I've got 15th edition 1958. I find it very useful but I am mainly imperial

Roy

I've got three, two from the 1940s and one from the 1990s. They are my go to source for engineering information. The older ones in particular have good information on imperial threads and old metric thread standards.

Andrew

I have seen copies in my past life but the really useful handbook was Kemps Engineers Year Book. I won a 1974 copy during an office clear out and frequently use it. I also have two copies of Tubal Cain's Model Engineer's Handbook, one in the workshop, the other in the office. They are both interesting books and Tubal Cain does point you in the right direct, pre-internet, if you want further information.

JA

Machinery's Handbook covers more ground than anything else but it's thousands of pages of small print. One for a clean Design Office rather than a grubby workshop.

In order of preference:

• For speed, the internet. But beware, not everything on the internet is correct!
• For common workshop needs like screw pitch sizes etc, – laminated A4 pages of info printed off the internet. Oil proof after being laminated.
• my favourite handy reference that meets most home workshop requirements – Model Engineers Handbook (Tubal Cain)
• Machinery's for when in-depth or unusual info is needed. How valuable it is depends on what you do: Tubal Cain covers most common questions.
• For older British, I have a collection of references of which the best is Newnes Engineers Reference Book, 1948. Mostly 1948 modern, including metric, but it covers quite a few legacy items. Books covering British engineering from, say 1840 to 1940, are fascinating because they cover dozens of long forgotten obsolete proprietary standards. British Standards didn't really get going until after WW1 after industry had caused huge problems due to everybody doing their own thing. Most standardisation was done between 1918 and 1945, and reference books from that period are full of changes – date sensitive, approach with caution. They're occasionally useful to me and I expect a restorer would use them much more.

Machinery's hales from the USA, and I doubt even an early edition would cover early British engineering. I have the 20th Edition (1976), and it does US, British and Metric well. Not felt the need to buy a more up-to-date edition yet.

Dave

I've got a 20th edition. It helped me a lot with ACME threads, 22/29 DP stub form gear teeth and spline dimensions when I needed that information.

I personally use a Newnes in the workshop as it’s much smaller and has most commonly needed info.

Gerstner toolmakers chests have a special compartment for a copy of Machinery’s Handbook, toolmakers must have clean hands or wash up to read their copy.

Mike

Mine is a tenth edition, 1941. I use it very infrequently, both when I worked in a design office and now in a hobby workshop. As others have said Zeus or similar are more useable on a day to day basis. I suppose to an extent it depends on what you are looking to find as the original editions are all imperial, I don't know when they started including more metric. Interesting reading the preface, number of pages increased from the ninth edition by 224 pages to 1816, but they had to be selective about what they left out. It is really a book for the desktop rather than the bench top.

I treat myself to a new copy every 4 years, usually selling the old one for not much less than the cost of a new one.

I also have 30 edition pdf, which can be found online without too much difficulty

Jimb

Great thing about physical handbooks, whatever the size, is that you get to know where the stuff you need to look up or always forget is.

Internet tends to be more variable. Sometimes favourite "go to" sites change or even disappear. RoyMech(?) was great.

I have 3 hard copies of Machinery's. All got second hand to be affordable. Last one is the large desktop version. Not a lot of use but when I need them I need them. Same with Caxtons, Newness, Kempes et all. All have something the others don't.

Older ones are more important to me than most as I see a lot of old stuff that needs fixing.

That said Zeus books are the ones I use most. 3 in the workshop and one in the house for instant information.

I have several other compact sources too.

I wonder if a comparison article covering the modern, smaller, references would be useful to MEW readers showing what you have in which one. Agree that Zeus is probably the one to get first as its small inexpensive and contains much of the need it in your pocket data.

But which to get next could be a puzzle.

I think I've picked up the lot but I'm an info junkie and there are significant differences making the best one dependant on what you do. Even Zeus editions vary.

Clive

I find the PDF copy of the "Machinery's handbook" the best handbook I have because it is easy to find relevant stuff and it has a lot of information.

My German handbook "Tabellen Buch Metall" lists almost only metric stuff. Until now, it has never come with an answer and it is really difficult to find any information.

It seems that information differs, depending on the handbook I use. Also Internet information is not always consistent. So I check several sources to be sure.