I never did much mechanical design after I graduated engineering school in 1993 so I never had much use for this book, but it's a good book that addresses a lot of design considerations and details that makes the difference between a kludge and a truly engineered design. Has a lot of material on failure prevention, cycle life, fatigue strength, factors of safety, etc. ( )

In my time in school I acquired many engineering texts. Take a look at my catalog, you'll see them there. At the end of the day however, none have been as much use to me as my beaten and battered, well loved copy of Shigley's Mechanical Engineering Design. I have met few mechanical engineers that don't know what you mean when you say "Shigley" and nearly as few who do not have a copy of one of the man's books at hand.

When I left school I kept most of my books. I figured they would serve as a good reference library for future endeavors, and indeed they have. But the only one I can say that I've ever considered buying a new copy of is this. The cover is coming off and the pages are yellowed with age (it was an old copy when I bought it) and it has served me well. None is more dogeared or filled with bookmarks. ( )