Milling: A Complete Course (Workshop Practice) Paperback – Illustrated, 20 May 2004

I know various reviewers have criticised this book as I read the reviews before ordering and did wonder what I would be getting. I find it to be a very useful book and is refreshing the parts of my memory that are very dim now in the past. It is making me take a very good look at what additional tooling I am going to be ordering for my new mill and what I feel I am tempted to make. Harold Hall's writing style might not be to everybody's taste, but it is a book to be read a number of times. He packs a lot of good information in it. He also has an excellent website with plenty more projects for mill and lathe and you will find more photos of considerable better quality, that can be zoomed as well. For those that have a difficulty understanding the two different milling directions there is some very clear help on YouTube, (Tom's techniques comes to mind and Tubal Cain, Mr Pete has loads of info on milling). I find this book along with other in the series give me a lot of help, which is then supplemented by YouTube. A point that should be noted is that Mr Hall clearly aims his books at those of us who don't have vast machine tool budgets and his own machine is in fact not so sophisticated as many now buy from the modestly priced Chinese imports for the model engineer. Much as many of us would love a Bridgeport like many US home workshop owners have on YouTube, it is just not possible for most of us. At this stage I must say that I have not yet started any of the projects as I am waiting for my mill to be delivered, but I am certainly going to be doing some to build up my tooling.

it was all ok

A very useful guide for the beginner but moves very quickly from basic principles & simple accessories to the machining & assembly of quite complicated tools. Clear explanations are given with good quality photos to illustrate various techniques & correct mounting of workpieces. By the end of the course I would hope to have a sound grasp of milling. If not, it will be down to me not the book.

After years of not using a milling machine I needed a book to refresh my memory great book for the novice and skilled alike

Bought as a set for my garage workshop, great little book full of useful information.

I ordered this book on the basis of the reviews I read. My background is as an aeronautical engineer and model maker with some exposure to lathe work at school and university. I bought the book to increase my knowledge of general milling practice as I am making my own 3-axis CNC machine. However, on initial reading, the book has failed to meet my expectations, given the title "A complete course". The writing is somewhat convoluted and the ideas could have been expressed more clearly and succintly. Others have commented on this. I was looking for more advice on machine setup, choice of end-mills and a better explanation of such terms as "climb milling" etc. I guess once I can get pas the language of the book, I may well find some nuggets in it. If you are looking for a book to take you through from the basics to a reasonable advanced level, I don't think this is the book

Looked on Harold Halls website & the projects looked interesting, so I bought the book. Not made any of them yet, but some will be done when I have time! I shall have to convert the metric measurements to imperial, as I have imperial machines. Just call 1mm as .040", most of the metric screw threads can use BA equivalents if you don't have the metric taps & dies to hand.

Written in an easy to read and digest format. Covers all bases for a beginner and gives practical things to try as well