Craft metal has endless decorative possibilities. It is pliable and can be wrapped around or adhered to any surface you can imagine.

This book is all about using coloured craft metal – decorating it by means of embossing, cutting out designs, adding further colour, taking away colour and filling in 3D designs and much more – to customise blanks and found objects for your home. You will learn more about the metal and supporting mediums, and how to use the tools and familiarise yourself with several techniques, all of which can be applied in making more than 50 decorative and functional items.

The original projects were designed and created specifically to show-case a variety of techniques and applications, including:

• Transferring and tracing designs
• Creating texture by means of inexpensive handheld tools or manual processes
• Using an embossing machine such as the cuttlebug™ for textures, patterns and die-cuts
• Finishing techniques such as sanding, ageing and painting
• Upcycling and repurposing
• Tips and tricks to simplify processes

The projects range from beginners to advanced level and from quick ideas to masterpieces that will take longer to complete. Magnificent photographs of the finished objects will inspire you while step-by-step instructions and photographs will help you to get started right away.

The versatile and inexpensive mini-lathe has become the best-selling item of machinery in the hobby engineering market, and is often purchased as a first step by beginners. These miniature versions of industrial metalworking lathes are a good choice for model engineers or anyone else who is interested in metalworking and has a need to fabricate small precision parts.
Mini-Lathe for Home Machinists presents a complete course on using and improving the new generation of budget lathes. It's a perfect choice for beginners as well as for those who are experienced with the lathe, but have never tried the mini-lathe. The skills and information that the reader will pick up from this book can be applied again and again to future projects on the machine.
Based on the author's experience using a mini-lathe in his own workshop, this book covers all of the basics, from safety and materials to setting up and tuning the machine for best performance. It includes detailed instructions for making useful components like shafts, bushings, spindles, part-off tools, DRO handwheels and a radius turning attachment. Readers will learn how to use accessories and perform a full range of essential tasks, as well as how to adjust the mini-lathe for use as a milling machine.
The book provides an in-depth explanation of the different parts of the mini-lathe, and addresses how they can be used to complete different projects. Chapters are broken down into easy-to-understand sections, and include hundreds of clear illustrations that will help guide readers as they set up a machine and start to use it.