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Machinery's Handbook, Must Have!

JohnnyJohnsoninWI

Hot Rolled
Joined
Dec 9, 2003
Location
North Freedom, WI, USA
Yah, Hey Der,
I just recieved an advertisement from Travers Tool, which promted this posting.

The Machinery's Handbook is on sale for $65. If you visit this forum and don't have a copy, you should get one, you'll be glad you did. Even if you consider yourself to be "just a hobbiest", it's time to splurge because this is "The Book". The Machinery's Handbook is just as important an accessorie as any other tool in your shop.

Yes, I am much more of a lurker and reader than question answerer or opinion giver on this forum. However, from all that lurking, it has become obvious that there are many fine members here whom do not yet own a copy.

To top it all off. There are several models of Kennedy tool chests that have a special drawer designed to hold a Machinery's Handbook. It's that deep, narrow, drawer located top center with a hole in the bottom for extracting the handbook. You can't get much more important that having your very own drawer made for you.

Take care,
John
 
OK JJ, spill it..which do you work for.. Industrial Press or Travers ??

I think the book is highly overrated...nonetheless somewhat useful to have a copy lying around. But you don't need a new one, any used volume will do.
 
I have an old copy (1964) and it is loaded with very usable information, but it is not the bible of machining.

I have the computerize current version and it gets used now and then, I am not going to say its over rated, but both are good reference in the shop, but so are Machinist's Ready Reference and the Pocket Ref by Thomas J. Glover.

There are many other books are the shop and my office, they all have their uses, but experience is the best reference.

Jerry
 
Has anyone cast an eye upon the "Bible" being peddled by Modern Machine Shop?

I agree that while nice to have the Machineries hand book could be alot better and up to date.

ARB
 
I think it's a marvelous book.
It's the only one to hand that stops ower dog snoring when it catches him round the earhole.

Have they managed to get dragged screaming into the 20th century yet and include the R8 specs ??

John S.
 
My slant on it is that MH gives you too ~much~ information. Which might be ok except it's mostly obsolete topics and makes wading thru it all time consuming to get to the "real, current world" information. With the icing on the cake being there are very common machine work and machine tool related specs and info not in there at all.
 
I have a collection of both Machinery's Handbooks, and of Mark's Mechanical Engineer's Handbooks. As a mechanical design engineer, who sometimes delves into oddball energy topics, one of the most useful books is the First Edition of Mark's Handbook. Cost at a used book store was a good deal less than the cost of the new edition.

Thermo1
 
My copy of "Machinery's Handbook" will be forty years old on my next birthday. It's the most well-thumbed book I've ever owned and I couldn't do without it. I don't use it much as a machining reference but it's WAY handy as an engineering tool.
 
I have the Machinery's Handbook 21St and 25, the Modern MachineShop Hand Book,The model engineer's handbook, and Newnes Mechanical hand book.
A little bit of info that is unique to each.
Found the Newnes best for metric and was disapointed to see that the Modern Machine Shop Book has little to no metric (were is the ISO pipe thread??. Where are metric key slots dems!!)For a so called "modern" book it was not so !~!.
If you are going to get the Machinery Handbook, go for the 21st.I found it better then the latest.
For metric ,go for the Newnes.
 
Lol...

my bibles, in order of importance:

Tap/Drill toolbox chart...gives me the decimal equivalent and proper drill for tapping

Central Steel and wire company Catalog...gives me pounds per foot of each structural shape

A little book by audells, mechanical trade pocket manual

J&L, MSC, McMaster Carr, Enco, etc tool catalogs

finally...the machinist handbook...the only time i refer to it is when i need the dimensions of fasteners...other than that, it's too big and the pages are too fragile. i wish they used a better quality paper instead of the tissue paper crap that they used.

-jacob
 
Hey Guys,
No, I don't work for Travers, although it would be kind of fun to take advantage of the employee discount.
You are right, a used one off eBay is much better. I haven't been looking for them on eBay, just got the ad from Travers and thought I'd mention it here.
Thanks for all the responses, and for some suggestions to add to my library.
John
 
For used books, I previously have suggested this site:

www.bookfinder.com

Checking under the title, "machinery's handbook" you can find listings for many used and new editions. Of the many listings that come up, click on the ones that list "Oberg" or "no author" as the author. The prices range from under $10 to over $200.

The cheapest ones were from the 1950's and 1960's. That's what I would buy if I wanted to get another copy. Most of the sites are really easy for ordering. You just click, type in your credit card info and address, and they ship you the book.

For interested novices, I recommend _Machine Tool Practices_ (By Kibbe). It has nice photographs of practical equipment and setups.

For most of us, I think that any cheap old edition of these books would be suitable. I have heard some people say that they actually much prefer the older books, which have information that is omitted from newer editions.
 
It is an engineering reference book pure plain and simple. I would never use up valuble space in my tool box with it, it belongs right beside my computer for reference when doing CAD drawings of parts. Tap drill/decimal equivalent charts, and useful tables go in the shop.
 
I found a late 50s addition at a used book store for $5.00

One thing was sort of brought up, I have several wall charts that I refer to, like my KBC tap and die chart. I have welding ones and several others. I even have the Pack and Stacked Calendar.

One good book to keep on hand is "Machine Tool Reconditioning" by Ed Connelly. I use it to reference how to fix some things with machines and also to see how lots of things were made before CNC.

One thing that I hate about the MH, it's print is too darn small, I have to keep a magnifying glass always around for it.

Jerry
 
Of all the books I have bought and I literally have 1,000's, the Machine Tool Reconditioning book was the most disapointing.

Going by all the hype, high price and the title I bought this and wish I hadn't.

It's incorrectly titled for a start.
It should be called Machine Tool Scraping as that is it's subject.

Expecting a book with ALL aspects of reconditioning from the title and then to get one just on scraping was a very big disapointment.

Chapters on headstock, spindles, aprons etc are all missing because it's a scraping book , long and short of it.

Lets face it, you go out there and buy a machine that needs reconditioning, then buy this book, spend 6 months reading it, 6 months experimenting to get your skills up and then start work on reconditioning all the slides of this machine.

Then what ?? you are a newbie remember, how do you deal with the worm gears?, spindle out of truth, loose splines etc ??

Stuff it and forget it, put the $90 towards buying a decent machine. Work part time for the 2 years it would have taken you to half restore some clunker and buy a decent machine to start with.

Lifes too short to be waving a blunt file around.

John S.
 
What I would find most useful is an inexpensive softcover book that describes best methods for cutting various materials. For example, if I am turning 6063, what would be the best tool material for rapid removal, or best surface finish. What is the best surface speed (give me a table with the math please), feed rate and depth of cut. In my little perfect world, this book would list all of this info for all tool types and every metal known to man.

-Ben
 
It is a book I couldn't be without but I agree it would sure be cheaper to buy a used one. Oh, I put mine in the special drawer in my Kennedy once and thought I would never get it out again. Don't know if the book got larger at some point or not but it just barly fits in the drawer.
Michael
 








 
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