American Magazines

[cropwell]

Hi Y'all,

I recently saw an advert for 3 American mags, Machinist's Workshop, The Home Shop Machinist and Digital Machinist. It offered free issues of each one, so I sent for them.

Here's my review

Machinist's Workshop - More emphasis on guns than an English magazine, but less of the Model Railway clutter. Adverts are (of course) almost totally irrelevant. Everything in Imperial. The projects are pretty much the same feel as the UK mags. Contents page had articles on making a Cam Lock Tailstock, Rescuing a Drill Press, Upgrading a Rifle &c...
So no surprises there - don't expect to subscribe to that one !

The Home Shop Machinist - Another magazine for people who like to go into boring detail about sod all. Previous comments about Adverts and Imperial apply.

Digital Machinist - Initially, I thought I might subscribe to this one, but after a couple of days the feeling went away. There was an article on building a peristaltic pump, but I have just made one myself. My pump was similar but only used 3D printing, 4 bearings and a few nuts and bolts. Oh and a bit of silicone tube ! There was piece about building a heavy 3 axis CNC router, but the steel frame only had 1 set of supported rails the other two were not
(???) Another article was about Arduinos, but after discussing fairly basic coding and then had a whinge about Chinese Arduino copies and how he had spent hours diagnosing faulty boards. At the price they sell them for, if they are faulty you chuck them and get another one out of the box.

So no sale there for three magazines.

I get all the info and entertainment I need for free from the forum and Internet searches, so why pay for an irrelevant mag. I have even cancelled my sub for the UK 'Model Engineering' because I got bored with the same-iness and endless articles about building steam trains.

Cheers,

Rob