On Mon, 22 Dec 2008 06:07:08 -0600, matthew maguire wrote:

Chris Wilson wrote:
Looking to buy a few books on basic milling and turning techniques. I have
an elderly Bridgeport universal mill with a 2 axis DRO, and an eqaully
elderly Harrison 11 inch swing, gap bed lathe. Both are capable of doing
infinitely more than I know what to tell them to do, though, so i would
like to treat myself to some decent reading material. I am in the UK, but
would buy from abroad if necessary. Thanks

The best shop texts you will ever find are the "Forth Edition (1962 and
reprints)" versions of "Workshop Technology" by W.A.J. Chapman,
Principal, Hatfield College of Technology, Hertfordshire.

There are three volumes (parts I, II and III) containing some 1300 pages
of EASY reading and instruction.

Later versions are smaller but updated for metric and ISO standards,
omitting inch units. Later version also sadly omit much of the handy
shop techniques that were gleaned from what must have been hundreds of
thousands of man hours of work distilled over a lifetime by the author.

These were the texts used by our Peace Corps in the 60s' for machine
shop training and cover every possible use for any possible tool that
might be found in the shop up to that time. They were meant to teach to
the last man on earth who could read english, how to be a machinist.

After a little Google search I found this link for you (used book seller).

http://www.alibris.com/search/books/... tory%20course

Everything pre 1975 are good, 4th editions are best.

Matt

Excellent information, thanks sincerely for your trouble. I have found and
ordered parts one and 3 from Amazon, with whom I have an account. All the
best, thanks again