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Measurement for Machinist or Metrology Textbook

ShopRatCNC

Plastic
Joined
Jan 6, 2009
Location
Silvis, IL
Hello,

I just retired and was hired to teach FT CNC classes at our local community college. I am in the process of adopting textbooks for my classes, I have found books for every subject except Measurement for Machinist or a good metrology book. Any ideas?

Thanks, Paul
 
Paul, Three that I have are the Handbook of Dimensional Measurement (Farago & Curtis), SME's old Handbook of Dimensional Metrology; and Fundamentals of Dimensional Metrology (Dotson). The first and last might be OK, at least my copy of the SME book is too old and intended more for industry than machinists starting out.

The Dotson book is the one I'd suggest, for two reasons. First, it has lots of illustrations and covers the gamut of measuring instruments with a few notes on things like statistical sampling and GD&T along the way. Second, textbooks cost too much for students. The current edition is the 6th, but the 5th edition (much cheaper) should be good enough and there is a widely available (and poorly printed) India version for a bit over $20 if a student is really strapped for cash.

The main student complaint is that Dotson's end of chapter questions are too hard and not fully answered within the book itself. My thought it is, well, cry me a river. Show some initiative and Google for more info if you can't answer a question. Alternatively, you could supply your class with your own pertinent questions.

There are at least a dozen other metrology texts and handbooks out there. But most are over $100, don't have enough information on actual measuring instruments, etc. Someone else may know of something all-around better, though.

I don't know of any reasonably clear, reasonable-length, and reasonably-priced book that adequately covers practical measurement in all its aspects (linear dimensions, angles, surface finish, etc.); and statistical sampling and SPC; and interpretation of drawings and models (GD&T).
 
Thanks for the reply Peter. I have asked for a review copy of Fundamentals of Dimensional Metrology, I did read the comments from students about the end of chapter questions not matching the chapter content, we can overcome that. I can find texts for the other subjects, but not much out there for measurement. I now use my own material but the college pushes textbook.
Thanks again, Paul
 
I have the 6th edition of Fundamentals of Dimensional Metrology by Dotson and feel like it was an adequate resource.

Biggest advise I can give is to make sure the course descriptions accurately describe what will happen in the class. I took this course as and experienced adult trying to button up an unfinished degree by cherry picking courses that seemed interesting. The course description mentioned the use of optical flats among other more advanced measuring techniques. The reality was the school didn't even own an optical flat or monochromatic light and I spent 16 weeks with my chin in my palm as we made measurements with calipers and wrung gage blocks.
 
Fuuny that is the text I used back in 1973 when I was student at same college I teach at, there are copies of the lab workbook but no texts. It is a great bookbut not in print.
Thans, Paul
 
I have used the 5th Ed. of "Fundamentals of Dimensional Metrology" by Dotson, as a student in a CC setting. I highly recommend the book. It is dense enough that you probably won't want to go through all of it in detail -- but the summaries are a great learning tool. It shows best practices, and perhaps more importantly, it explains *why*. A careful reading forces you to think, but not at an uncomfortable pace. I consider it to be a personal reference work, on my shelf next to Machinery's Handbook.

In teaching from this book, I would concentrate on the basic measuring tools that are taught in the first several chapters -- the rule, various calipers, the micrometer, etc. GD&T The book covers advanced technologies such as CMM's and air gauges, but I wouldn't go into details on those if your CC does not have them and the local industry doesn't have them.

Many of the graduates from our local CC went into aerospace and auto manufacturing, locally.
 
The Starrett catalog is good for complete beginners. Then they can hopefully know a rule from a scale and that a telescoping gage is not a snap gage.
 








 
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