Excellent. - Rated 
A proper, no-frills bench reference to all kinds of joining - really useful, functional and not just another glossy coffee table book for hobbyists!
ahhh, what a little gem. - Rated
I'm extremely fussy about what i give 5 stars to. Some of my fave books thus far have had 4 stars from me. The reason I've given this little gem my 5 star rating is because....Its not pretty, it doesn't have lots of pretty photographs and inspiration, it doesn't contain projects. It hasn't jumped on a jewelry making bandwagon and thought "hey! everyone's into this, let me write a books about it and cash in". lol.
What this little spiral bound book contains is information in its purest form. Jewellers who wish to learn many ways they can construct thier work with connections can have this book open (lying flat - thankyou tim) on thier bench. It teaches us about joining techniques. Hot and cold. It covers soldering and it covers riveting and pins, staples and other little thought of methods that make you think, "Ahh, of coooourse.". Tim also goes into bonding with the cold connections, using glues/adhesives etc. Lots and lots of ways of joinging stuff together depending on your project. I think this is invaluable for me because if I ever have a situation where I think, how can I put this all together with the combustable material in the middle? then out will come this book. I also happen to love the way tim writes. He's so casual and funny and completely un patronising. We dont need to know physics and science - we just need to know why it'll work and why it wont - in its simplest explanation. There was a particular bit in this book that made me laugh out loud....its on pg 88 where tim tells us briefly about welding options. he stars the sentance; "Arc welding was discovered in suburban desmoines in 1969 when little johnny smith reached into the toaster with a butterknife. Ok, thats not true. In fact, it was patented in britian in 1885......" I just thought that was funny. ;o)
This book does contain Tims hand drawn diagrams and examples - which is helpful visual aid. The contents of this book are;
COLD CONNECTIONS, Intro, tabs, staples, bezels, threaded connections, rivets, other cold connections.
HOT CONNECTIONS, overview, soft soldering, brazing;torches,surfaces,equipment,soldering investment,misc supplies, clean up after soldering, welding;equip,modern welding.
ADHESIVES; History of,natural glue, drying glues, polyvinyl, hot melt, epoxy, which to use, cyanoacrylates and ultraviolet curing....
At the back of the book are some useful charts. Equivalent numbers - giving the US and UK guages, mm, inches and drill#. Melting points for various metals. Temperature conversions - celcius to fahrenheit and vice versa.
Then, and this was a nice surprise, a list of suppliers....IN THE UK!! YEEEEY. (I think that this one has been done for the UK, with A&C Black. I know he's also done one with his own publishing co, Brynmorgen press - which probably has US suppliers. So keep an eye out for that.)
Excellent little refrence. I highly recommend for having a more rounded knowledge of joining your parts. Good stuff.
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