Metal Lathe for Home Machinists Kindle Edition

Readers of Harold Hall will recognize the title "Lathework: A Complete Course (Workshop Practice)"I was hesitant at first, but since I love to collect books on machining, I ordered it. Even though I also ordered the above book from Amazon, they didn't know or bother to warn me that this IS THE SAME BOOK with a different title!Great book, but now I have two versions. This version has a more expensive binding with glossy pages, and was easier to read, but if you have the other, don't buy this one. To sell both of these as though they are different works demonstrates questionable ethics IMHO.Very late update to this review: Mr. Hall happens to be on one of my online machinist's forums and he told me that a different publisher now owns this series of books and has chosen to release *all* of them with new covers and titles. He didn't have any say in the matter. So, a word to the wise, this warning actually applies to the whole series.

So far, I've only read the first 2 chapters. The book could be organized for simpler reading. For one thing, there are a lot of commas missing. I studied the "blueprint" in the first project several times trying to understand what the part labeled "collet" in the blueprint was for. I eventually found out during "assembly" that it was for helping to make washers (and other small parts). In retrospect, maybe it doesn't belong in the same diagram with the tool being made, but the author does expect you to study the diagrams. Another reviewer's mention of the flycutter are on track. If you didn't already know what a flycutter is, this book doesn't explain (but personally, it would never have occurred to me to use one in a lathe!). The author also has some sort of drilling vise attached to his compound, and writes about using it as if it is a common item--but I've never seen one before. All of the above being said, the author makes many helpful remarks for the novice (like me). An absolute beginner should probably (surely?) begin with different book on lathes.I would enjoy the book more if the font size, and photos, were larger. You can view Amazon's preview of the book. It is consistent. It looks a little small to me too. I'd estimate the book as having font size 9 or 10, while it would please my eyes much more if it were 12. There is no real need for the book to be so small and compact, except maybe to save money in printing it. And, if this is the case, the savings are not being appreciated (at least not by me). If you enjoy "careful" reading, at font size 9, then this aspect will be perfect for you. I can deal with it, but I provide this feedback with the hope that the publisher listens to it... This is the first time I've ever thought that I might prefer the e-book version (so that I could adjust the size of the type).

There seems to be a lot of haters out there for this book and I think they are missing the point. You may not need or plan to use all of the projects in this book, but if you take the time to make them you'll learn a lot about using a lathe. So it's in metric, so is every country in the world other than the U.S., learn to adapt. If you can read mechanical drawings, every dimension that you need is there. My advice is to try the projects, make mistakes, figure out what you did wrong and then make it right. You will be a better machinist for it.

Very Disappointing. Biggest problem, this book talks about the basic basics and then skips on to somewhat complex tasks with huge holes in the middle. Coupled with Brit Speak it is difficult to understand both concepts and specifics. Example: “Using the thin piece collet to hold a washer whilst being machined to the thickness required.” Section on making and sharpening cutting tools is dismal, no detail and the charts are full of typos. Photos are fuzzy and lack detail, useless most of them. Maybe this made sense in 1950, but I doubt it.

The information contained in the book seems solid, but the book is riddled with spelling and grammar mistake. The language used is clunky and could be clarified and simplified greatly. Hell, run the book through Grammarly and it would be a huge improvement.

A person can never have too many reference materials for enhanced operation of milling or lathe operations; no matter how much that operator already knows, or thinks they do-LOL. This book is primarily touching on the basics of many points and would not recommend this for a sole source or knowledge if a person is just starting their quest for fabrications on a metal lathe. A good read.

Print is smaller than I would like. Photos not clear or well annotated. Illustrations, drawings not clear or IAW technical drawing standards I am experienced with. Writing often contains colloquialisms. Printed and bound in a format I found difficult to deal with.

A quick, but thorough overview of parts of a lathe and then straight into small projects on the lathe. Each project is presented in a step by step manner and prepares you for the next project. Best of all, each project (12 in all) incrementally increases in complexity and skill until you have a collection of functional tools that can be used with your lathe and other machines in your shop.

Be careful because this is just the American version of the "Lathework - The Complete Course" so is identical. To Amazon's credit, I returned it and received a full refund.

The drawings and photos are a vital part of this book, but the kindle edition does not render them well enough for this to be at all an appropriate medium for this book. Its about as useless as the kindle edition of "Scratch'n'Sniff Spices Of The World" which just smelled of cheap chinese electronics and wotsits.

I chose this rating because the book turned out to be basically a series of projects.....I have not started any as yet....!It has however quite a large amount of useful info, advice etc...So if one wads thro' it you can find usefull stuff and maybe one day try the projects...

I found this book to imforative on turning but feel it was written for a stage above beginners

Excellent ideas and clear instructions