Amazon as there delivery is far to expensive.

[Martin LockettParticipant @martinlockett82419]

Hi if anyone has a copy of The Model Engineer's Workshop Manual can you send me a copy of the pages covering the doweling of the Gib strips. wh_izz1@live.co.uk

 

Thanks

 

Martin

Edited By Martin Lockett on 07/12/2012 13:50:13

[David LittlewoodParticipant @davidlittlewood51847]

Martin,

Just buy the damned book – you won't regret it. I can't understand your comment about Amazon delivery, it's free on virtually everything, unless it comes from a third party. They are currently out of stock, but TEE have it at the same price with £2.80 delivery.

David

[Martin LockettParticipant @martinlockett82419]

Hi David

Who or what are TEE ?

Martin

[Swarf, Mostly!Participant @swarfmostly]

Hi there, all,

Just a comment about the 'Machinery' handbook. It's good to have a copy but for me, the earlier editions are more useful than the very latest.

The explanation for that is that my workshop has been built up over some 40 years, largely from surplus sources such as K.R Whiston ('Have you seen my Cat?), A.E.King of Sidcup, Brown's Garage in Loughton etc., etc. I bought my lathe (ML7) in 1970.

The data tables in the older editions of Machinery's match the tools in my armoury whereas the modern editions have dropped a lot of such information because, as far as Industry is concerned, they're obsolete. Having some of these older tools (e.g. taps & dies) enables me to get to grips with 'stuff' that dates from the era when repairability was appreciated.

(For completeness' sake, let me state that I do have metric tooling as well, but the data to support that is commonly available.)

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

[Author]

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