Manufacturing Processes 4-5

Reviewed by Shalimar Steinberg, Adjunct Faculty-Drafting, Open Oregon Educational Resources on 4/18/19

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This text does a good job of covering the details, safety, theory, and practical application of machining with a specific set of manufacturing tools. It explains detailed information while using appropriate examples and simple language that can be understood by someone with little experience in the field. It has an effective table of contents which includes subsections, but does not contain an index or glossary. It does provide information about all source materials for each chapter.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

This text contains information which is accurate for the specific types of machines that it is exploring. The diagrams and pictures match the text and descriptions, allowing for clear understanding. The language is concise and specific to the topics covered.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

This text contains material that is relevant to the subject, but not specific to models or years in a way that would limit the ability to use it in the future. Because it explains the reasoning behind many of the steps suggested and different examples where applicable, it can be useful to students who are learning about a family of tools instead of just a specific example.

Clarity rating: 5

This book is a good example of how technical language can be kept simple while still conveying the necessary information. There is a required amount of jargon in the manufacturing field, but the author has managed to restrict this to specific part labels and usage terms without adding slang that is not helpful. It means that a beginning student would be able to use a dictionary to understand the majority of terms without needing industry specific understanding. Overall, it is clear and easy to understand.

Consistency rating: 4

The text maintains the same format throughout most of the sections. This makes it easy to access the lists and examples. However, there is a point where the bullet style line spacing switches briefly to having space between bullets which is easier to read. I wish that this was the format though the entire book. Terminology is kept the same where possible and clear.

Modularity rating: 5

This text does a good job of organizing the material in a way that means it can be easily taught in a reorganized manner. Each section is divided into subsections, and the individual chapters do not depend on each other overly so that they can almost be stand-alone materials. There is good division of subsections visually in the text, leading to few areas of overwhelming text without breaks.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The organization style of this text made it easy to find desired topics at the broad level, and it is easy to move between the chapters and subsections in the online version. A detailed index would be helpful to students looking for specific terms or concepts.

Interface rating: 5

The interface for this text online is easy to use and follows an intuitive path so that most users would be able to navigate easily. Other than switching justification sometimes, there is no distortion of materials which would impede the reader.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

The text contains few grammatical errors; only 3 or 4 were noticed during my reading. Overall, for a textbook this is less than the average amount that I generally find.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text uses only machining pictures and digital examples without people except for a couple of hands. The language is very neutral not using gender or identifying information other than the terms worker, machinist, or student. I do not believe that there is any material in this book which should be culturally disturbing.

Comments

As a drafting instructor who teaches students how to make both architectural and technical drawings of machines and for machinists, I think that this book would be a good resource for my students. While my subject is not the predominant audience intended for the book, it would provide them with a clear understanding of how specific machines that they are designing drawings for work and could provide clarity on whether design options are feasible or not. It is well written and I like the flexibility.