I finally found someone who writes like I do! Workshop Practice books by Harold Hall

[SouthernChap]

Due to my temporarily poorly functioning back, I grabbed a few of the "Workshop Practice" books off the shelf and had a read. A couple are by Harold Hall.

Now, I'd seen in some Amazon reviews that some people had objected to his 'grammer' but eh, I didn't notice anything particularly amiss.

However, about halfway through his Tool and Cutter Grinding book, (don't know what made me notice at that point), I had an epiphany and realised that his style of writing was not dissimilar to mine. It's full of asides, halfway through sentences. I don't find parsing those a problem, I guess because it's what I do too, but I can see, for some, it might make a sentence hard to follow.

I suspect I do it because my ADHD has 'trained' me to want to get the thoughts in my head down, before I'm distracted. I wonder if the much admired Mr Hall is neuro-diverse in the same way?

Anyway, I've thoroughly enjoyed the Harold Hall books (in fact all the Workshop Practice series books that I've read have been at the least interesting and informative, if not excellent reads) and given how cheap they are, I'd recommend them to anybody.

 

[GrifterGuru]

Due to my temporarily poorly functioning back, I grabbed a few of the "Workshop Practice" books off the shelf and had a read. A couple are by Harold Hall.

Now, I'd seen in some Amazon reviews that some people had objected to his 'grammer' but eh, I didn't notice anything particularly amiss.

However, about halfway through his Tool and Cutter Grinding book, (don't know what made me notice at that point), I had an epiphany and realised that his style of writing was not dissimilar to mine. It's full of asides, halfway through sentences. I don't find parsing those a problem, I guess because it's what I do too, but I can see, for some, it might make a sentence hard to follow.

I suspect I do it because my ADHD has 'trained' me to want to get the thoughts in my head down, before I'm distracted. I wonder if the much admired Mr Hall is neuro-diverse in the same way?

Anyway, I've thoroughly enjoyed the Harold Hall books (in fact all the Workshop Practice series books that I've read have been at the least interesting and informative, if not excellent reads) and given how cheap they are, I'd recommend them to anybody.

I have WPS42 "Metalworkers Data Book" decent enough reference.

 

[SouthernChap]

I have WPS42 "Metalworkers Data Book" decent enough reference.

I'd recommend having a look at some of the others. Harold Hall's books often come with quite a few drawings for tooling that he then uses and refers to in the books. A fair few of the others follow the same pattern and some of the other books are collections of tooling projects with extra helpful narrative as well as obviously the drawings.

With the Workshop Practice Series books I currently have, I reckon I have enough little projects to last me a fair old time!

Obviously, some of the books may not be appropriate for someone with the level of experience that you have (so Harold Hall's "The Milling Machine" [No. 49], for example), but they're cheap enough (around a tenner shipped, IIRC) that they're worth a punt, and there might be a snippets that even an experienced machinist might find useful. For example, the aforementioned No. 49 has drawings and explanations for an endmill tooth sharpening jig to be used with a bench grinder; in the Tool and Cutter Grinding book, there are drawings for a bench grinder rest and compatible accessories for both teeth and flute sharpening. It's not a Quorn T&C grinder but then Harold's book and required stock for his system will be a lot cheaper and probably capable enough for most hobbyists.

Tee Publishing have pretty much all of the Workshop Practice Series books and I like to buy from them if possible. I try to support 'model engineering' specific businesses in the UK when I can, as I suspect most are just getting by, and when those businesses are gone, they're gone forever.

Do be aware that a few of the books have been 'rebranded' and republished with slightly different titles and covers, separately from their existence as part of the Workshop Practice Series, but that the contents are essentially the same. I guess the authors/rights holders had tax or divorce bills to pay, or something!

Oh and I recently bought a copy of the Second Machinists Bedside Reader and that is arguably even better reading than the first one (and I really enjoyed that book)! I'll deffo get Guy Lautard's other books at some point.