If you want to be any kind of a Machinist, or an Engineer for that matter, the first tool you should buy is the latest Edition of the Machinery’s Handbook. It is chalk-full of information, formulas, charts, and many other things that you will use on a daily bases.
The first edition was published back in 1914 for mechanical engineering and practical shop mechanics. Every few years a new edition is published with more/updated information about mathematics, formulas, materials, threading, and many other things involved in machining.
Any time you need to find a thread size/pitch, surface foot for a material, or just a mechanical formula for machining, this book covers more of that than any other book out there. For such a small amount of cash, you’d be losing without it.
Need to solve a trig problem? How about calculating thread dimensions? The machinery handbook is an engineer’s or machinist’s dictionary, and is filled with endless content that is relatively easy to find.
It may seem difficult to find things at first, but after using it a few times you will start to remember where each chart and specific pages are.
The 29th is the latest edition of this handbook and it just came out within two years ago. Do you need the latest edition? No. If you already have one that’s recent, there is not a NEED to get one. However, if you want to be updated on the latest threads, formulas, charts, and other new information that is coming out yearly, it would be a good idea to buy the latest version. Besides, it’s only about the cost of one half-inch end mill these days…