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 book is under revision so the online PDF version is down. But you can
get the last version in the form of a *.zip file that expands to a bunch of
PDFs. Look in the left column under "Resources" for the *.zip, plus some
other ones that look interesting but that I haven't checked.

--
Ed Huntress

"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
...
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 book is under revision so the online PDF version is down. But you can
get the last version in the form of a *.zip file that expands to a bunch
of PDFs. Look in the left column under "Resources" for the *.zip, plus
some other ones that look interesting but that I haven't checked.

--
Ed Huntress

Oh. It might be good if I gave the book's name: _FUNdaMENTALS of Design_.

--
Ed Huntress

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 book is under revision so the online PDF version is down. But you can
get the last version in the form of a *.zip file that expands to a bunch of
PDFs. Look in the left column under "Resources" for the *.zip, plus some
other ones that look interesting but that I haven't checked.

--
Ed Huntress



Also see:
http://machinedesign.com/channel/bas...gn-engineering

--Winston

--

Chance flavors the prepared mime. _The New Urban Cookbook_ January, 2010

"Ed Huntress" wrote:

Oh. It might be good if I gave the book's name: _FUNdaMENTALS of Design_.

You done good tonight Ed. That one is a keeper, I put it on my USB flash drive for lunch
time reading. Very ON TOPIC!

Wes

You can get it he

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

I had read this book a while back but forgot about it. great book.

I'm giving a 10 minute talk to high school kids about the engineering field
as a possible career next week. I'm going to use the first paragraph of the
book as a quote.

"Design is a Passionate Process
Long before any design project starts, the design
engineer has to believe that there is a problem that is
worthy of their attention. The design engineer must feel
a need to solve the problem. The design engineer must
have a yearning to solve the problem. The design engineer
must be passionate about solving the problem!"


BTW, do you have any other suggestions or interesting quotes aimed at having
high schoolers consider the engineering field?

Karl

"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
anews.com...

You can get it he

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

I had read this book a while back but forgot about it. great book.

I'm giving a 10 minute talk to high school kids about the engineering
field as a possible career next week. I'm going to use the first paragraph
of the book as a quote.

"Design is a Passionate Process
Long before any design project starts, the design
engineer has to believe that there is a problem that is
worthy of their attention. The design engineer must feel
a need to solve the problem. The design engineer must
have a yearning to solve the problem. The design engineer
must be passionate about solving the problem!"


BTW, do you have any other suggestions or interesting quotes aimed at
having high schoolers consider the engineering field?

Karl

Not off the top of my head, but I know where you can find some in a book.
The title is _The Existential Pleasures of Engineering_. 'Lots of quotes,
and some good original ideas. The whole book is philosophical, so there's
plenty of material in there.

I read it around 30 years ago. Maybe you can find a copy in an
engineering-school library.

--
Ed Huntress

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

Karl Townsend wrote:

BTW, do you have any other suggestions or interesting quotes aimed at having
high schoolers consider the engineering field?

"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk." (Thomas Edison)

Chris

"Christopher Tidy" wrote in message
...
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.

By "the book," do you mean _Precision Engineering Design_?

--
Ed Huntress

"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
anews.com...

You can get it he

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

I had read this book a while back but forgot about it. great book.

I'm giving a 10 minute talk to high school kids about the engineering
field as a possible career next week. I'm going to use the first paragraph
of the book as a quote.

"Design is a Passionate Process
Long before any design project starts, the design
engineer has to believe that there is a problem that is
worthy of their attention. The design engineer must feel
a need to solve the problem. The design engineer must
have a yearning to solve the problem. The design engineer
must be passionate about solving the problem!"


BTW, do you have any other suggestions or interesting quotes aimed at
having high schoolers consider the engineering field?

Karl

I see that _The Existential Pleasures of Engineering_ is available in a new
edition (1996), that Amazon has it in stock for $10 and change, and that you
can have it by Saturday if you order in the next 21 hours. g

--
Ed Huntress

"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
anews.com...

You can get it he

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

I had read this book a while back but forgot about it. great book.

I'm giving a 10 minute talk to high school kids about the engineering
field as a possible career next week. I'm going to use the first paragraph
of the book as a quote.

"Design is a Passionate Process
Long before any design project starts, the design
engineer has to believe that there is a problem that is
worthy of their attention. The design engineer must feel
a need to solve the problem. The design engineer must
have a yearning to solve the problem. The design engineer
must be passionate about solving the problem!"


BTW, do you have any other suggestions or interesting quotes aimed at
having high schoolers consider the engineering field?

Karl
try "the soul of a new machine" there are good quotes in it

On Thu, 5 Mar 2009 17:02:35 -0600, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:


You can get it he

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

I had read this book a while back but forgot about it. great book.

I'm giving a 10 minute talk to high school kids about the engineering field
as a possible career next week. I'm going to use the first paragraph of the
book as a quote.

"Design is a Passionate Process
Long before any design project starts, the design
engineer has to believe that there is a problem that is
worthy of their attention. The design engineer must feel
a need to solve the problem. The design engineer must
have a yearning to solve the problem. The design engineer
must be passionate about solving the problem!"


BTW, do you have any other suggestions or interesting quotes aimed at having
high schoolers consider the engineering field?

Karl

Most design engineers make reasonably good money, some make
unreasonably good money. Another cool part is that a design engineer
can design about anything he or she might want, whether or not anyone
else thinks it makes any sense. Not on the job, of course, but the
skills belong to the engineer to use as he or she may please. They
have .... "the knack".

Bill Noble wrote:
"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
anews.com...
You can get it he

http://pergatory.mit.edu/2.007/resou...daMENTALS.html
I had read this book a while back but forgot about it. great book.

I'm giving a 10 minute talk to high school kids about the engineering
field as a possible career next week. I'm going to use the first paragraph
of the book as a quote.

"Design is a Passionate Process
Long before any design project starts, the design
engineer has to believe that there is a problem that is
worthy of their attention. The design engineer must feel
a need to solve the problem. The design engineer must
have a yearning to solve the problem. The design engineer
must be passionate about solving the problem!"


BTW, do you have any other suggestions or interesting quotes aimed at
having high schoolers consider the engineering field?

Karl
try "the soul of a new machine" there are good quotes in it




Excellent story about the creation of the Eclipse 32.



I'll offer "The Mythical Man Month" as a counter.
The story and experience of the creation of OS 360.
One Million Man Years?

"Wes" wrote in message
...
"Ed Huntress" wrote:

Oh. It might be good if I gave the book's name: _FUNdaMENTALS of Design_.

You done good tonight Ed. That one is a keeper, I put it on my USB flash
drive for lunch
time reading. Very ON TOPIC!

Wes

I'm glad you like it, but I'm sorry to hear about what you do at lunch. g

--
Ed Huntress

Most design engineers make reasonably good money, some make
unreasonably good money. Another cool part is that a design engineer
can design about anything he or she might want, whether or not anyone
else thinks it makes any sense. Not on the job, of course, but the
skills belong to the engineer to use as he or she may please. They
have .... "the knack".

I made unreasonably good money, enough to buy an apple orchard. I had "the
knack" as long as I could see it, feel it, touch it. Now those guys that
pushed electrons around to do all sorts of strange things, were a TFM (total
f***in mystery) to me.

Karl

You can get it he

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

Sorry for the inconvenience, but FUNdaMENTALS of Design is currently
under revision utill further notice.

Webpage Updated 8 January 2009.

:-(

Maxwell Lol writes:

You can get it he

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

Sorry for the inconvenience, but FUNdaMENTALS of Design is currently
under revision utill further notice.

Webpage Updated 8 January 2009.

Followup - the same page has a zipped PDF file which has the document.

On Mar 5, 11:42*pm, "Bill Noble" wrote:

try "the soul of a new machine" * there are good quotes in it

When it came out I was on a well-run team designing a similarly
complex piece of computerized semiconductor test equipment. It was
very interesting to see the dynamics of the process explained so
clearly while actually living it.

As usual the brilliant PhD in charge soon moved elsewhere.

Jim Wilkins

"Maxwell Lol" wrote in message
...

You can get it he

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

Sorry for the inconvenience, but FUNdaMENTALS of Design is currently
under revision utill further notice.

Webpage Updated 8 January 2009.

:-(

As I mentioned in the post, the older version of the book is still there, as
a *.zip file.

--
Ed Huntress

Ed Huntress wrote:
"Christopher Tidy" wrote in message
...

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.


By "the book," do you mean _Precision Engineering Design_?

"Precision Machine Design" actually, but I think we mean the same book.

Chris

"Christopher Tidy" wrote in message
...
Ed Huntress wrote:
"Christopher Tidy" wrote in message
...

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.


By "the book," do you mean _Precision Engineering Design_?

"Precision Machine Design" actually, but I think we mean the same book.

Chris

Oh, right. Yes, that's the one I meant.

I can't find it in the libraries around here, at Rutgers or the community
colleges, anyway. Princeton's catalog is down and the other engineering
schools are a drive. But I'll keep looking for it. I saw it back when I was
with _Machine Shop Guide_, but I didn't have time to read it then.

--
Ed Huntress

"Bill Noble" wrote:

try "the soul of a new machine" there are good quotes in it

That is an excellent book. I couldn't put it down when I first read it years ago.

Wes

"Wes" wrote in message
...
"Bill Noble" wrote:

try "the soul of a new machine" there are good quotes in it

That is an excellent book. I couldn't put it down when I first read it
years ago.

Wes

If you like that one, you'll probably like a similar book that Kidder wrote,
titled _House_.

--
Ed Huntress

On Fri, 6 Mar 2009 15:48:06 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


"Christopher Tidy" wrote in message
...

By "the book," do you mean _Precision Engineering Design_?

"Precision Machine Design" actually, but I think we mean the same book.

Chris

Oh, right. Yes, that's the one I meant.

I can't find it in the libraries around here, at Rutgers or the community
colleges, anyway. Princeton's catalog is down and the other engineering
schools are a drive. But I'll keep looking for it. I saw it back when I was
with _Machine Shop Guide_, but I didn't have time to read it then.

Ed, see if this search has anything close to you:

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/4089803...way%2C+NJ#tabs

Keep in mind that is for any of the four editions, you can
play around with the terms some to narrow things down I'm
sure (if you weren't already using this search...)

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email

"Leon Fisk" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 6 Mar 2009 15:48:06 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


"Christopher Tidy" wrote in message
...

By "the book," do you mean _Precision Engineering Design_?

"Precision Machine Design" actually, but I think we mean the same book.

Chris

Oh, right. Yes, that's the one I meant.

I can't find it in the libraries around here, at Rutgers or the community
colleges, anyway. Princeton's catalog is down and the other engineering
schools are a drive. But I'll keep looking for it. I saw it back when I
was
with _Machine Shop Guide_, but I didn't have time to read it then.

Ed, see if this search has anything close to you:

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/4089803...way%2C+NJ#tabs

Keep in mind that is for any of the four editions, you can
play around with the terms some to narrow things down I'm
sure (if you weren't already using this search...)

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email

Hey, thanks, Leon. I figured that Stevens Inst. of Technology had it but I
didn't want to drive to Hoboken. But I'm surprised that the College of NJ
has it. My library may be able to arrange an inter-library loan with them.

I keep forgetting about WorldCat. My wife uses it, and has full
inter-library access to it (she's taking a Master's at Kean Univ.), but I
never think of it.

I'll give it a try right now...Yes! My local public library can get it from
CNJ.

We cheapskates have to learn patience. g

--
Ed Huntress

On Sat, 7 Mar 2009 14:16:42 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

snip
I keep forgetting about WorldCat. My wife uses it, and has full
inter-library access to it (she's taking a Master's at Kean Univ.), but I
never think of it.

I'll give it a try right now...Yes! My local public library can get it from
CNJ.

We cheapskates have to learn patience. g

It seems like there is always something to forget with the
all the internet possibilities now...

I have a sneaking suspicion that there are electronic
versions floating around the ether too. I found one
download/reference to a pdf, but it had already been pulled.

I checked through all of my used sources too, they were all
close to $100, a lot more than either of us care to spend
right now

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email

"Leon Fisk" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 7 Mar 2009 14:16:42 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

snip
I keep forgetting about WorldCat. My wife uses it, and has full
inter-library access to it (she's taking a Master's at Kean Univ.), but I
never think of it.

I'll give it a try right now...Yes! My local public library can get it
from
CNJ.

We cheapskates have to learn patience. g

It seems like there is always something to forget with the
all the internet possibilities now...

I have a sneaking suspicion that there are electronic
versions floating around the ether too. I found one
download/reference to a pdf, but it had already been pulled.

I checked through all of my used sources too, they were all
close to $100, a lot more than either of us care to spend
right now


I'll say. g Since it's basically a reference book, this may be a clumsy
way to use it, but it is available on Google Books. You can switch to "full
page" mode and hit the magnify button a couple of times, and it's quite easy
to read.

--
Ed Huntress

"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
anews.com...

Most design engineers make reasonably good money, some make
unreasonably good money. Another cool part is that a design engineer
can design about anything he or she might want, whether or not anyone
else thinks it makes any sense. Not on the job, of course, but the
skills belong to the engineer to use as he or she may please. They
have .... "the knack".

I made unreasonably good money, enough to buy an apple orchard. I had "the
knack" as long as I could see it, feel it, touch it. Now those guys that
pushed electrons around to do all sorts of strange things, were a TFM
(total f***in mystery) to me.

Karl


Are there any positions available for such? I'm pretty good at design
engineering and the electrical controls & programming, plus hydraulics,
pneumatics, etc.. My current employer chooses to underemploy me and hires
contractors at 4X my pay to do what I can do better than most of the
contractors they hire. And the jobs they have me do are things that I'm not
all that great at. For example they might have me changing light bulbs when
they can have a younger more agile person change light bulbs faster than I
can. But they hire people to program their machines that are high priced,
not any better at it than I am, and are gone when the project is running.
Do you know of any unreasonably good money jobs (or even reasonably good
paying jobs) doing the design engineering electron pushing stuff?

RogerN

"RogerN" wrote:

Are there any positions available for such? I'm pretty good at design
engineering and the electrical controls & programming, plus hydraulics,
pneumatics, etc.. My current employer chooses to underemploy me and hires
contractors at 4X my pay to do what I can do better than most of the
contractors they hire. And the jobs they have me do are things that I'm not
all that great at.

Can I take a guess. You are working for a place that you haven't worked at for long after
losing a job where the challenges were greater?

Wes

"Wes" wrote in message
...
"RogerN" wrote:

Are there any positions available for such? I'm pretty good at design
engineering and the electrical controls & programming, plus hydraulics,
pneumatics, etc.. My current employer chooses to underemploy me and hires
contractors at 4X my pay to do what I can do better than most of the
contractors they hire. And the jobs they have me do are things that I'm
not
all that great at.

Can I take a guess. You are working for a place that you haven't worked
at for long after
losing a job where the challenges were greater?

Wes

Nope, been at this job for over 6 years, left my more interesting job for
more money and better benefits, and paid overtime. I liked the work I was
doing before better but it was less challenging than I wanted. My first
engineering job was the most interesting, we provided engineering service
for other companies and did machine vision integration, there I did
electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, and pneumatic designs. Our customers did
their own typical work and hired us for the more challenging work. That
company closed down their office in the city where I worked, the boss wanted
me to come to the StLouis office but I got a local job instead, that's been
around 10 years ago or so.

I would love to find a more challenging job with competitive wages and
benefits. To sum it up, I'm capable of automated equipment design,
building, and programming but instead of my employer utilizing these skills,
they have me changing light bulbs and repairing hoists, but they also want
me to repair automated machinery when it's down.

RogerN

"RogerN" wrote:

I would love to find a more challenging job with competitive wages and
benefits. To sum it up, I'm capable of automated equipment design,
building, and programming but instead of my employer utilizing these skills,
they have me changing light bulbs and repairing hoists, but they also want
me to repair automated machinery when it's down.

I work where we have engineers with the ink barely dry on their diplomas and a mindset
that engineers do these things and techs do those and the twain shall not meet.

I keep telling my boss, "I live for interesting breakdowns". My way of telling him I'm
bored. I miss the old job, gone in bankruptcy during the last economic downturn, they let
me do things based on previous successes.

Hobbies help, you can use your creativity on your time.

Wes

"Wes" wrote in message
...
"RogerN" wrote:

I would love to find a more challenging job with competitive wages and
benefits. To sum it up, I'm capable of automated equipment design,
building, and programming but instead of my employer utilizing these
skills,
they have me changing light bulbs and repairing hoists, but they also want
me to repair automated machinery when it's down.

I work where we have engineers with the ink barely dry on their diplomas
and a mindset
that engineers do these things and techs do those and the twain shall not
meet.

I keep telling my boss, "I live for interesting breakdowns". My way of
telling him I'm
bored. I miss the old job, gone in bankruptcy during the last economic
downturn, they let
me do things based on previous successes.

Hobbies help, you can use your creativity on your time.

Wes

Yeah, I know what you mean. I haven't been challenged by work to use 10% of
what I learned just getting an AAS in Electronics. There have been some
difficult breakdowns at work but the difficulty is generally not having
documentation or parts needed to fix a machine. Friday we were working on a
2000HP drive, smaller drives just get replaced, but we have to troubleshoot
an fix the 2000HP drives.

At home I have a CNC mill that I'm wanting to update the control on and a
CNC lathe that I already did a control update on. Plus I mess with
microcontrollers and do hobby projects with R/C, computers, electronics, and
mechanics.

RogerN

"Wes" wrote in message
...
"RogerN" wrote:

I would love to find a more challenging job with competitive wages and
benefits. To sum it up, I'm capable of automated equipment design,
building, and programming but instead of my employer utilizing these
skills,
they have me changing light bulbs and repairing hoists, but they also want
me to repair automated machinery when it's down.

I work where we have engineers with the ink barely dry on their diplomas
and a mindset
that engineers do these things and techs do those and the twain shall not
meet.

I keep telling my boss, "I live for interesting breakdowns". My way of
telling him I'm
bored. I miss the old job, gone in bankruptcy during the last economic
downturn, they let
me do things based on previous successes.

Hobbies help, you can use your creativity on your time.

Wes

so, why not get the degree?

On Sat, 7 Mar 2009 15:19:57 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


"Leon Fisk" wrote in message
.. .
snip
I checked through all of my used sources too, they were all
close to $100, a lot more than either of us care to spend
right now


I'll say. g Since it's basically a reference book, this may be a clumsy
way to use it, but it is available on Google Books. You can switch to "full
page" mode and hit the magnify button a couple of times, and it's quite easy
to read.

I've done that a few times with other books and wish I could
do it with a few more

It works a treat when you only need a paragraph or two to
answer your question. That feature has sold me on a few
books too. I've been burned a few too many times now buying
books sight-unseen that I wouldn't have had I been able to
peek inside.

There are some old (~1900's) engineering books available in
electronic form. I'll pass along info (they are out of
copyright, not hard to find) if you are interested. I've
been downloading/collecting them as I come across them. If
you use a decent "djvu" reader program they are pretty
decent to peruse.

I haven't been too impressed with the scanning Google is
doing. It may just be the pdf copy being released to the
public, but the quality, especially images, kinda sucks...

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email

"Leon Fisk" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 7 Mar 2009 15:19:57 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


"Leon Fisk" wrote in message
. ..
snip
I checked through all of my used sources too, they were all
close to $100, a lot more than either of us care to spend
right now


I'll say. g Since it's basically a reference book, this may be a clumsy
way to use it, but it is available on Google Books. You can switch to
"full
page" mode and hit the magnify button a couple of times, and it's quite
easy
to read.

I've done that a few times with other books and wish I could
do it with a few more

It works a treat when you only need a paragraph or two to
answer your question. That feature has sold me on a few
books too. I've been burned a few too many times now buying
books sight-unseen that I wouldn't have had I been able to
peek inside.

There are some old (~1900's) engineering books available in
electronic form. I'll pass along info (they are out of
copyright, not hard to find) if you are interested. I've
been downloading/collecting them as I come across them. If
you use a decent "djvu" reader program they are pretty
decent to peruse.

Someone here put together a bunch of books like that maybe six years ago or
so and sent out some CDs of them. I have one around here; I looked at them
at the time, but I haven't checked them since, so I don't remember what was
on the disc.

That stuff is always interesting and it's tempting to do something with it,
but I've never had the time. Back when I was with _American Machinist_ and
it was in New York, we had the McGraw-Hill library, which contained the _AM_
library dating back to 1877. We had some great old machining books, many of
which I've never seen on Lindsay or elsewhere. Of course we had the old
Colvin and Stanley books (Fred Colvin was an editor of _AM_ at one time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_H._Colvin -- all of his titles are listed
there), and all of Dick Moore's books, plus at least a hundred others. Aside
from the Library of Congress, they may be the only copies around -- at
least, the only accessible ones.

_AM_ was sold to Penton in Cleveland and I've never checked to see what
happened to the library. McGraw-Hill doesn't publish anything like _AM_
anymore, so they may have gotten rid of them. I'll have to check some day.


I haven't been too impressed with the scanning Google is
doing. It may just be the pdf copy being released to the
public, but the quality, especially images, kinda sucks...

Yes, and I suspect it's intentional. They're playing a dicey game with
copyrights and they have a new project going now, in which they had to spend
$7 million of advertising around the world to let authors know that they're
engaged in an opt-out program, to settle a court suit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/bo...20books&st=cse

--
Ed Huntress

On Sat, 7 Mar 2009 14:16:42 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:



We cheapskates have to learn patience. g

This rare and little known book is perhaps the most interesting
mechanism/machine design book I've seen. Once I set a search, it took
two or three years for a copy to show up on ebay. While you're doing
the interlibrary loan thing, I'd recommend trying to get hold of a
copy.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/160819&...loc=04079#tabs

--
Ned Simmons

"Ned Simmons" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 7 Mar 2009 14:16:42 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:



We cheapskates have to learn patience. g

This rare and little known book is perhaps the most interesting
mechanism/machine design book I've seen. Once I set a search, it took
two or three years for a copy to show up on ebay. While you're doing
the interlibrary loan thing, I'd recommend trying to get hold of a
copy.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/160819&...loc=04079#tabs

--
Ned Simmons

Did you bring this one up before? I remember the title from somewhere, and
also that there are two copies in New York City libraries that are easy for
me to get to.

Maybe on my semi-annual trip to the NYPL in Manhattan.

--
Ed Huntress

"Ed Huntress" wrote:

Maybe on my semi-annual trip to the NYPL in Manhattan.


They let you check them out that long?

Wes

"Wes" wrote in message
...
"Ed Huntress" wrote:

Maybe on my semi-annual trip to the NYPL in Manhattan.


They let you check them out that long?

Wes

g I don't check anything out on those trips, which usually are for going
to the reference stacks that don't circulate.

The New York Public Library in midtown is a nice place to go on a warm
spring day, especially when you've left enough time to visit the permanent
design display at the Museum of Modern Art. And for a piece of cheesecake...

--
Ed Huntress

"Ed Huntress" wrote:

The New York Public Library in midtown is a nice place to go on a warm
spring day, especially when you've left enough time to visit the permanent
design display at the Museum of Modern Art. And for a piece of cheesecake...

Ah, that makes sense. I forgot you are a researcher. The cheesecake sounds great but I'd
rather make it to the Museum of Science and Industry instead. Now if I can just figure
out how to get my employeer to send me to Chicago for training some day.

Wes