OT: Machinist Handbok

[Derrick Stewart]

Glenn,

I am looking for something as a general reference giude. I would like something that describes the way the old timer's done it. There is actually an "American Machinst Handbook" and a "Machinery Handbook" as you made reference to. Back in the mid 80 thru the late 90's I worked in the Mill Supply Business and that I must say is my first love. There's nothing like being in a machine shop with a Bridgeport Milling Machine, a Harig Surface Grinder, a Clausing or Warner Swasey Lathe and a Brown & Sharpe #2 Screw Machine.

One of these days I plan on taking a gunsmith class and would like to refinish barrels but now is not the right time.

Derrick

[Old and Reliable]

Originally Posted by Derrick Stewart

Glenn,

I am looking for something as a general reference giude. I would like something that describes the way the old timer's done it. There is actually an "American Machinst Handbook" and a "Machinery Handbook" as you made reference to. Back in the mid 80 thru the late 90's I worked in the Mill Supply Business and that I must say is my first love. There's nothing like being in a machine shop with a Bridgeport Milling Machine, a Harig Surface Grinder, a Clausing or Warner Swasey Lathe and a Brown & Sharpe #2 Screw Machine.

One of these days I plan on taking a gunsmith class and would like to refinish barrels but now is not the right time.

Derrick

I would add LeBlond to the list, and Gerstner for the tool boxes, and Cincinnati for the grinders as well. I have a South Bend "hobby metal lathe" in my small shop- 38" long bed, 6" swing, three jaw chuck and three position compound drive. I'll search through the Gerstners, I may have an older copy of that book, my late Grandfather considered it the "Bible". In his day, you apprenticed with a block of Hot Rolled (bark still on) a parher and Snow bench vise, a Stanley try-square and a set of Nicholson files, from Mill Bastard to smooth, and a file card- and you hade to file that into a dead perfect cube, all six surfaces identical. Once when in grade school I was "pulling shavings" after school in his shop, and a "new hire" took the print to him and asked for the "plus or minus" tolerances- "B.S.- my Grandfather bellowed, you make it right the first time or you are gone"!!

[Bill Murphy]

I got my best training on a Bridgeport vertical mill when a truck driver knocked on the shop door on evening just after everyone except me had gone home for the day. He said, "I have your mill, where do you want it?" It wasn't like he was going to put it anywhere, just making conversation. After an hour or so of struggling with steel rod stock, broom handles, and pry bars, we had that monster in the shop. I was a high school kid working part time, but I knew I was going to have fun with that machine, and I did.

[Autumn Daze]

Bill,We had a saying in the trade "That Bpt.Mill was the only machine tool that could duplicate itself" God if I had a dollar for every hour I spent over the years running a Bpt!