Aircraft Sheet Metal Work by Clarence LeMaster

Description

This is a high quality facsimile of Aircraft Sheet Metal Work by Clarence Allen LeMaster, originally published in 1944.

This book is planned to serve as a basic course of instruction for apprentices and other students of aircraft sheet metal work and as a refresher for mechanics who are more or less experienced in the work of this trade. The general contents of the book were inspired by, and are based on, the author’s many years of experience as a mechanic in the trade and as a teacher of apprentices. Both experiences, especially the latter, gave the author ample opportunity to observe, understand, and devise means of overcoming the learning difficulties encountered by beginners, and to build up a course suitable in approach and presentation to meet the needs of apprentices or students and experienced workers alike.

The general plan of the book is quite different from that of the usually textbook in aircraft sheet metal work, a plan which the author formulated to teach beginners and experienced workers how to carry on the various processes and operation required of a finished sheep metal mechanic in the aviation field.

The first chapters in the book have to do with safety rules, personal and shop-furnished tools, and blueprint reading. The author considers these features of first importance, especially to beginners. The chapter on tools not only includes a description of personal tools, but suggests a method of gradually accumulating them in pave with expanding knowledge; this chapter is especially valuable because of its instruction in how to use the tools. The author feels that the ability to read blueprints ranks first in importance and has explained how to do this by a method entirely independent of mechanical drawing and other subjects which are not required of sheet metal workers.

The remaining chapters progress from simple to more complicated processes and operations. Emphasis is always placed on how to do the work; how to rivet, how to weld, how to use the drop hammer, how to figure bend allowances, how to do all the things the sheet metal man must be able to do before he can be classed a full-fledged mechanic. The author has an ever-growing conviction that beginners must actually do sheet metal work as they study it. For that reason, he has included many simple yet practical projects which can be done using few and ordinary tools and but little material. Projects are at the end of those chapters which deal with processes; and they are progressive and in line with the chapter content.

Many instructive pictures showing actual operations in the shop, plus an even greater number of drawings, are used throughout the book to illustrate typical sheet metal work and the principles explained. Questions and answers are supplied to help the reader test his accumulating knowledge. Questions without answers are also presented for test purposes.

Extensive explanations relative to the material a sheet metal worker encounters, such as aluminum and steel, have been included so that he will know their properties, especially in regard to working, heat-treating, strengths, and values.

Chapters

Hints for Safety and Production
Tools
Files and Their Uses
Blueprint Reading
Measuring and Measuring Tools
Template Layout and Bench Work
Pattern Development for Bends
Rivets and Riveting
Skin Fitting, General Fabrication
Soldering, Brazing, and Welding
Use of Drop Hammer
Assembly, Repairs, techniques, Projects
Aluminum and Related Metals
Steel in Aircraft Construction