Today I was reminded of this. Still one of the funniest things to come from the old place.
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I like that one if the comments on YT cautioned that one should not watch the video if one has smoked weed. 
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I miss Rob! 
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Don’t you worry. He’s out there… Menacing the internet in the way only he can do, but i do miss his posts.
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Friends, I don’t want to open a new topic (but I can if needed), and I know more or less most of us read each other threads so, posting it here:
I’m searching for a relatively old book that teached you how to build a workshop from scratch, bootstrapping your tools with simple materials and upgrading them as you improved the others (as in, you get a basic lathe, and then you make a drill press, and use the improved drill press to upgrade the lathe, etc).
I vaguely remember reading about the book but this is the kind of book that, not having a garage or a place to put the kind of workshop it described, did not inmediattely appeal to me. Now things kinda changed, and it kinda does…
except searching “bootstrap your workshop” gets you links to either workshops about boostrap, or how to make better “workshops -as in courses-”.
Do anyone knows what is the book I’m thinking of?
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At least give me a meme! I kid i kid. I don’t know but just in case i threw a version of that question to AI. Yes i know, but this is a subject matter i’m not helpful with but i wanted to provide something.
Here’s the response i got:
Below are a few candidates that modern readers often point at when they recall a “bootstrap your shop”-style title from the 1970s–80s. None match perfectly, but each captures some of the spirit of starting with very little and building up your own machine tools step by step. Have a look through them—one may be the one you remembered.
The Complete Mini-Lathe Workshop (Ted Hansen)
Spiral-bound, 132 pages, originally serialized in The Home Shop Machinist magazine
Starts from a basic benchtop lathe and shows dozens of shop-made jigs, fixtures, attachments and improvements (including drill-press-turned-lathe setups and vice versa)
Emphasis on using what you already have (e.g. drill press + lathe saddle = milling attachment), then using those add-ons to build better tooling of your own
Very hands-on, very “bootstrappy” in ethos
Shop-Made Tools (various editions, Village Press)
Annual compilations (e.g. Shop-Made Tools 2013) of reader-submitted projects from The Home Shop Machinist and Machinist’s Workshop forums
Over 100 “from the scrap bin” projects per volume—everything from homemade drill-press lathes to do-it-yourself boring heads, risers, quick-change toolposts, jigs, etc.
No single Author-narrative for stepping up your whole shop, but you can literally bootstrap device by device
The Home Machinist’s Workshop (Donaldson)
A 1990s trade paperback that covers lathe, mill, drill-press basics—and frequently digresses into “if you don’t have a mill, here’s how to make a mini-mill from your drill-press” or “if you only have a 3″-swing lathe, build this home-made lever feed”
More conventional than Hansen’s book, but still heavy on turning crude parts into better tooling
Build Your Own Metalworking Shop from Scratch (self-published ‘70s–‘80s DIY)
I can’t pin down a single publisher or ISBN; these tend to have titles like “Your Shop on a Shoestring” or “Self-Made Machinist”
Often sold in ads in the back of model-engineering magazines—promising “no garage? no problem” and showing a drill press-lathe hybrid built from a scrap motor, then a milling slide cast in your own backyard foundry
If none of the above is ringing the bell, a couple of next steps:
Check old back issues or anthologies of The Home Shop Machinist—that magazine often printed multi-part tutorials on building one tool from another.
Look for listings of “Home Shop Machinist Book One” through Book Six—those anthologies are literally a decade’s worth of reader projects, many of which are bootstrap-style tools.
See if your local library (or AbeBooks/eBay) has the 1980s-era “Shoestring Shop” titles these were popular once, then vanished.
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Ok, I think I found them, but open to suggestions about similar ones:
https://www.amazon.com/Build-Metal-Working-Scrap-Complete/dp/1878087355
I think is the 4th on dear @Grey_Devil 's list
Also I hate that we need now AI to do the search because SEO has removed all meaning to words.
Seems the first edition was truly self-published:
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Typically my answer would be “ask Reddit” or in a machinist related forum. Which tbh, asking other experts in a field is the ideal.
Also
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