This anonymous British text from the 1860s was designed as “an instructive text on the importance, dignity, and techniques of labor.” It details the work of over thirty trades including millers, sugar refiners, and shoemakers, with over 700 illustrations — many of tools of the time period. If you’re into antique tools or the history of hand craftsmanship, this book is an inexpensive (street pricing runs around $11) and interesting guide to the kind of work your great-great-grandfather might have done.

Book of Old-Time Trades and Tools [Dover Publications]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Street Pricing [Google]

Edward G. Hoffman’s Jig and Fixture Design is a great introductory text on the principles and practice of designing jigs and fixtures for parts machining. While oriented towards the machine shop, the book is handy for those making other sorts of fixtures for woodworking, welding, etc. While you rarely need a jig or fixture for making a single item, when making multiples of a given part, a jig or fixture often reduces the amount of setup time and ensures consistency from part to part.

The book is insanely expensive new, but you can find used copies of the current edition for a manageable sum, and earlier editions are often available for next to nothing. I paid $5.50 for my copy of the third edition at a local book shop.

Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Street Pricing [Google]

The Lincoln Electric company sells a series of books titled Arc Welded Projects.  These great books contain a variety of projects for the home, farm, and shop, and for the artistic welder.  You get a bill of materials for each project and relatively detailed instructions.

For some reason, Lincoln Electric doesn’t offer Volume I, but you can likely find it used.  In Volume II you’ll find plans for a hydraulic press, forge, welding positioner, bench vise, band saw, and other tools. They also feature some projects up on their website.

Arc Welded Projects Vol II [Lincoln Electric]
Arc Welded Projects Vol III [Lincoln Electric]
Arc Welded Projects Vol IV [Lincoln Electric]
Street Pricing [Google]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

For decades now, Brownells gunsmithing supply has been saving tips from gunsmiths and publishing them in fat volumes titled Gunsmith Kinks.  The tips run from general shop practice, toolmaking, metal finishing, wood finishing, and specific firearms techniques to a host of incredibly bad jokes — so bad you’ll be reading them aloud to friends and family.

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One of the books on my “buy if I ever find it cheap” list is Oppi Untracht’s Jewelry Concepts and Technology — possibly the best textbook on jewelry and related decorative metal techniques ever written.  Untracht traveled the world documenting both modern and ancient practices, and the only flaw in the book is that it’s now somewhat out of date, having last been revised in the 1980s.

It’s definitely one to check out from your local library (as I have, often).  At 860 pages, there’s something in here for every metalworker.

Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Taunton Press is having a May-long 50% off sale on many of their books on woodworking and other subjects. It’s certainly a good time to fill out the library with Fine Woodworking compendiums and all the classics by authors like Raffan, Bird, and Conover.

Taunton Press 50% Off Sale [Taunton]

Popular Mechanics used to release an annual book containing all their shop tips and tricks, appropriately called “Popular Mechanics Shop Notes.”  I own several original volumes from the ’30s and ’40s which make for entertaining bedtime reading.  Now the folks at Lee Valley Tools have reprinted every volume between 1905 and 1930 at a low cost — $7.50 each or $32.50 for 5-year increments.

You can find used original copies at around the same price or more, depending on condition and year. There’s even one copy fully scanned on Google Books, from 1921.  Topics vary from year to year and decade to decade, but each book contains at least a few items that’ll solve a problem or spur a solution — a highly recommended bit of reading.

Popular Mechanics Shop Notes [Lee Valley]

You’ll see checkering most often on firearms, where a good grip on a tool is highly desirable, but you can add this “finish” to any project you want to look beautiful.  As with so many arts, artists seem to be divided by their choice of media, wood and metal being the most popular.  If you’d rather do it yourself instead of paying an artist for a slick checkering job, you can check out some DIY books and videos on the subject.

Checkering files run $30 and up on the street, and groove-cutting tools are similarly priced.

Metal Checkering Files [Brownells]
File Street Pricing [Google Products]
Wood Checkering Set [Wood Carver Supply]
Checkering Tool Street Pricing [Google Products]
Checkering Book Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Bookholders.com is selling a number of copies (most seemingly unused) of the latest edition of Machinery’s Handbook for only $57.34. If you don’t own a copy of Machinery’s Handbook, what can we say? It’s the bible of the metalworking trades and contains just about any information you’ll need in the shop. If you want to save even more money, look for earlier editions, which you can often find for as little as $5-10 at used bookstores.

Machinery’s Handbook, 28th Ed. [BookHolders]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]

Metallurgists combine metals to create alloys that work differently than any of their components. Woodworkers might find this idea alien — mixing two woods just doesn’t go. Machinists might not even appreciate the beauty of this fantastic art and science, unless they carefully select the metals they work with. But the choice of a metallic alloy for a project or a part can make even more difference than a woodworker’s choice of species.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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:

1. You can build yet another wedge-shaped car that’s as heavy as possible.
2. You can pick up this book, read it, and build a car that’ll not only go like hell, but’ll also look so sweet that everyone (whose asses your car smokes) will claim you cheated afterwards.

Guess which one I’d choose? Read on past the jump for a detailed review of this must-have book.

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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.

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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.

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