This week’s selection is “Machine Shop Tools and Operations” by Rex Miller and Mark Richard Miller.
First of all, this book is not at all about 3D printing. In fact, for a book about manufacturing, it contains zero references to that technology. But there’s a good reason for us to consider it this week’s book.
What the book does contain is a series of chapters explaining the basic operational procedures for a wide variety of power tools and equipment typically found in a workshop. Tools covered include:
- Power hacksaws, power band saws, circular saws
- Drilling machines
- Vertical &with horizontal boring machines
- Lathes
- Milling machines
- Shapers
- Planers
- Slotters
- Abrasive metal finishing machines
- Electroforming
- Ultrasonics
- Robotics
While originally published in 1965, and now updated to a fifth edition in 2004, the material in this book is hardly out of date. Band saws of 1965 are pretty much the same as those found today, and the operational procedures to use them are extremely similar.
Why suggest a book like this that has zero mention of 3D printing? The answer is that many Fabbaloo readers are makers and might be considering use of one or more of the aforementioned tools.
The process of making an object in many cases involves use of more than one type of tool. While we are all deeply involved in 3D printing, the fact is that you can make far more complex items by combining a series of different making tools.
This book could be your introduction into the “other” world of making equipment, one that’s existed for many decades. Often those acquiring inexpensive desktop 3D printers will say that is their first experience in making, and sometimes their making experience also ends with 3D printing.
That doesn’t have to be the case, as there are plenty more types of making gear available to everyone. This book could serve as a way to understand how these other tools work and whether they may be of use.
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Via Amazon
