Sink or Swim Metalworking: A Journeyman's Guide to 40 Years of Tips and Tricks for Machinists, Welders and Fabricators (Paperback)

by Tom Lipton (Author)
Key Phrases: manual milling machine, flame straightening, radial shrink, Shop Nickel Tour, The Welding Shop, Brain Food (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

• Written by a shop peer from the perspective of having done the required work.
• Includes numerous photos and illustrative stories that help users easily understand the material presented and the techniques provided.
• Contains a chapter on flame straightening techniques.
• Offers many examples of special workholding techniques.
• Covers crossover skills like Welding/Machine, Sheetmetal/Welding, and Design/Management.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Industrial Press, Inc.; 1 edition (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0831133627
• ISBN-13: 978-0831133627
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #585,186 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of great tips, some lame stories, February 27, 2009

By	Robert Neidorff - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.