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Rating: 
Summary: Excellent value
Review: After working almost 20 years as a (mostly CNC) machinist, I now teach manual and CNC machining to high school 11th and 12th graders. "The CNC Workbook" is a highly valuable resource for introducing CNC knowledge and programming to my students."The CNC Workshop" is priced similar to other CNC training books that don't include any software. However, this book also includes a training CD that works fairly well. One of the features of the CD is simulation software for both lathe and mill. The only CNC simulation software I have found so far that is any better than this one costs $600 for the lathe simulator and another $600 for the mill simulator. To get both of those lathe and mill simulators adds up to more than 20 times the price of "The CNC Workshop." While the book is not perfect, and while the software can be a bit temperamental, this has to be the best CNC training-guide value on the market. The book and software don't replace me as a teacher, but they do make my teaching efforts way more effective. My classroom is a better place because of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Value
Review: After working almost 20 years as a (mostly CNC) machinist, I now teach manual and CNC machining to high school 11th and 12th graders. �The CNC Workbook� is a highly valuable resource for introducing CNC knowledge and programming to my students. �The CNC Workshop� is priced similar to other CNC training books that don�t include any software. However, this book also includes a training CD that works fairly well. One of the features of the CD is simulation software for both lathe and mill. The only CNC simulation software I have found so far that is any better than this one costs [$$] for the lathe simulator and another [$$] for the mill simulator. To get both of those lathe and mill simulators adds up to more than 20 times the price of �The CNC Workshop.� While the book is not perfect, and while the software can be a bit temperamental, this has to be the best CNC training-guide value on the market. The book and software don�t replace me as a teacher, but they do make my teaching efforts way more effective. My classroom is a better place because of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: I agree with Pepi- this book is written for children
Review: My opinion is the complete opposite of the previous reviewer. I too read CNC books and have read over 10 of them in the last few years. This one is loaded with mistakes and doesn't even scratch the surface of proper CNC programming technique. Not one of the programs in this book would actually work on a CNC machine. Plenty of codes are missing or misrepresented. Where is tapping...Hello??? There are plenty of CNC simulators for free on the internet that take proper cycles, even subprograms and macros. Valentino's book is far better. Smid's book is great. They seem to know CNC concepts far better than Nanfara and company. I disagree that this is a good value for the money. It is written for Gr.9 level technical education. Adults would be better off spending (money) and buy a real book and download a free simulator off the net.
Rating: 
Summary: Not too bad or good
Review: The book seems ok for a noob like me, since i'm not an expert i can not give an acurate rating on how good the book is compared to others, but it was easy to understand and the software make it easy. BUT there in the software was my main problem, because for some reason it just was immposible to install it propertly. Just the simple fact that i was using 2 hard drives becomes a problem during installation, the Java never seems to work right and the interface never worked right. I did make it work at the end, but toke me a long time and a lot of work. So that's why it sucks.
Rating:
Summary: Buy it for simulator, not for the text.
Review: The poor quality text comes with a CD which has a poor quality software package; but you can not beat it (currently) for the price. The mill and lathe simulators work. They are very buggy.
Support is non-responsive. The text has distinctly Canadian terminology. Many important concepts are explained poorly or important parameters for commands are ignored while common ones are constantly repeated. The text organization is poor for teaching CNC. It is oriented to teach the use of the simulators. The index is typical in that it is not complete. It does not make a good manual. The software is great for the price only because there is nothing else like it (that my school has found). It tends to crash a lot. It is quite buggy for commercial software. In a lab at school we are constantly having to kill the program and restart. The software does not allow the user to use favorite editor. Instead the user is forced to use a very poor editor. The authors should free the software and hope to get help from the
user community.
Rating:
Summary: Buy it for simulator, not for the text.
Review: The poor quality text comes with a CD which has a poor quality software package; but you can not beat it (currently) for the price. The mill and lathe simulators work. They are very buggy.
Support is non-responsive. The text has distinctly Canadian terminology. Many important concepts are explained poorly or important parameters for commands are ignored while common ones are constantly repeated. The text organization is poor for teaching CNC. It is oriented to teach the use of the simulators. The index is typical in that it is not complete. It does not make a good manual. The software is great for the price only because there is nothing else like it (that my school has found). It tends to crash a lot. It is quite buggy for commercial software. In a lab at school we are constantly having to kill the program and restart. The software does not allow the user to use favorite editor. Instead the user is forced to use a very poor editor. The authors should free the software and hope to get help from the
user community.
Rating:
Summary: many errors, poor software
Review: The software is Java based, tends to freeze up, and is not accurate. I found many errors in the book in CNC format and programming terminology. Download a free simulator from the web and purchase a better book if you want to learn CNC trade properly.
Rating:
Summary: many errors, poor software
Review: The software is Java based, tends to freeze up, and is not accurate. I found many errors in the book in CNC format and programming terminology. Download a free simulator from the web and purchase a better book if you want to learn CNC trade properly.
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