On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 21:42:45 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Tom
Watson quickly quoth:

By the time I was done I had spent three hours searching on the
internet, resulting in going to Borders to buy Machinery's Handbook
(27th edition) ($85.00) (Type smaller than the Book Of The Month
Club version of the OED) and then reading for hours over the weekend,
simply to understand the most basic terminology.

I found an older copy on eBay for $4. It was worth every cent and
ten times more.


If you work with metal, take a look at the Machinery's Handbook.

I'd like to see a show of hands here for anyone who does not work
with metal on at least a seasonal basis. I'll bet the number fits
on one hand.


You can sit that sucker by the can for the next twelve years and not
get through it all.

And it has some great stuff in it.

Ayup. It'll either tell you why you effed up or how not to, all
depending upon -when- you consult it. DAMHIKT.


(watson - who thinks he now has a handle on why the engineering boys
at college didn't go out much on the weekends.)

When you're done with that, go find a CRC Handbook of Chemistry and
Physics. Its heft is nearly identical to that of Machinery's Handbook.
I got mine during my junior year in HS when taking Chemistry (49th
edition, '68-69) and still haven't finished it.


--
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Larry Jaques wrote in
:

On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 21:42:45 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Tom
Watson quickly quoth:

I found an older copy on eBay for $4. It was worth every cent and
ten times more.

Older ones are better in my opinion - they have info on things like
taper taps (by which I mean taps for threading tapered holes, not
starting taps, which folk now-a-days miscall as taper taps).

When you're done with that, go find a CRC Handbook of Chemistry and
Physics.

Never have found a need to look in the Chemical Rubber book
since college, myself. I wouldn't call it as useful as the
Machinery's Handbook.

John

"John McCoy" wrote in message
0...
Larry Jaques wrote in
:

On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 21:42:45 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Tom
Watson quickly quoth:

I found an older copy on eBay for $4. It was worth every cent and
ten times more.

Older ones are better in my opinion - they have info on things like
taper taps (by which I mean taps for threading tapered holes, not
starting taps, which folk now-a-days miscall as taper taps).

When you're done with that, go find a CRC Handbook of Chemistry and
Physics.

Never have found a need to look in the Chemical Rubber book
since college, myself. I wouldn't call it as useful as the
Machinery's Handbook.

I have no occupational need for that kind of information, but it's
surprising how many times I look up stuff just 'cause I'm interested. The
internet just about killed me because my appetite for factoids is (was)
insatiable. When I started forgetting how to spell I figured I was full
(never thought that could happen 'till it did). I wish I'd known; I would
have left it in the books and just focussed on what I needed to know for
whatever I was doing. Now I'm wondering what I have to forget in order to
make room for the woodworking skills I have yet to develop.

My wife shakes her head that I find something like the CRC Handbook
entertaining.

- Owen -

On Tue, 13 Dec 2005 22:10:05 +0000 (UTC), John McCoy
wrote:

Larry Jaques wrote in
:

On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 21:42:45 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Tom
Watson quickly quoth:

I found an older copy on eBay for $4. It was worth every cent and
ten times more.

Older ones are better in my opinion - they have info on things like
taper taps (by which I mean taps for threading tapered holes, not
starting taps, which folk now-a-days miscall as taper taps).

When you're done with that, go find a CRC Handbook of Chemistry and
Physics.

Never have found a need to look in the Chemical Rubber book
since college, myself. I wouldn't call it as useful as the
Machinery's Handbook.

John

Particularly with the advent of calculators and various math programs,
particularly Maple and Mathematica -- the need for the logarithmic and
integral tables diminished considerably.

I still have my CRC handbook, a 1976 version purchased at a steep
discount in 1977. Cool stuff in it, just not something one needs to reach
for very often.



+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

"Owen Lawrence" wrote in message
...
"John McCoy" wrote in message
0...
Larry Jaques wrote in
:

On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 21:42:45 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Tom
Watson quickly quoth:

I found an older copy on eBay for $4. It was worth every cent and
ten times more.

Older ones are better in my opinion - they have info on things like
taper taps (by which I mean taps for threading tapered holes, not
starting taps, which folk now-a-days miscall as taper taps).

When you're done with that, go find a CRC Handbook of Chemistry and
Physics.

Never have found a need to look in the Chemical Rubber book
since college, myself. I wouldn't call it as useful as the
Machinery's Handbook.

I have no occupational need for that kind of information, but it's
surprising how many times I look up stuff just 'cause I'm interested. The
internet just about killed me because my appetite for factoids is (was)
insatiable. When I started forgetting how to spell I figured I was full
(never thought that could happen 'till it did). I wish I'd known; I would
have left it in the books and just focussed on what I needed to know for
whatever I was doing. Now I'm wondering what I have to forget in order to
make room for the woodworking skills I have yet to develop.

My wife shakes her head that I find something like the CRC Handbook
entertaining.

I sometimes think it should spill over. I wish all the stuff floating around
in my head were useful.

I just bid on an old version of MH on, of course, Ebay. I knew I couldn't
afford the new edition, but until someone here mentioned getting one on
Ebay, the penny just hung in the slot without dropping. Idiotic. I've been
buying books on various subjects from Ebay for a considerable time.

Like you, I think maybe my personal HD needs a few more gigabytes.

On Tue, 13 Dec 2005 22:10:05 +0000 (UTC), with neither quill nor
qualm, John McCoy quickly quoth:

Larry Jaques wrote in
:

On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 21:42:45 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Tom
Watson quickly quoth:

I found an older copy on eBay for $4. It was worth every cent and
ten times more.

Older ones are better in my opinion - they have info on things like
taper taps (by which I mean taps for threading tapered holes, not
starting taps, which folk now-a-days miscall as taper taps).

I picked up a post-WWII copy ('53, my year of birth) which had all the
newest info after our gearup for the war. Woiks for me!


When you're done with that, go find a CRC Handbook of Chemistry and
Physics.

Never have found a need to look in the Chemical Rubber book
since college, myself. I wouldn't call it as useful as the
Machinery's Handbook.

I've needed mine for calculations, metric conversion formulae, etc.
It's not as handy as my new/used MH.


--
STOP LIVING LIKE VEAL
-----------------------
http://diversify.com Veal-free Websites

On Wed, 14 Dec 2005 10:05:56 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm,
"Charles Self" quickly quoth:


Owen Lawrence said:
My wife shakes her head that I find something like the CRC Handbook
entertaining.

What do women know?


I sometimes think it should spill over. I wish all the stuff floating around
in my head were useful.

I hear that. If I had a penny for each tidbit of info in my gray
matter, useful or not, I'd be a very rich man.


I just bid on an old version of MH on, of course, Ebay. I knew I couldn't
afford the new edition, but until someone here mentioned getting one on
Ebay, the penny just hung in the slot without dropping. Idiotic. I've been
buying books on various subjects from Ebay for a considerable time.

Like you, I think maybe my personal HD needs a few more gigabytes.

Other sources for inexpensive copies of good books are www.half.com
(now ebay subsidiary), www.edwardrhamilton.com , & www.abebooks.com.
I never pay over half the retail, and usually nab 'em for 20-25%.


--
STOP LIVING LIKE VEAL
-----------------------
http://diversify.com Veal-free Websites