ME Reference Manual...

My son’s Thermo teacher suggested that they would be well served by starting to accumulate a few engineering reference books, as some of they stuff they might be looking for is either hard to find on the internet or inaccurate since there aren’t really any internet accuracy police. I wanted to get him a gift but wasn’t exactly sure what he was talking about. I can’t really pry, or he’ll know I’m looking to buy one. So, do you think he’s talking about something like Mark’s (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marks%27_Standard_Handbook_for_Mechanical_Engineers)? Is that a good one? Anything you’d rather have? Thanks!

P.S. I’m a clueless non-engineer Dad

Marks is a decent book. In the age of the internet, a little less useful. What it is really good for is a quick reference on how to do something relatively straight forward. I would buy a used one. I personally have the 6th edition (1950s). It’s a little dated in sections - there is a discussion of large-scale computers that can do arithmetic on the order of 150ms cycle time. But, to be honest, the type of stuff in a handbook especially when it comes to basic mechanical engineering subjects, does not change very often.

Maybe a used Marks and a used Machinery’s might be the ticket.

Thermo - Sonntag (a book to keep throughout his life)
Machining - Shigleys (Also a book to keep throughout his life)

Machinery’s Handbook - good choice if you will be dealing with a lot of mechanical hardware, not much use otherwise. Great for a convenient place to look up thread dimensions, gauge sizes, basic material properties, etc. I have one right next to my Marks, but don’t use it as often as I used to. If you get this, be sure to get the version with index tabs like an large dictionary would have.

Baseliner - are you referring to the textbooks by Sonntag and Shigley? I am not familiar with a handbook.

I thought OP was just looking for ME books in general.

I am not personally a fan of handbooks, but if you really wanted one you might as well just get the FE Handbook (if I remember you have to register on NCEES and then they email it to you?).

It has all the formulae you might need, and basically lists concepts - then if you decide you need to know more you should have books like Sonntag and Shigley to refer to.

Remember, non-engineer here, so I might be off base, but his thermo teacher was talking reference books. From what I gather, large collections of factoids to aid in setting up assumptions. Does that make sense? He basically said you can find most of it on the Internet, but the provenance of the “information” can be suspect and its scattered all over the web. You know the info is good and in one/a few places if you have a book/books?

http://ncees.org/exams/study-materials/download-fe-supplied-reference-handbook/

should be as good as anything you might buy. Again, Im not a big fan of handbooks, I think your money can be better spent elsewhere. So I would just go with this free option.

eyemgh, given what you have said, just pick up a copy of Marks. I looked at amazon real quick and they seem be be going for about $10.

Baseliner and I seems to be diametrically opposed on this one. I am probably biased a little by my love of old books. I buy them at book sales just so I can have them. Most recently I bought a book of trig functions accurate to 4 decimal places. I never use it, but it’s really “cool”

Thanks!

Picked up a 9th Ed Marks and a 25th Ed Machinery’s for $50 total shipped. If it’s nothing more than a novelty, they didn’t cost much. If helpful, pretty good deal in the big scheme of things.