Mechanical design engineers - Which books would you recommend? 7

[actiopabs94]

I graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 2017 - tried but failed to get a job as a design engineer. Took what I could get first, then moved to academic research for a year before finally landing a job in proper mechanical design earlier this year!

At times I feel a bit like an imposter, with my fundamentals in mechanics and even understanding of mechanical systems a bit lacking. So I'm here today to ask those of you who have been through what I'm going through, what books have helped you the most in your role as a design engineer?

Online courses that you could recommend would be great too!

 

[JohnRBaker]

You can't go wrong with a copy of 'Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers', by Lionel S. Marks. I also got inspiration over the years from anything which showed simple mechanisms, like 'Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements: Embracing All Those Which Are Most Important in Dynamics, Hydraulics, Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, Steam Engines...', by Henry T. Brown. Or 'How Things Work', by Michael Pollard. Or '970 mechanical appliances and novelties of construction' and '1800 Mechanical Movements and Devices', both by Prof. Gardner D. Hiscox.

I hope that helps.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[Mech5656]

I would recommend “Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design”. Good luck!

 

[hydtools]

"Machinery's Handbook"

Ted

 

[Jboggs]

As far as books go, I have found over the years the one to which I refer the most without a doubt, and the one that by now is very worn is Machinery's Handbook. Extremely full of useful information and standards, most of which you will never use. It has been my most trusted companion when looking for arcane information like the standard for the UNEF pitch of a 2-3/4" thread. Or the proper tolerances and symbology to use to achieve a locational transition fit for a 5/8" dowel, or ... almost anything else you could ask.

But taking your question to another level, when I take myself back to the days when I was where you are now I found the most useful thing to me was simply old drawings. I would spend hours studying old machine drawings, made in the days when drafting was as much an art as a skill. Study those section views and ask yourself "Why did they do it this way?" Why did they arrange the bearings that way? Why did they design that support that way? What forces are at work here and what are their vectors? how do they deal with them? On the detail drawings why did they dimension the drawing that particular way? What would happen if they had done it another way? Why did they choose that particular finish or treatment? Would another way have been cheaper? Would it have worked as well? How did they choose which details to show and which to omit? How did they keep it from becoming overly complicated and thus confusing?

Another thing the artisans of old realized was that any viewer of a drawing gets an immediate first impression. Within the first 10 seconds of seeing a drawing the viewer begins to form an opinion as to whether or not the creator of that drawing knew what they were doing. That viewer could be a machinist, an end user, a corporate decision maker, a customer, a supplier, a coworker, anybody. What they are subconsciously judging is the ability of the creator to clearly and concisely communicate exactly what they mean, and only what they mean. If the drawing is crowded or exhibits poor arrangement, sloppy work, incomplete or extraneous information, that inhibits clear communication. If the viewer doesn't immediately begin to get an understanding of what they are seeing, they tend not to make the effort to dig deeper to get the details. Frankly, to be effective a drawing must look good. Period. So, how did the original designers create that critical and all important first impression to the viewer?

Have fun. Keep digging. You'll get there.

 

[SnTMan]

I always found a dictionary useful.

The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand

 

[BrianE22]

One of my favorites:

Blodget's "Design of Weldments". (There's more to it than just welding)

 

[mfgenggear]

there several Mechanical Engineer professors on you tube, that teach online classes due to covid 19, as refresher I suggest viewing the wonderful videos they have created.
on specific topics, here a link to an example, wish this was available during my college years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaUsmBspl58

 

[drawoh]

Product Design for Manufacture and Assembly
Geoffrey Boothroyd, Peter Dewhurst, and Winston Knight.

--
JHG

 

[Hoonya]

"Machinery's Handbook" is the best book that I've read. Highly recommended

 

[TheTick]

You can never know too much about material properties, no matter what discipline you are in.

 

[DAVIDSTECKER]

My recommendation is to always start a design based on the "Simple Machines" from history.
Almost every machine is born from them, many have combinations of them.
The other words of advice is "Form Follows Function".
Determine what needs to be done before you decide what it should look like.
Best regards, David

 

[Sparweb]

The recommendations above are great. Here are some I can add:

Precision Machine Design by Alexander H. Slocum
Formulas for Stress and Strain by Roark & Young
Standard Handbook of Mechanical Engineers by Marks

You do not have to get the latest edition of these books to have an excellent reference in your hands. Before objecting to the price of the current edition, consider looking for copies at used book sellers like Alibris or Abe Books.

http://www.sparweb.ca

 

[tygerdawg]

Having spent most of my career in manufacturing, I needed to design methods of locating and holding workpieces for various reasons. One of the most profound conversations I heard was my experienced colleague discussing flatness in a workpiece with The Boss:

Boss: Can you make this part perfectly flat?
Colleague: No sir. But I can make it flat to within a tolerance.

This led me to investigate Jig, Fixturing, & Tooling Design. I stand in awe of those folks who are Masters of this design area. Jig, Fixture, & Tooling design encompasses loads analysis, tolerancing, material selection, finish requirements, use of standard Commercial Off The Shelf COTS tooling components, economic considerations, manufacturing processes, and so on. Old Skool, hard-core mechanical engineering design of machine components and tooling. I suggest you investigate the dozens of resources available.
[ul]
[li]Society of Manufacturing Engineers' Handbook of Jig & Fixture Design[/li]
[li]Various Jig & Fixture textbooks[/li]
[li]Tooling & locating component manufacturer's free design resources (Carr-Lane comes to mind)[/li]
[/ul]

The skills and knowledge developed through experience in this design area are translatable to many different areas.

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering

http://www.bluetechnik.com

 

[CWB1]

Machinery's Handbook and Shigley are probably my two mot frequently used references, with Roark's being a close third. Beyond that, I tell junior engineers to simply keep their eyes open and try to find (AND READ!) a professional text or two for each niche you encounter. Forums like this are great for book recommendations and asking questions, so make use of us too. If you don't understand bolted joints, a search or post here will probably point you to Bickford's Intro to Bolted Joints text. If you want to learn about weldment design, you'll find recommendations for Blodgett and several others. Do this for everything you encounter from iron casting to injection molding to gears to bolted joints and over time you will become a truly knowledgable engineer.