Machinery's Handbook

Machinery's Handbook
Guide

Andrew Prestridge | September 17, 2020

Machinery's Handbook – The Machinist's Bible

Few professional books are as ubiquitous as the Machinery’s Handbook. This book can rightly be called a machinist’s bible, and not just for its super thin pages. Clocking in at nearly 3000 pages, the 31st edition Machinery’s Handbook adorns a special corner of my desk, always within arm’s reach.

The shear body of knowledge and content span multiple lifetimes of careers in machine shops (the first draft was published in 1914!), and the index for each logical section is many pages long. The Digital Edition companion is increasingly useful too.

The latest edition of the Machinery's Handbook, with corresponding Digital Edition

What sets the Machinery’s Handbook apart (it’s often called the Machinist’s Handbook, which somehow seems more appropriate since the machinist is the one who owns the handbook, but is nevertheless incorrect) is not just its sheer breadth, but also innate practicality.

DNA of our Modern, Mechanical World

Across thousands of topics it provides enough information to gain an understanding and then go out to the shop and deliver. Just as DNA is considered the "recipe for life" the Handbook is the DNA of our modern, mechanical world.

Key to this claim is that the reader learns enough from the single book that he doesn’t need to consult additional references. Far too often a book will lightly touch a topic, offering a general familiarity, but not enough information to actually do anything. Or, a dense reference material might dive deep into the weeds, offering complexity that takes a degree in mathematics to unravel. Striking a delicate and precise balance, the Machinery’s Handbook delivers just enough information to know what to do.

Blurry except from inside the Machinery's Handbook

The Handbook contains countless charts, formulas, and definitions

Perhaps equally interesting is how the Handbook has remained relevant in our time of modern connectivity. The importance of the physical book is obvious for the machine shops of yore, without access to the Internet from every phone, tablet, or toaster. And yet, it has remained important by offering a reputable compilation of crucial information.

Some of the Handbook’s content is also available in digital format, but most shops trust the physical book that has developed over its 106-year history. In a way, countless machinists are staking their reputations on the accuracy of the Handbook.

Customers demand correct parts, and a machine shop can only deliver these when they have correct information. When weighing the cost of scrapped parts and disappointed customers, the cost of the Handbook pales in comparison.

Get the Machinery's Handbook 31st Edition

Machinery's Handbook

Decades of experience

The first draft was published in 1914, and has been consistently revised and improved over 31 editions

Thousands of pages

The hardcopy of the 31st Edition has over 3000 pages of formulas, charts, and definitions

Broad topics, specific info

Almost every conceivable mechanical discipline is featured, with enough specificity to solve real problems

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