The Purpose Of This Book

An engineering handbook is essential equipment for practically

all engineers, machine designers, draftsmen, tool engineers and
skilled mechanics in machine shops and toolrooms. Such a book,
with its tables and general data, saves time and labor. To obtain the
full value of any handbook, however, the user must know how to
apply the tables, formulas, and other data, when required.
One purpose of this Guide, which is based on MACHINERY’S
HANDBOOK, is to show by examples, solutions, and test questions
typical applications of HANDBOOK information and to familiarize
engineering students and other users with the HANDBOOK’S con-
tents. To this end, cross references to page numbers of the HAND-
BOOK and the HANDBOOK CD-ROM are interspersed throughout
this Guide. A third objective is to provide test questions and drill
work that will enable the HANDBOOK user, through practice, to
obtain the required information quickly and easily.
This Guide is also available as a separate “activation” purchase
with MACHINERY’S HANDBOOK CD-ROM. In addition to contain-
ing the same contents as the book, the electronic Guide has “live”
clickable links to pages, tables, diagrams and figures, and equa-
tions in the H ANDBOOK CD-ROM. Like the H ANDBOOK CD-
ROM, the electronic Guide contains numerous web enabled “live
interactive equations.”
MACHINERY’S HANDBOOK, as with all other handbooks, pre-
sents information in condensed form so that a large variety of sub-
jects can be covered in a single volume. Because of this condensed
treatment, any engineering handbook must be primarily a work of
reference rather than a textbook, and the practical application of
some parts will not always be apparent, especially to those who
have had little experience in engineering work. The questions and
examples in this book are intended not only to supplement some of
the HANDBOOK material, but also to stimulate interest both in those
parts that are used frequently and in the more special sections that
may be very valuable even though seldom required.