Hello I might be imagining things but one thing I notice today is a serious lack of in depth technical manuals for various skills. For example I have sitting next to me an old book from back in the day called “Modern Welding”. This book has techniques for welding damn near everything. You would be hard pressed to find a book like that today. I’m hoping to build up my collection of books like this and I want to see what is out there to add to the list. I’m after books about pretty much anything to do with metal work, whether that be welding, machining, tool making, moulds & dies, metal shaping, forging, blacksmithing. Anything. I know I have seen books out there from years ago that the US Military put out, old manuals from the 40’s. I am a month away from being 32 and I spent the better part of a decade working in a Tool & Die/job shop doing a broad spectrum of work. While there I took up TIG/Heliarc welding (kind of had to as my first day there I was basically handed a torch). My boss was super old school and I realised that there were a lot of skills that were normal back in the day which are dying out as the older ones retire and don’t pass it on. Skills which are actually still relevant to this day. I want to learn as much as I can to keep this stuff going.
I thought about sending you two books, New Lessons in Arc Welding by the Lincoln Welding Company, 1957, and Metallurgical Materials and Processes, 1948 but then I checked the cost of postage. $38.60 for a 3 pound package translates to $65.85 NZD. I was going to send them to you in exchange for a few NZ car magazines but I see no way to make this work. I’m afraid postage will put a damper on your quest for knowledge.
I have a stack of text books from when my Dad went to a tech high school. Would have been early 1930s. They weigh a lot. I'll dig them out and post details. Machine shop oriented. The chapter on hand files is fun. You never thought there was that much to filing metal, there is.
Heres a few good ones. I'm actually enrolled in a welding program at a local community college. Modern welding is one of our text books as are the two on the bottom. Really good metallurgy information in metals and how to weld them
1941. My Dad was in tech school just before he went to war. I refer to them sometimes. Amazing stuff. Lost art to a high degree, with CNC, etc.
I think if you ask for the Media Mail rate to New Zealand you will get laughed out of the post office.
Be advised that the post office treats media mail as junk mail. Don't be surprised if it gets "lost" in shipping.
Old technical manuals, like old shop manuals, tend to be really well written, proof read, and appear to have used graphic artists to illustrate them. Compare a 1955 shop manual to a late one. Even the paper is thicker and of higher quality.
The Jalopy Journal
