Popular Mechanics published Forty Power Tools You Can Make in the early 1940’s as a thin hardback. The book is, as are most Popular Mechanics books, a collection of articles from the magazine. At a time when most machines were required for the war effort it must have been seen as a way to encourage people to keep up their hobbies in the face of scarcity.

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The CPSC this week announced the recall of almost one million home improvement books published between February 1975 and the present, including some you might find currently in Lowe’s. The problem: erroneous technical diagrams and wiring instructions “could lead consumers to incorrectly install or repair electrical wiring, posing an electrical shock or fire hazard to consumers.”

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The Nicholson File Company (now owned by Cooper Tools) used to put out a pamphlet called “File Filosophy.” The book contains a short history of files, how files are made, types of files, terminology, and most importantly, the variety of methods employed when filing. The application of filing to a variety of tasks is covered, including several pages on sharpening saws and other tools. Rotary files (burs) are covered as well. They printed many editions of the pamphlet over the years. I figured it would be easy to come by, but I had to use my Google-fu to come up with some links.

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The American Machinist Shop Note Book is a collection of articles selected from the pages of American Machinist magazine by its associate editor E.A. Suverkrop and published in 1919. The book is yet another (although in a sense one of the first) collection of a variety of shop tips, tricks, jigs and fixtures, work methods, etc. Chapters include Drafting and Design, Patterns and Foundry, Forging and Tempering, Drilling, Lathe work, Milling, Planer and Shaper work, Tool Making (in the machinist sense), Dies, Gages, Grinding, Boring, Gearing, Screw Machine, and “Shop Tools, Appliances and Expedients.”

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Complete Guitar Repair by Hideo Kamimoto is a good primer on all that is involved in the “set-up, restoration and construction of the acoustic and electric guitar.” The book begins with details of the construction of various guitars, then moves on to a chapter on general repair information such as the workshop, tools, clamps, glues, wood, and strings.

Then we get a chapter on guitar adjustments, a chapter on the action and scale including tuning. Later chapters focus on specific areas such as the peghead, machine head, neck and fingerboard (with fret calculations), frets, fretting, the bridge, etc. Then the book moves on to repair, such as cracks and missing pieces, touch up and refinishing. A final chapter discusses electric guitar pickups and controls.

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A Museum of Early American Tools by Eric Sloane is a short, interesting overview and history of different types of early hand tools as found in (obviously) early America. The book has well-done black-and-white illustrations of various tool types by chapter, such as Axes, Hammers, Draw Knives, and other typical early hand tools. It’s not an exhaustive reference for the collector but a guide to familiarize yourself on the types and use of such tools — a perfect stocking stuffer and as affordable as a paperback new on Amazon, for $8.95, although you can find used copies for much less. You can check out a limited preview on Google Books to see if it’s up your alley.

Via Amazon

Another one of those books that I can’t believe we haven’t covered yet is Guy Lautard’s The Machinist’s Bedside Reader series. So far he’s written three volumes in this series. The books are a compendium of projects, instruction, and stories from the eclectic mind of Guy Lautard. There’s too much in the books to clearly lay out here, but the first volume has everything from an article on a drill sharpening jig for tiny bits to making a sling swivel base for a tube-fed rifle. Some of the articles deal with gunsmithing subjects, others with precision work above and beyond what’s normally done in the small shop. The books are, as the title implies, excellent bedside reading to fertilize the brain for future projects.

You can buy the book directly from Lautard himself, or from a number of sellers such as Amazon.

Guy Lautard [Website]
Via Amazon

Designer’s Handbook: Steel Wire is an out-of-print publication of the American Iron and Steel Institute. The book is a short introduction to designing products with steel wire and wire products.

Chapters cover the manufacture of steel wire, classification, and specifications. Then there are a few chapters of design considerations and study, the four-slide machine, swaging, piercing, cold forming, etc. Welding is covered as well. We get details of mechanical joint design, spring design and case studies as well as the use and production of wire cloth. There is even a chapter on the use of wire in “modern” art (this book was published in 1974 after all). All in all, it’s an excellent introduction to a form, rather than a type of material we often take for granted in our projects! The book is available inexpensively on the used market such as Amazon with prices in the range of $1.00-$15.00. I think I picked up my copy at a used book sale for a buck.

Via Amazon [What’s This?]

The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford W. Ashley is one of the best and most well known knot reference books. The subtitle “Every Practical Knot - What it Looks Like, Who Uses it, Where it Comes From, and How to Tie It” pretty much says it all. The book contains drawings and instructions for thousands of different types of knots. It starts with the humble Sheet Bend and ends with the Crossing Knot with many useful and obscure knots along the way, as well as splicing, matting and other related subjects. Full of anecdotes and historical footnotes, this is a profoundly good read. The book is so important it even has a Wikipedia entry. There’s a limited preview on Google Books should you still be on the fence. New price is about $55.00 on Amazon (it’s a big hardback) and used prices start around $35.00.

Via Amazon [What’s This?]

I can’t believe we haven’t covered The Complete Modern Blacksmith by Alexander G. Weygers yet! The Complete Modern Blacksmith is a volume containing three books written by Weygers, “The Modern Blacksmith”, “The Recycling, Use and Repair of Tools” and “The Making of Tools” published by 10 Speed Press.

The book contains a trove of material on setting up a low cost blacksmithing forge and blacksmithing basics, the making of blacksmithing tools, the making of just about every other kind of tool, such as chisels and screwdrivers — all the way to drills and milling cutters. It is the only book we’ve read that covers how to make a Watts-type square hole drill! Then there’s the woodturning lathe and tools. Anyway it’s a big mess of fun projects and with great detail and beautiful drawings by the author. Very “70’s” if you know what I mean.

The book has a list price of $19.95 and is available on Amazon for $13.57 and from other sellers for even less. Even if you never intend to do a bit of blacksmithing, the book is an entertaining read.

Via Amazon
Street Pricing [Google Products]

Workholding in the Lathe by Tubal Cain (The nom de plume of the late Tom D. Walshaw) published now by Special Interest Model Books is a good small book dealing with an important subject for those of use with a lathe in the shop. The book is aimed at the model engineer and home shop machinist with a smaller lathe.

The book covers work between centers, faceplate work, general chuck work, the self centering and independent jaw chucks, “unusual chucks,” and collets, and has two other chapters on steady rests and lathe alignment.

What makes this book so useful is that it shows examples of all sorts of workpieces being chucked. Often you are faced with a puzzle when working on (and especially reworking) a part in the lathe. This book shows dozens of setups on odd workpieces as well as going into the construction and forces in various chucks and chucking methods. The books is somewhat dated but for most work, that isn’t going to matter in the least. The section on “lantern” type chucks is great for those that need to rework screws. I’m going to build one for myself soon!

The book is available on Amazon and from tons of other resellers. I paid $3.95 for my used copy a few years ago and it seems you can get copies used online for around $7-$15.

Via Amazon

Necessary Numbers: An Everyday Guide to Sizes, Measures, and More by Mary Blocksma may not make you the “Cliff Clavin” of your local pub, but it will give you a broad overview of all types of numbers. An expanded version of her earlier book Reading the Numbers: A Survival Guide to the Measurements, Numbers, and Sizes Encountered in Everyday Life, this one covers a variety of diverse numbers including zip codes, highway route numbers, pencil leads, bar codes, SS numbers, clothing sizes, and — as the title says — “more.”

A new paperback costs $12, but you can find used copies for around $4, or “swap” for the earlier version.

Necessary Numbers [Barnes & Noble]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Reading The Numbers [PaperBackSwap]

The Art of Japanese Joinery by Kiyosi Seike is one of those books that shows how far one can take wood joinery as an art, not merely as a functional process. The book starts with the history and philosophy of Japanese architecture as it relates to joinery, then (at least in my edition) there are 57 pages of pictures of wood joints, 9 of which are examples as found in Japanese buildings. The remainder are simple pictures of joints between two pieces of wood. The joints range from the simple scarf joint to the insanely complex joint such as the “Mechigai-koshikake-kama-tsugi” - lapped goose-neck mortise and tenon joint with stub tenons and “Kanawa-tsugi,” mortised rabbited oblique scarf joint. Some of the joints are truly puzzle-like in construction.

The text continues with a  chapter on the functions of Japanese joinery, then a chapter on “Tsugite,” splicing joints and finally “Shiguchi,” connecting joints, both of which have drawings showing the construction of the joints with hidden lines for further clarification and obfuscation.

All in all it’s a great read for those seeking to complicate their woodworking and push the boundaries of the craft! It’s available on Amazon for a reasonable $18.21 and around $5.00 on the Internet generally.

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

Mechanical Details for Product Design by Douglas C. Greenwood is a simple book of different, well, mechanical details that you could find useful if you’re designing a tool or other mechanism. The book contains lovely two-page spreads of mechanical detail ideas from the pages of Product Engineering magazine, about 340 pages’ worth. The first chapter is typical charts and graphs as relate to spur gear design, bending, geometry, etc. Then we move on to the meat — each two-page spread typically starts with a header such as “Clamping Devices for Accurately Aligning Adjustable Parts,” “6 Ingenious Jobs for Roller Chain,” “Dimensions for Hand Grips,” “8 Stops for Panel Doors,” “Assemble Sheetmetal with 8 Interlocking Fasteners,” “Getting the Most from Screws,” “4 More Ways to Prevent Backlash” — you get the idea.

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Lee Valley has four discontinued books on sale (they bought remaindered stock) for $6 or less each. The two that I find most interesting, pictured above, cover building workshop workstations and power-tool joinery (the other two are about garden design and orchids). Stock is limited.

Building Workshop Workstations [Lee Valley]
Building Workshop Workstation Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Power-Tool Joinery [Lee Valley]
Power-Tool Joinery Via Amazon [What’s This?]

I picked up a used copy of Making & Using Your Own Tools and Workshop Accessories (ISBN 9780830600328) a couple of weeks ago, and it’s a good cheap read. The book is a series of reprinted projects from “School Shop” magazine, originally published by Tab Books, a division of Rowman & Littlefield. The book focuses on making tools and accessories in the typical high school metal and wood shop. Many of the projects are of the typical type found in other books, such as making a sander, hammer, etc., but there are many gems to be found in this 360 page tome. It’s the only book we’ve found with instructions for making a magnetic vee block! So if you love projects or need some inspiration, get a copy. It’s especially valuable if you happen to be a shop teacher.

The book is out of print, but as is typical for most TAB books the used prices are cheap, from 35 cents to $10. I paid $1.50 for my copy.

Special thanks to Shorpy for use of the great photo of a 1921 middle school shop class.

Used Copies Via Amazon

This books tracks the 11-month construction of one Steinway Concert Grand, K0862, from the cutting of lumber in British Columbia to the final tuning and finishing. I found it fascinating to follow all the handwork and craftsmanship Steinway still uses in the various rooms of its old factory in New York. It takes approximately 12,000 parts and up to 450 people to assemble a concert grand.

The paperback version of the book is $11; a Steinway Concert Grand will set you back a bit more (~ $100,000 new, and $50,000 to $200,000 or more for a used model).

Via Amazon [What’s This?]