Any of you guys recommend a beginners book on machining, handtool metal work etc? Basicly what I'm looking for is a book with tips&tricks for working with steel, aluminium and the like. That being drilling, cutting, bending, milling - sort of a guidebook. I don't mind paying a lot for the book - as long as it comes highly recommended....

-Machining Fundamentals is a good basic, but comprehensive book to start with.

- There is no one book that will tell you what you need to know. There are several good books of a sort of 'reference' variety, but very few give info that is particularly useful to the uninitiated. For general metalworking, particularly with hand tools, I might recommend "General Metal Work" by Grayshon. That is to say, I *could*, but you'd never find a copy, as it's been out of print for about 60 years, but a book that is still in print which has quite a bit of good information which is most *definitely* usable by the unwashed is "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" by Alexander G. Weygers. Although you might not need all of the info, there's a lot of worthwhile stuff in there. Another book with surprisingly useful info is "Making & Modifying Woodworking Tools" by Jim Kingshott. He's trying to teach woodworkers how to make their own planes and whatnot, so he expects the reader to be a bit clueless about metal. Lots of good info in there on layout, cutting, proper way to use a hacksaw, stuff like that. For more machine-oriented stuff there is "Machine Tool Operation" (two volumes) by Burghardt, Axelrod and Anderson. Good stuff, that. Much more advanced than the previous two books, but still meant to teach the uninitiated. It's a school text, therefore it expects that there is someone to show you how stuff is done, so it's not as detailed as the previous two. "Machine Shop Practice" by Moltrecht is okay. I read it a lot, but it's more reference than how-to. It will help you to fine tune your approach, but won't help much in establishing the approach to begin with. Machinery's Handbook is strictly reference. No how-to to speak of, really. The book by South Bend on "How to Run a Lathe" is good basic stuff on running a lathe, but if you don't have a lathe then it will be nearly useless.