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Book Description

Work your way to fabricating success

People have been hammering metal into shields, cookware, and ceremonial headdresses for centuries, and fabrication continues to be a popular and growing industry today. Fabricating For Dummies provides you with all the information you need to begin learning about metalworking, or fill any gaps in your existing knowledge in order to advance your career.

Simply put, there's little out there for light reading on manufacturing. What's available is often quite expensive, so boring it puts you to sleep, or filled with so much technical gobbledygook that one's eyes glaze over within a few pages. This book offers a much-needed alternative, cutting through the jargon and getting right to the heart of what you need to know to take your fab skills to fabulous new heights.

  • Get a glimpse of the day in the life of a fab worker
  • Discover the different alloys, shapes, and sizes of sheet metal
  • Understand welding and joining processes
  • Master the use of press brakes, stamping presses, and turret punches
Whether you want to get your feet wet with waterjets, laser cutters, or hi-definition plasma cutters, there’s something for you inside this hands-on book!

Table of Contents

  1. Cover
  2. Introduction
    1. About This Book
    2. Foolish Assumptions
    3. Icons Used in This Book
    4. Beyond the Book
    5. Where to Go from Here
  3. Part 1: Fabricating Truths
    1. Chapter 1: Manipulating Metal
      1. Defining the Processes
      2. Boarding the Bending Express
      3. Peeking at the Neighbors
      4. Reviewing the Rest
      5. Embracing Mechanics
    2. Chapter 2: Looking Back at Fabricating History
      1. Digging for Gold
      2. Pumping Iron
      3. Caring About Fabricating
    3. Chapter 3: Getting to Know Materials
      1. Pondering the Properties
      2. Touching on the Elements
      3. Reconnoitering the Metals Landscape
      4. Alluding to Alloys
      5. Riding the Gravy Train
      6. Peeking Under the Sheets
  4. Part 2: Making Metal Fabulous: The Processes
    1. Chapter 4: Cutting Up
      1. Eating Cake: Power Shears
      2. Lasing About
      3. Firing Up
      4. Beholding the Gantry
      5. Watering Down
    2. Chapter 5: Bending Down
      1. Bending History
      2. “Braking” Up Is Hard to Do
      3. Diving Into Dies
      4. Backgauging the Bends
      5. Crowning Is King
      6. Calculating Conundrums
    3. Chapter 6: Stamping About
      1. Striking Gold
      2. Decompressing Presses
      3. Picking Up the Lingo
      4. Taking Off the Covers
      5. Feeding the Machine
      6. Being Progressive
    4. Chapter 7: Punching Out
      1. Punching Madness
      2. Exploring Operations
      3. Picking Your Station
      4. Getting a Grip
      5. Deciphering Dies
      6. Taking the Combo
    5. Chapter 8: Fabricating Odds and Ends
      1. Working Iron
      2. Rolling ’Round
      3. A Booming Success!
      4. Piping Up
      5. Squeezing in the Rest
  5. Part 3: More Than Machinery: Digging in the Toolbox
    1. Chapter 9: Tooling Up
      1. Digging Metals
      2. Setting Standards
      3. Punching Through
      4. Stamping and Stuff
      5. Donning a Smooth, Slippery Coat
      6. Wrapping Up
    2. Chapter 10: Welding: Putting It All Together
      1. Wondering About Welding
      2. Doing Me a Solid (State)
      3. Firing Up
      4. Arcing Across
      5. Marking the Spot
      6. Getting Gassed Up
      7. Choosing a Good Joint
      8. Learning Safety with Jimmy
    3. Chapter 11: Automating with Robots
      1. Taking Robbie Apart
      2. Leaning on the Tin Man
      3. Laying Down the Law
      4. Gaining Flexibility with an FMS
      5. Watching from Home
      6. Avoiding Bad Actors
    4. Chapter 12: Making Tools and Machining Parts
      1. Touring the Tool and Die Department
      2. Meeting a Few Machine Tools
      3. Staying Sharp with Cutting Tools
      4. Increasing Your Carbon Footprint with EDM
      5. Grinding Is Groovy
    5. Chapter 13: Going Soft(ware)
      1. Unraveling Difficult Acronyms
      2. Figuring Out File Formats
      3. Coloring in the Lines
      4. Modeling Reality
      5. Staring at Clouds
      6. Eliminating Toolroom Chaos
      7. Designing with an Eye to Production
      8. Herding the Shop Floor Cats with MES
    6. Chapter 14: Embracing Quality
      1. Giving a Rip About Quality
      2. Internationalizing Your Standards
      3. Shopping for Tape Measures
      4. Touring the Inspection Room
      5. Letting Machines Do the Measuring
      6. That’s a Wrap
    7. Chapter 15: Making Metal Parts Pretty
      1. Assessing Abrasives
      2. Wheeling About
      3. Talking about Tools
      4. Working ’em Like Dogs
      5. Blasting Away
      6. Finishing Up
  6. Part 4: The Part of Tens
    1. Chapter 16: Ten Techie Things to Know About Fabricating
      1. Joining the Revolution
      2. Cruising the Clouds
      3. Going Green
      4. Getting Lighter
      5. Getting Lost on the Paper Trail
      6. Cutting the Wires
      7. Viewing Machines Virtually
      8. Manufacturing Additively
      9. Embracing Automation
      10. Leaning Out Your Shop
    2. Chapter 17: (Almost) Ten Ways to Be a Better Fabricator
      1. Changing Things Up
      2. Adopting New Technology
      3. Marketing Your Business Vertically
      4. Shortening Setups, Increasing Uptime
      5. Maintaining the Machine (and Tools)
      6. Learning That Manufacturing Is Not a Dirty Word
      7. Becoming Certifiable
      8. Donning Some Cool Safety Shades
      9. Keeping Your House in Order
  7. About the Author
  8. Connect with Dummies
  9. Index
  10. End User License Agreement