Need help finding a book to help me rebuild civilization.

May 5, 2012 8:48 PM

I'm trying to remember a book that explains how to build a machine shop step by step from a pile of coal.

I've heard of a book that explains how to begin with a pile of coal and work your way up to a full machine shop. It explains what and how to build the next set of tools at each step.

Been searching google and Amazon for an hour an can't find the book I'm remembering. Does anyone know what book I should be looking for?

(For what it's worth, I'm preparing for the inevitable zombie apocalypse and want to cover all my bases.)

posted by krisak to Science & Nature (5 answers total)

Best answer: It's the Gingery series of books.
posted by jedicus at 8:51 PM on May 5, 2012 [13 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks, that seems to be what I was looking for.
posted by krisak at 9:17 PM on May 5, 2012

"Most of my life was spent in trying to figure out how to do a $50.00 project for 50 cents, and the remainder of my time was spent in trying to scrounge up the 50 cents."
-Dave Gingery
posted by Chekhovian at 11:14 PM on May 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

If you really want to be prepared, you may want to check out the whole selection at Lindsay's Technical Books (including piles of Gingery stuff).
posted by madmethods at 1:38 AM on May 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh, and one other point, check out the many many youtube videos on "building gingery's _______". His books are good, but occasionally obtuse. Seeing how a mechanism works on video is sometimes incredibly helpful.
posted by Chekhovian at 6:56 PM on May 8, 2012