Ed Huntress wrote:
A few days ago we were discussing _Precision Machine Design_, which is an
excellent book for people interested in machine tool and other machine
design, but which costs $100. It was written by Alexander Slocum of MIT.

Slocum teaches (among other courses) a basic mechanical engineering design
course called "Design and Manufacturing 1." To support the course he's
written a stripped-down version of _PMD_ and made it available free, online.
If you want to know about basic design engineering ideas, this is it. It
looks like it's written for Freshmen or Sophomores -- simple language,
excellent introduction of concepts, lots of first-semester calculus. But you
don't need the calculus to understand it.

You can get it he

http://pergatory.mit.edu/2.007/resou...daMENTALS.html

The notes and book are both very good, but I prefer the book. If you're
interested in the connections between theory and practice, the book is
more precise. There are one or two connections suggested in the notes
which I regard as being unproven, although I have not found any which
give bad advice.

One notable issue is the connection he makes in the notes between
Saint-Venant's principle and the design of reliable sliding mechanisms.
Some time ago I asked Professor Slocum to explain the connection to me,
and my interpretation of his response was that the connection is purely
empirical, i.e., it gives a sensible starting point for a design but
there is no mathematical proof showing why it works. But this is not
stated in the notes. In the book, the connection is not mentioned at
all, and he quotes a few sensible figures, noting that they are just
"rule of thumb".

Best wishes,

Chris