Remember that time you asked your algebra teacher when you’d ever need to solve for X in real life? There’s a good chance you still haven’t found a use for your higher math skills, but Toolmongers will likely encounter plenty of practical math issues during a project. This handy book’ll show you how to calculate roof pitch, lay out stairs, make sense of a scientific calculator, and lots of other stuff.
Have you ever watched a how-to video and wanted to jump right into a new project as soon as it was over? That’s how I feel after watching part of Taunton’s three-DVD set on house building.
Collins Complete DIY Manual will show you how to perform dozens of home improvement projects and repairs, from painting and decorating, to freezing a section of pipe for maintenance. Collins illustrates each topic with many colorful diagrams and photographs. Although this book is geared more toward homeowners than apartment dwellers, it’s an excellent reference for everyone.
It’s hard to believe that there was a time in this country when children were encouraged to do risky (and interesting) things. But it’s true! Boys and Girls were given simple items and allowed to experiment with the way the world works by making and doing things that could possibly poke an eye out. Nothing exemplifies this better than The Boy Mechanic, a collection of simple projects that graced the pages of Popular Mechanics during the end of 19th and first half of the 20th century.
If you’re planning on helping your son (or friend’s son, etc.) build a Pinewood Derby car for competition this year, you have two choices:
Guess which one I’d choose? Read on past the jump for a detailed review of this must-have book.
This pocket book is a great resource for anyone working in a shop. It’s designed for metal workers and machinists, but the information contained within comes in handy in lots of situations. Best of all, it’s durable enough to survive in a shop environment, and every page is coated in a glare-free laminate that resists tearing and won’t get all filthy.
If for any reason you ever find yourself needing to rebuild civilization, the Pocket Ref by Thomas J. Glover and Sequoia Publishing would be the one book you’d want to have on hand. Need to know how to tie a truckers hitch? Check out page 548. How about the correct concrete mix ratio for building a retaining wall? Page 101. Let’s say you need a crash course on how to weld – that starts on page 667. This uber-reference book’s small size belies the vast amount of information contained within.
If you’re planning on doing any serious plumbing, HVAC, or electrical work on the house or shop anytime soon, you might want to check out Taunton Press’ Code Check book series, which lays out the general code requirements for common tasks. And to get you hooked, you’ve they’re offering 30% every title in the series from the company store.
30% Off Every Code Check Title [Taunton Press]
Working on an older car without a manual is difficult, but working on a modern computerized vehicle without complete technical specifications is freakin’ impossible. Have you ever wondered how auto repair shops keep manuals on hand for every vehicle on the road? Answer: They don’t. Instead, they pay thousands of dollars a month to access a service like AllData that allows them to pull up computerized manuals for hundreds of vehicles.
We first heard of AllData When we were in the process of finishing up Project Yukon. We’d enlisted the help of a local tuner who helped us wring out a computer issue, and he quickly tracked down a wiring fault using a really handy testing and inspection procedures chart from AllData’s service.
After a little research, we discovered that AllData is “an AutoZone company,” which scared the bejesus out of us. These are the same people who didn’t carry an upper radiator hose for an F150 in a Texas store! Incredibly, though, AllData’s service rocks. Best of all, they offer service for DIYers as well via their site AllDataDIY.com; you can purchase individual vehicle subscriptions for $25/year and add additional vehicles for $15. When you just want to locate some wiring or track down a single issue, it beats the hell out of $100+ for a factory manual, and the additional diagnostic charts are quite helpful.
Because of our (and our fathers’) appreciation for Case pocket knives, we were happy to check out the new book in the Images of America series, W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Company. We hoped for more details about the knives, but the book is mostly a Case family photo album with captions and commentary provided by two long-time Case employees. It documents the achievements of the entrepeneurs, craftsmen, and businessmen and women who comprised the Case family “dynasty” over the last hundred years.
Mick Allen’s Complete Guide to Wood Finishes (2nd Edition) contains a metric ton of information on the subject of finishing. It approaches the subject from a couple of different directions, much in the same way you will over time: first creating new finishes, then repairing and restoring damaged wood items.
After covering the basics of shop/chemical handling safety, the Complete Guide jumps right into the many techniques you can use to prepare a wood for treatment, including sanding, the use of solvents, how to fill holes and cavities, and even how to deal with wood infested with woodworm. Each page contains lots of pictures to help illustrate both the technique required and the appearance of the item after proper application.
With autumn on the way, it’s the perfect time to enjoy cool air again, and building a deck is an excellent (and affordable) way to expand your living space into the outdoors. Creative Homeowner’s Ultimate Guide to Decks: Plan, Design, Build offers in-depth advice on how to design a deck that meets the needs and expectations of your family, develop a reasonable plan for construction, and select the right tools and materials for the job.
A while back we reviewed Industrial Press’ great book Welding Essentials: Questions and Answers. The focus of today’s review, Welding Fabrication and Repair: Questions and Answers is essentially a “sequel” to that book, covering more fabrication techniques than welding processes. There’s some overlap between the two books, but not much.
Fabrication and Repair picks up where Welding Essentials left off, beginning with an overview of the most common fabrication hand tools and their applications, including various measuring tools, power tools, clamps, pliers, and jigs. This will be handy for anyone who’s just getting started, though even seasoned pros may have seen others using a tool and wondered what it was and how it works. From there the book moves on to common materials and finishes, some of which we’ve seen and used and some that we haven’t. For example, a huge section on pipe and tubing explains how sizing works, common practices, and many, many ideas on how to create joints as needed.
Fabrication and Repair’s “basic building blocks” chapter truly shines with explanations of many common techniques, such as how to miter or notch material for rectangular frames. As an example of how intuitive this book can be, it not only offers a wide variety of suggestions in terms of steps you can follow to improve the chances of a frame being welded square, it explains (with pictures!) how to use adjustable wrenches to bend the frame back into square if you have trouble.
Later chapters also cover all kinds of practical design and repair techniques such as: how to layout part cuts to waste the least material, how to use your welder to remove a frozen bolt, and even how to build a small stand for your handheld torch.
It’s hard to explain in a short post how incredibly valuable this book can be as a reference. Since we’ve had one around the shop we’ve picked it up to reference fastener types, to find an easy method to weld wire mesh to a frame, to determine how to weld up a cracked beam, and to figure out the strongest design for a horizontal bracket.
Trust us: If you’re fabricating — either professionally or just for fun in your home shop — this is a book that should grace your shelf. We found it available from a variety of sources starting at around $30.
Marlow, Frank. Welding Fabrication & Repair: Questions and Answers. New York, NY: Industrial Press, Inc., 2002. ISBN: 0-8311-3155-1
Street Pricing [Froogle]
We’ve been doing quite a bit of welding lately, and we’ve got a number of “how-to” features coming up on the subject. In the meantime, though, we’d like to share with you one book that we’ve found to be of significant help in the learning (and reference) process: Welding Essentials: Questions and Answers by William Galvery and Frank Marlow.
They tackle the simple and advanced concepts involved in welding via a very friendly “Q&A” style format, indexed in the front by welding type and process for easy reference. These questions really are “frequently asked” — they tend to be closely related to the questions you find floating around in your head while considering the welding process.
What makes this book particularly useful is its significant depth. It answers a lot of questions about the welding process, but it also answers other procedural questions not generally addressed by non-textbook publications. For example:
Q: Are all oxygen cylinders painted green?
A: Absolutely not. Frequently, oxygen cylindres are painted green or have a green band, but the only sure way to determine the contents of a compressed gas cylinder is to read the adhesive label on it. This lable is required by law and should not be removed. Do not go by its color as there is no color code. Unlike civilian industry, the US armed forces do color code their cylinders.
Besides the most common welding techniques such as oxyacetylene welding and cutting, SMAW (stick), GMAW (MIG), and GTAW (TIG), ‘Essentials surveys other less common techniques such as electron beam welding, electroslag welding, friction welding, and laser beam cutting and welding.
‘Essentials also covers some welding planning techniques such as those required to control distortion — there’s a whole chapter dedicated to distortion — and those required to read welding diagrams.
All in all, ‘Essentials offers a broad overview of welding and is a great book to have on your shelf if you’re a casual or pro welder. It’s like having a very experienced pro sitting there on the shelf waiting to answer your questions at any time of day or night.
The version we reviewed is labeled “Expanded First Edition! Now includes an entire new chapter on ‘Fabrication and Repair Tips.’” Indeed it does. Industrial Press also offers a whole Q&A-style book on the subject titled “Welding Fabrication and Repair.” Look for a review here in the near future.
Street pricing starts around $30.
Galvery, William, and Frank Marlow. Welding Essentials: Questions and Answers. New York, NY: Industrial Press, Inc., 2001. ISBN: 0-8311-3151-9
Street Pricing [Froogle]
Have you ever picked up a tool at the flea market and wondered exactly what it is and how you’d use it? The Field Guide to Tools serves that need exactly, matching photos of tools with their names, descriptions, and uses.
The Guide is a reference book, including information about 136 commonly used tools. Each tool receives a page or two of explanation including a general description of the tool, its “habitat” (e.g. the place where you’re likely to find it), its uses, its operating principle, and basic instructions on how to use it.
For example, the Guide has the following to say about the seam roller:
General Description: A small, wooden roller mounted in a metal bracket on the end of a short wooden handle. The roller is about the size of your big toe. Its working face is not flat, but slightly crowned, which allows the operator to concentrate the rolling pressure by simply tilting the roller handle.
Habitat: Home decorator’s toolbox or wallpaper trough. Sold by hardware stores, home centers, and paint and wallpaper stores. The crowned face distinguishes it from the veneer roller, which has a flat face but is otherwise identical.
Primary Uses: Pressing the seams of freshly pasted wallpaper tight onto the wall. Regulating wallpaper seams.
Secondary Uses: Pressing freshly glued plastic laminate onto a counter-top. Pushing the last bit of toothpaste out of the tube. Flattening a glued seam of fabric while sewing.
Operating Principle: A roller can be used to exert and distribute pressure without adding any sideways sliding force. A crowned roller can focus that pressure onto a narrow band.
A page worth of instructions follow to describe how to use the seam roller for common applications. Photos are grouped together in the center of the Guide with numbers that tie back to specific entries. Tools are also indexed in the back of the book so if you know the name of the tool but not the function or appearance you can reference that way.
While the Guide doesn’t provide a lot of background on the history of tools or cover the variety of unusual tools we saw in Herbert Comte’s Tools: Making Things Around the World, the Guide is a much smaller and more practical reference and does include most every tool you’re likely to see in a well-equipped home shop environment. And because the Guide’s explanations are written in such simple and straighforward terms, it would make a great gift for a first-time homeowner, a child heading off to college, or young newlyweds.
Street pricing starts around $10.
John Kelsey. Field Guide to Tools: How to Identify and Use Virtually Every Tool at the Hardware Store. Philadephia, PA: Quirk Books, 2004 (Softcover) ISBN: 1931686793
Street Pricing [Froogle]
How many reference books are so well-known that they spawn their own Wikipedia entries? Wikipedia has this to say about the Machinery’s Handbook:
Machinery’s Handbook for machine shop and drafting-room; a reference book on machine design and shop practice for the mechanical engineer, draftsman, toolmaker, and machinist (the full title of the 1st edition) is a classic reference work in mechanical engineering and practical workshop mechanics in one volume published by Industrial Press, New York, since 1914. The first edition was created by Erik Oberg (1881-1951) and Franklin D. Jones (1879-1967), who are still mentioned on the title page of the 27th edition (2004). Recent editions of the handbook contain chapters on mathematics, mechanics, materials, measuring, toolmaking, manufacturing, threading, gears, and machine elements, combined with excerpts from ANSI standards.
In 1917, Oberg and Jones also published Machinery’s Encyclopedia in 7 volumes. The handbook and encyclopedia are named after the monthly magazine Machinery (Industrial Press, 1894-1973), where the two were consulting editors.
A single glance at the table of contents gives an idea of how much information has found its way into the ‘Handbook over the past 90 years leading up to the publication of the current 27th edition, including:
Amazingly, the ‘Handbook continues to gather momentum with expansions this year including 30% more math coverage and new or revised material on cutting tools, screw threads, symbols and abbreviations, threads and threading, disc springs, properties on materials, sine bars, and sheet metal. Besides the new material, the 27th edition takes a leap ahead of earlier editions in terms of organization with new individual indices for standards, materials and interactive equations as well as improved page layout and graphics.
The classic format for the ‘Handbook is the toolbox version, measuring 5″x7″ for easy use in the field, but the 27th edition is also available in a large print format (7″x10″ and handly for reading without glasses or in the office) as well as contained on a single CD-ROM. The CD-ROM version installs as a PDF — encrypted to prevent theft — which is text searchable. New for the 27th edition are interactive math equations in the CD-ROM version. By clicking on a small icon in the PDF, you can link to the Industrial Press website to plug in your own numbers and see the results in real time. (Note: using interactive equations does require the download and installation of an ActiveX control.)
It’s hard to describe the ‘Handbook briefly as it covers so much information, but suffice it to say that in the last week alone, we’ve used our copy to pick out an air compressor, understand the properties of drill coatings, look up the proper flux for a brazing job, reference welding symbols on a diagram we received, determine what size chain to use for a lifting job, and perform more conversions than we can count.
Put simply, Industrial Press isn’t exaggerating when they characterize the ‘Handbook as “the technical Bible for the engineering and metalworking industries.”
Pricing direct from Industrial Press starts around $90 for the toolbox version, with book/CD-ROM combos starting around $160. However, we did find some deals online for new and used copies, so it pays to look a bit.
Oberg, Erik, et. al. Machinery’s Handbook. 27th ed. Ed. Christopher J. McCauley, et. al. New York: Industrial Press, 2004. (Hardcover) ISBN: 0831127376
The 27th Machinery’s Handbook [Industrial Press]
Street Pricing [Froogle]
Revised and expanded this year from the original 2000 edition, Creative Homeowner’s Complete Guide to Water Gardens, Ponds, and Fountains is a comprehensive, step-by-step guide on how to plan, construct, and maintain your own pond or water garden. As we’re getting into the really hot season here in Texas, we thought it was a good time to look at escaping some of the heat by contructing your own backyard utopia (read: shade, moisture).
The Complete Guide is practical and easy to read, providing need-to-know details on all the important steps from deciding what type of water garden or pond will suit your lifestyle to the down-and-dirty installation of pumps and filters. It also addresses how to go about choosing the design and construction of your pond, how to select and introduce a variety of critters and colorful plants, how to measure and maintain water quality, and how to perform seasonal tasks that keep your water garden dynamic and vivid throughout the year.
Copious illustrations and photographs are provided to inspire and to inform, including stylistic tips on adding aesthetic elements like fountains and lighting. Detailed photos showing the actual construction and setup of several types of ponds are provided, along with difficulty ratings to help you decide in advance how much effort it’ll require to meet your goals.
The Guide is most informative when it comes to things we novices might not have thought of, such as simple tips on the physical and chemical interaction of plants and animals with the water, what common mistakes to look out for (proper sun/shade/temperature), and even advice on how to make small container ponds.
Either way, whether you’re a beginner like us or an advanced ecological expert, the Guide is an excellent resource for learning all the basics about planning, installing, and maintaining your own backyard haven.
The list price for the Guide is $19.99, but we found it new online for $12.97, and used copies are available starting just under $12.
Fisher, Kathleen. Complete Guide to Water Gardens, Ponds, & Fountains. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Creative Homeowner, 2006. (Softcover) ISBN: 1580111831
The Complete Guide to Water Gardens, Ponds, and Fountains [Froogle]
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