Customer Reviews

Mechanical Engineering Design

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a Mechanical Engineer that's been out of college for a few years, I find that I turn to this book on a weekly, or at least monthly, basis. My version is the 5th addition (the old grey cover of most past editions).

As people have noted, you don't learn from this book. If you want more in-depth looks at statics, dynamics, etc - you'll still go back to your core textbooks. But, for example, if you want a formula to figure out the torque required for given loads transmitted by feed screws, you'll turn here.

This book isn't Marks' handbook - but then again, it's easier to flip to a page for a subject and not wade through all of Marks' 1200 pages. It also isn't the Machinery's Handbook - giving you oodles of charts for different materials, fasteners, and what not. But it's a great bridge between the core textbooks and the very heavy (and tiny print) handbooks.

There isn't an ME in my company that I haven't seen a version of this on his shelf. Almost all of them have it heavily tabbed. And as one said when he opened mine (which wasn't quite as broken in), "my copy usually falls open to the right page".

I would highly recommend any of the version's of Mr. Shigley's book in whichever edition (all the names after Shigley keep changing). But I don't think I need to - as every ME will have to buy this his senior year.

I notice the book gets some bad reviews here. The book is awsome and adequately comprehensive. Once and a while I'd find some references to things that didn't exist, and some charts seem incomplete. But, the text is well writen and is a must have for any mech eng. If you want to design a mechanical system that uses belts, gears, bearings, etc... this is very useful!!!

And, although it's purely asthetic, the cover has that nice McGrawHill flat finish with glossy highlights...nice touch.

-- Shigley is dead both literally and figuratively!!!
Quite possibly the worst book I have ever had for a class. I have seen the previous editions and they were good, the latest edition (7th) is terrible. It appears they tried to update the 5th and 6th editions by changing the end of chapter problems, but didn't bother to update some of the answers in the solution manual. In addition, they use equations in the solutions that aren't in the book. Which leaves the student trying to figure out where they got the answers.
In several cases they added additional equations to the book that can be used to solve for the same parameters without giving any guidance on which equation to use (they all produce different results). Plus by adding pieces and parts of additional equation and tables all over the place the book forces the user to turn back and forth between numerous sections.
To streamline (i.e. put in order) and correct the the book the instructor made over 100 pages of supplements to the text. Having to write >100 pages to make a 1000+ page book understandable is ridiculous.

This is really a great book in a hard to grasp subject.It is easy to follow ,has a lot of excellent sample problems and examples ,student-friendly and it is ideal for selfstudy. It can also serve
as a basic reference book for practicing engineer.

I used it for preparing an exam with Professional Eng. of Quebec, Canada. Verry helpfull, I will use this book for sure for future references. That is not just an exam book.

Shigley has and always will be my definitive guide whenever I need to do design. Great book that covers a vast scope of work.

Received in excellent condition, excellent reference for designers, great textbook for students as well.
Highly recommend this book for all mechanical engineers and students pursuing mechanical engineering. I will definitely buy from this seller.

This is the single most useful engineering design book I have found. It has a very broad scope of design information. As some of the other reviews have stated, it does not go into much depth in a lot of the subjects, but I have never come across a structural design problem I couldn't solve using this book. As a mechanical engineer, if I could only use one book as a reference, it would be this book.

I won't repeat the whole table of contents here, but the book covers most aspects of machine design-deflection, strength, fatigue, materials selection, bearings, screws, joining methods, and gears. However, cam design is not covered. There is some very useful information basic failure analysis. I think the book does a good job of cross referencing material in different sections of this book and other books by Shigley and Mischke. The book also provides some rules of thumb that can be useful if the engineer doesn't have much experience in a particular area. The section on weld strength is very useful for machine design. The math may be a little strong for non-engineers. In summary, this is a useful book for both mechanical engineering students and practicing mechanical engineers.

A good general mechanical engineering reference book. Mechanical Engineering Design, by Shigley contains a wealth of useful reference information, but lacks clarity in a few subjects. It is a good quick reference book, not too big, and not too small for mechanical engineers, as it covered most of the important desgin topics. In general, the topics are easy to find and apply.