Mark's Mechanical Engineering Reference

[dextermech]

I've heard that the Mark's Mechanical Engineering Reference is supposedly one of the most important tools an engineer can have as far as books go. Any opinions about this? Thanks very much.

 

[Twoballcane]

Are you talking about the Mark’s Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers? This was the first book I bought right after college. It has come very handy over the ten years. It is more about references than theory. A good theory book is Lindsburg’s Mechanical Engineering Reference Manual (for the PE exam). If I need tables or need more info on other areas of Mechanical Engineering I go to Mark’s. The way I look at it, Mark’s is the bridge that connects the different areas of Mechanical Engineering. Mark’s really just give you the introduction and then some of the different areas of ME.

Tobalcane
"If you avoid failure, you also avoid success."

 

[Heckler]

What books to buy as references would depend on what industry and what areas of mechancial engineering you use on a daily basis.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
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[rhodie]

I use a dog-eared "Marks", a 25th Edition Machinery's Handbook, and a free copy of a black "Pocket Ref" with a vendor's name embossed on the cover.

Those three printed books, and a handful of occasional internet sites comprise most of my technical references.

All of them are invaluable at different times.

 

[dextermech]

yes, Mark's for engineers. What I need is a book that is very practical.

 

[GregLocock]

I have never used it in anger. It seems to be a cookbook for plant machinery designers.

Now, I agree that it has its place, but not on my desk. See, it all depends what industry you are in, and what your job is, and what you are trying to learn.



Cheers

Greg Locock

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[DaveVikingPE]

I have Mark's. It was handed-down to me by an ME student who flunked out.

It's an excellent resource for structural/civils who want to know about mechanics. At least in my case. It's also very interesting, just as a curiosity, regarding non-structural ME things.

 

[lewtam]

I agree with Greg. I consult it regularly but it rarely has what I'm looking for. I often wonder how there can be so much information for a Mechanical Engineer that is irrelevant to me.



LewTam Inc.
Petrophysicist, Leading Hand, Natural Horseman, Prickle Farmer, Crack Shot, Venerable Yogi.

 

[Beggar]

Ditto. I find Machinery's Handbook, my ASTM metals book, and my Standard Handbook of Machine Design to all be more useful than Marks.

--------------------
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--------------------

 

[zdas04]

I use it pretty often for things like estimating deflection of a flat plate held rigidly all the way around (a skillet blind for a hydrotest), densities of various materials (for bouyancy calculations), etc. In my business you often have to find something off the beaten path and I find the CD version of Marks to be a good place to go into the weeds (the index in the hardcopy version is not great, but Adobe Search cures that).

I don't use it as often as the GPSA Engineers Handbook, but I use it more than the SPE Petroleum Engineers Handbook. It has about a 50% success rate in having information that the Internet has hidden from my meager search abilities.

David

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

http://www.muleshoe-eng.com

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[tygerdawg]

roger that on Beggar. Machinery's Handbook is much more useful than Mark's for down-in-the-dirt practical information about machine design, shop practices, stock sizes, etc. Get the BIG version of the book for a few dollars more, but DON'T get the user guide. I was on a curriculum advisory committee once and made the recommendation that every graduate should get a Machinery's because it taught the new grad what was needed in the 'real world'.

TygerDawg

 

[SWhit]

Just FYI. Many of the refs that have been discussed in this thread are available at Knovel.com. I don't know how much subscriptions are, but there is a lot of stuff there.

 

[vpl]

I've never used Marks. I do own and frequently use the Lindsburg’s Mechanical Engineering Reference Manual (for the PE exam) and a Crane Technical paper 410 (actually two copies, one english, one metric). But I'm not a machine designer.

One of the things that turned me off Marks (and this is personal opinion!) was the size of the type. I don't like references where I need a magnifying glass to read them.

Patricia Lougheed

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[plasgears]

I have a boatload of reference books, and it's uncanny; when I can't find sufficient guidance in other references, Marks comes thru. This has happened many times.

I advised a young CE on Karman vortices of a tall process tower in a wind field. It was layed out very nicely in Marks. We worked out an array of guys that helped avoid unwanted vibration modes and resonance in expected winds.

Marks will give you guidance in many related fields apart from ME. It had a nice section on dimensional analysis, which I used.

 

[SlideRuleEra]

Unlimited free on-line access (at the Knovel Library -

http://www.knovel.com

) to "Marks' Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers (10th Edition)" is a fringe benefit of being a member of ASME. It is presented in .pdf format (Yes, I am a member of ASME and have been for 34 years). Several other books of comparable quality are also included in the ASME subscription.

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

 

[bvanhiel]

Nobody's mentioned my favorite resource: the McMaster-Carr catalog. Way more valuable to me than most of my engineering reference books. Once those other books have helped you figure out if it's possible, the McMaster catalog tells you whether it's economically feasible.

-b

 

[plasgears]

We had an open acct with McM-Carr, and we were able to model new products with components from the catalog. It's not the low price source, but it has practically everything.