Customer Reviews

Making It: Manufacturing Techniques for Product Design

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book just takes the complicated stuff out of understanding how things are made. It's a great quick reference not just because of the concise information in it but also the size of the book makes it easy to carry with you.

Highly recommended book for engineering/industrial design students, teachers and anyone interested in understanding what processes "things" go through before they end up in stores.

This is a great book for someone like me, a product design student. As my institution doesn't really cover manufacturing processes I need a book like this to break it down for me. It is categorised well and the crudely drawn process diagrams are great at putting the procedures into perspective. This book is great for those who already have a basic knowledge of manufacturing and design process terminology as it assumes the reader is familiar with terms such as draft, tooling, die, section, profile and other phrases specific to manufacture and design, although it does have a rather limited glossary at the rear. I would highly reccommend it to students who struggle with the ins and outs of manufacturing as it has common items listed that are produced by a specific process, giving the info a tangible basis of understanding, as well as providing many "Oh, THAT's how they make that..." moments. I think this will be a great handy reference for me, enabling me to short list viable processes that I can then investigate further. Definitley worth the money.

great book about current manufacturing process. Many photos and diagrams makes it easy to understand even for non-industrial designers. Also, each process lists it's pros and cons in a comprehensive manner. Overall, an amazing book which is easy and fun to read even for amateurs like myself.

A catalog of processes is essentially what this book is. It's broken into 7 process sections: Cut from Solid, Sheet, Continuous, Thin & Hollow, Into Solid, Complex and Advanced. Each section has from 6-20 subset processes, eg, 'Cut From Solid' includes CNC machining, Turning, etc., 'Into Solid' has Forging, Sintering, 'Thin and Hollow' processes such as Blow Molding, Filament Winding, etc. The range of processes seems quite comprehensive and includes some I'd never heard of before such as Inflating Metal under the Sheet section, which is basically using air to inflate sheets of metal in a mold.

Each process is typically described in 2-3 pages and follows a common layout. There's a picture of a typical item produced, some text describing the process, and an information section which includes economic production volume, type of surface and finish, and the typical sizes and tolerances of parts produced. This is followed by a '+' and '-' list of advantages and disadvantages of the particular process.

A Further Information section on each process lists web addresses of manufacturers who supply the process and/or provide more information on it. This is a great resource, but you do wonder--given the fluidity of the web--how long some of these addresses will be viable.

For the price this book is a great catalog of many of the manufacturing processes available. It doesn't go into any detail on how to design for the process (as a designer) or make it function (as a machinist/manufacturer), but it's a great reference as an overview of available processes, their benefits and limitations, and where to go to get more information.

While it does offer good systematized information, it's certainly not complete if you really want to invest time in finding out how it's all really made. I've found more informative books on the topic, also aimed at designers. However, this book does come in a pleasant package, very nicely printed, and with good value/cost ratio.

All of Lefteri's books are great, i have the one on plastics
and now this one. So my review is of course positive.
Without getting into details, this book is fresh, with
up to date references and nice examples.
As a designer, its a tool but also fun to read.
Enjoy and keep it simple.

Jeremy Petrus

The book is great for people who are interested (or involved) in the manufacturing or production of goods. As an Industrial Designer, I'm taught a lot of the processes, but it's still great to have a book like this one handy for any project.

However, it does not delve very deep into each process, instead it gives a brief 1-2 page summary of each method. The part that I like, however, is that it includes things like the suggested appropriate quantity of production for each process, as well as the pros and cons of each.

I bought this book from Swipe Books in Toronto because I actually got the chance to read through it and I saw how awesome it was. When I got back to Australia it got to the stage where so many people were borrowing "Making It" from me that I've bought them all their own copies. It's an awesome book, an unbelievable snap shot on every type of manufacturing process out there and why you would use one instead of another. For anyone studying or in ID, just buy it, you won't regret it and will no doubt have to buy your mates a copy because you get sick of them borrowing it too.

I am a 1st year student in an industrial design dept. the book really gives a wide review over production methods and in a very elegant non-exhaustive way. It maps the methods of production and gives cross-refrences that describes a reliable picture of the industrial processes and their characteristics. In conclusion - analitic and kind. highly recomended.

I've bought many books about industrial and product design over the years and this one by far is well worth the money. It's an absolutly excellent resource and the layout and style is perfect whether you're already familiar with the techniques or just learning.