Build Your Own Metal Working Shop from Scrap
by David J. Gingery · first published 1980
75% recommend25% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Step-by-step guide to building a home machine shop from scrap, starting with a charcoal foundry and casting, then the parts for a lathe and other tools. Suits hobbyists and anyone curious how machine tools are made.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Set of seven volumes
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
2019–2025The metal lathe
David J. Gingery
Recommended by 1 · mentioned by 41 recommend · 4 mention1 recommend · 41 recommend
Foundations of mechanical accuracy
Wayne R. Moore
Recommended by 23 · mentioned by 3323 recommend · 33 mention23 recommend · 3323 recommend
2015–2025The Knowledge
Lewis Dartnell
Recommended by 24 · mentioned by 3124 recommend · 31 mention24 recommend · 3124 recommend
2007–2025The mysterious island
Jules Verne
Recommended by 32 · mentioned by 5132 recommend · 51 mention32 recommend · 5132 recommend
The Build Your Own Metal Working Shop from Scrap series by David J. Gingery.
on “Ask HN: What are some books where the reader learns by building one project?” ↗Anyone who is interested in this sort of thing may wish to take a look at the seven-book Build Your Own Metal Working Shop From Scrap series by the late David Gingery. While intended as a guide for the hobbyist, the series could easily serve as a blueprint for how to go from scraps of metal, wood and earth to a fully functioning machine…
on “Using a 1930 Teletype as a Linux Terminal [video]” ↗…side of the planet. Does the knowledge even exist to bootstrap things back up again should the present infrastructure and supply chains be sufficiently disrupted? I've long admired David J. Gingery's 'Build Your Own Metal Working Shop from Scrap' and wondered whether anything like it is even possible for integrated circuits.
on “TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash” ↗For those interested, a fairly comprehensive book on backyard metalcasting from scrap (from the ground up) is David Gingery's Build Your Own Metal Working Shop from Scrap https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/build-your-own-metal-working-s... Starting with green sand, scrap metal, charcoal, and a pot, pour parts to build a lathe, and so on. It looks like he has put out quite…
on “Backyard Metalcasting” ↗If you really want to start from the beginning, get “Build Your Own Metal Working Shop From Scrap” by David Gingery. Quoting the description from Amazon (link below)… “[It] is a progressive series of seven projects. Beginning with a simple charcoal fired foundry, you produce the castings for building…
on “Scientists built their own Stone Age tools to figure out how they were used” ↗This was taken seriously in 1950s US Civil Defense. Since Europe had already been through that process recently, there was a lot of knowledge available. There's a classic set of books, "Build Your Own Metal Working Shop From Scrap", on this. The kid's version: "A Boy and a Battery" (1942).[1] There's also "A Boy and a Motor", on how to build your own electric train set from old metal cans, some wire, a hammer and tinsnips, and…
on “Getting humanity to bounce back faster in a post-apocalyptic world” ↗…75%. This is after ten years. - Employee retention problems. (A major problem with any volunteer effort.) - Founder not into delegation. This has been done before, better. There's a classic series, "Build Your Own Metal Working Shop from Scrap" (http://www.amazon.com/Build-Your-Metalworking-Shop-Scrap/dp/...) from 1982. You start with charcoal, sand, wood, and metal scrap, set up a forge, and cast parts. With the forge, you make parts for…
on “On a farm in Missouri, a radical experiment in self-sufficiency (2013)” ↗…(frameworks) instead of mass production of the solution. Check out the home machine shop series to see how you'd build up a tech stack from basically scrap metal and wood and Sand. The Metal Lathe (Build Your Own Metal Working Shop From Scrap Series Book 2) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007USU8HU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Gh... The lathe is pretty much the ur-machine, and a lathe is really just screws
on “Why did we wait so long for the bicycle?” ↗"Build Your Own Metal Working Shop From Scrap" I have that on my bookshelf, it's worth a read if you're just curious about how machine tools are made/work. Might build the shaper out of there someday but currently it seems like it would be a better…
on “Getting humanity to bounce back faster in a post-apocalyptic world” ↗For anyone looking for an awesome series of books, these will expand your backyard workshop. Build Your Own Metal Working Shop From Scrap: https://www.gingerybookstore.com/ You start with learning how to cast, then work on casting parts for a lathe and other projects. edit: It looks like the site's author has some of these books! He has…
on “Backyard Metalcasting” ↗"Build Your Own Metal Working Shop From Scrap" by David Gingery which covers everything from building a foundry to making all your tools from first principles using nothing but river sand and junk metal for smelting. "On Trails" by Robert Moore…
on “Game Devs Explain the Tricks Involved with Letting You Pause a Game” ↗Picking up this idea, someone should write a robotics version of "Build Your Own Metal Working Shop From Scrap"[0]. It's a seven volume series where basically you start with rocks, make a series of tools, and end up with a metal shop. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/19811050
on “Ask HN: Courses/textbook recommendations for studying robotics?” ↗…and volunteered as an EMT for a while after getting out. I do have a Wilderness Survival First Aid Book on my Kindle, and I'll definitely add it to this list. I actually had a copy of _The Metal Lathe (Build Your Own Metal Working Shop From Scrap, Volume 2)_ ages ago, and slotting in the full leatherbound edition of all 7 volumes is likewise a good fit.
on “How to live an intellectually rich life” ↗Ages ago, I had Vol. 2, _The Metal Lathe_ which was one of the 7 vol. "Gingery Books", a series on _Build Your Own Metal Working Shop from Scrap_ (Vol. 1 was _The Charcoal Foundry_) which used as its central conceit the fact that a lathe is the one tool in a machine shop suited to easily replicating itself (insert old machinist joke about how…
on “Open Source Low Tech” ↗