Customer Reviews

Fundamentals of Gear Design

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If you can find a copy, this is the best book yet written about gears for someone starting from scratch with no prior knowledge of gears. The book is lavishly illustrated and thoughtfully organized. While it has the rich feel of an art history text book, it is all the time practical, never pompous or stuffy.

Used, the book is almost impossible to locate. The publisher, Butterworth-Heinemann, told me they are planning to release a new edition of this fine, important book in 2001. It certainly deserves to be available once again.

[Update 3/2003] Unfortuenately, the 2nd edition did not happen yet. I've emailed the author, Ray Drago, and he tells me he's been pressed for time by his consulting practice and hasn't been able to complete the manuscript of the 2nd ed. Maybe next year...

I own several books on gear design and this is one of my two favorites (the other being the Dudley's excellent Handbook). What is interesting about this book is that it feels like a cross between a reference book and a college textbook--so it is very good to study if you're starting and does a fair job as a reference book. My only complaint is that it barely acknowledges the metric system, where there are a few concepts and technical standards which would enrich the content of the book (well, written in the 80s; metric was less common then). Great book if you can find a copy!