18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Book, February 14, 2010
This review is from: Metalworking Sink or Swim: Tips and Tricks for Machinists, Welders and Fabricators (Paperback)
I'm a professional machinist of about 22 years experience, and I found this book to be both entertaining and informative. Some of the tricks shown here, while not situations I've ever encountered, were real eye-openers nonetheless. And there are tips I expect to put to use in the near future, as well, including in areas such as sheet metal work where my own experience is limited. Of recently published books of this type, this is the best I've seen. Another reviewer states that the book contains a lot of bad grammar and poor spelling... I suppose there was some, but I'm real sensitive to and annoyed by that stuff myself and I did not come away from this book with the impression it was significantly flawed in that way. Also I thought the "lame" stories were mostly funny. Especially the Russian spy one.
EDIT: I was just looking through this book again yesterday, after owning it for over a year, and I continue to be more and more impressed by it. It is really a fantastic effort at compiling clever and useful advice. I own dozens of books on metalworking, from 1890's tool catalogs to 1960's school textbooks to modern books on CNC macros, and I have to say this is the best one of all. The author's love of the craft, love of industry, love of creativity, and energy to get things done really shine through. The only bad thing I can say is that many of the author's criticisms of Bridgeport milling machine design are either unfounded or trivial... but his discussion of that only occupies maybe 1 page in the whole book.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book, October 5, 2009
This review is from: Metalworking Sink or Swim: Tips and Tricks for Machinists, Welders and Fabricators (Paperback)
Great book. I loved it. It does not contain basic step by step instructions on how to complete a task, so I would say that this book is geared towards people with some experience who are looking to improve their craft overall.
With regard to the other reviewer, while I agree with most of his points, I have a completely different interpretation of the negative ones - I think they're all positives. I will not address each one, but I liked the corny stories (I think they're hilarious) and the medical advice - well, I've been using electrical tape for this exact purpose for years.
Overall - five stars across the board.
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18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of great tips, some lame stories, February 27, 2009
This review is from: Metalworking Sink or Swim: Tips and Tricks for Machinists, Welders and Fabricators (Paperback)
This is a significant book to read, with over 300 large pages, beautifully printed in full color on high quality paper. The cover says that it has over 1000 color photos, but the photos are relatively small, so there really are 300 pages of text about nearly everything.
Foremost, this book has many great tips, both simple and advanced; such as tips on making sketches, tips on dimensioning, tips on choice of materials, tips on setting up shop, tips on sawing, turning, milling, CNC, welding, bench work, sheet metal, and much more. Much of it is common sense, like having handles on files and good lighting, but a lot of it is also novel, smart, and practical advice. There are some great ideas for fixtures and homemade tools. Tom definitely knows his stuff and covers a very wide range of material in one great book.
This book also contains off-topic and questionable advice, such as advice on emergency first aid (use Scotch Super 33 electrical tape to wrap cuts), tips on working for a boss (consider profit before considering getting paid), and tips on handing your mistakes (blame the guy who just got fired or paint it black and ship it at night). It also has many stories, and these tend to be corny and dull. The author also includes some rants, such as a diatribe about how stores should not have self-checkout lines and how CD packages should be easier to open.
I think that the author is trying to imitate Guy Lautard's folksy style of mixing advice with anecdotes, but the author lacks Guys storytelling skills, so for me, those parts land flat. In addition, the author spells words wrong, uses bad grammar, and tells jokes which may bother some readers.
Do I recommend this book? Absolutely! Tom Lipton is an extremely experienced machinist who learned from great teachers, learned a lot on his own, and tries his best to share this with you. You will get more useful advice from this book than you would from two years of any magazine or a general metal shop textbook. Each short paragraph teaches something very useful. Metalworking Sink or Swim is a very dense tomb of great information. But it is also a wandering read, interspersed with boring stories and poor writing. After one read, youll probably have a few pages of great notes and be through with it, so you may want to buy this book with a few friends and pass it around.
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