Mechanical Design Engineering, 6/e with Student Resources CD-ROM

Rating:
Summary: Unsuitable for undergraduates
Review: The original Mechanical Engineering Design book written by Joseph Shigley, and later, with Larry Mitchell, was an excellent undergraduate text; it was readable at the introductory level, and it contained enough information and methodology for use as a good reference book after graduation. Unfortunately, this revised text, which was rewritten by Charles Mischke, is thoroughly unreadable, obfuscating, and is totally unsuitable as a text for undergraduate mechanical engineering students. The book is full of nuances, subtleties and informative data that do make it useful as a reference book on the shelf of an experienced design engineer, but not as a text for students learning the subject. For those who plan to teach a course for mechanical engineering majors on this topic, I recommend other texts such a Jack Collins' Mechanical Design of Machine Elements and Machines, Wiley, 2003.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best on mechanical components design
Review: This book continues to be the best on covering mechanical engineering components design. It has a good mix of theoretical and practical coverage of the material for and an introductory book. The book covers both factor-of-safety and stochastic approaches to design. I used it in my undergraduate schooling and it continues to be a reference for every day practical designed problems. Recommended for people with good background in Static and Mechanics of Material.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best on mechanical components design
Review: This book continues to be the best on covering mechanical engineering components design. It has a good mix of theoretical and practical coverage of the material for an introductory book. The book covers both factor-of-safety and stochastic approaches to design. I used it in my undergraduate schooling and it continues to be a reference for every day practical designed problem. Recommended for people with good background in Static and Mechanics of Material.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best on mechanical components design
Review: This book continues to be the best on covering mechanical engineering components design. It has a good mix of theoretical and practical coverage of the material for and an introductory book. The book covers both factor-of-safety and stochastic approaches to design. I used it in my undergraduate schooling and it continues to be a reference for every day practical designed problems. Recommended for people with good background in Static and Mechanics of Material.

Rating:
Summary: This is not for study...... maybe good reference
Review: This book has a lot of tables and formulae which can be applied directly to specific engineering design problems, but I have not ever learned mechanical engineering design subject. I need comprehensible and easily viewable explanations and figures to understand the basic concepts. Information in this book looks just a sequence of data with not well-organized instruction.
I can not recommend this book to anyone who doesn't have a background in this subject unless you are forced to use to prepare for the Ph.D. qualifying exam based on this book, for example...

Rating:
Summary: Several steps down from previous editions
Review: This book has some good information in it for designers, but it makes things more complicated than they really are. The sections that focus on review of statics and strenghts is good, but when it comes to analyzing failure theories, the book complicates the matter unnecessarily. The failure theories presented are for raw, rough estimation purposes only, but shigley tries to put band-aids on them and doctor them up to make them more precise, and in the process completely confuses the matter. I'm taking a mechanical component design class and my teacher was an avid promoter of this book up until this edition (sixth edition) -- now he recommends we don't even use the book because it's too confusing even for him. Unfortunately, this will be one of the few books I will rid myself of after the class is over. I think I may try to get an earlier edition instead.

Rating:
Summary: Good but hardly comprehensive.
Review: This book is good at first glance, being accessible and reasonably well indexed. The problem is that it lacks the thoroughness required of a good reference. There is only limited information on the most basic methods and means. It lacks simple things like how to design pinions which mesh with multiple gears, or gears that run under a variety of conditions in normal operations. This fault runs throughout the book, making it almost useless for the slightly obscure applications seen in anything innovative.

Rating:
Summary: Every mechanical engineer should have this book...
Review: This book is not a reference on all the topics it mentions, but it will give you the fundamentals you will need most often. I have often come to this book after looking through more "advanced" texts and have been amazed by its simple treatment. This book, along with a design handbook is a must have for any mechanical engineer. Also as another reviewer mentioned, it comes in real handy when checking FE analyses. Because most of the text gives formulas, checking your mesh becomes very easy. But this is not a "one-stop" design book. You will need your basic texts on solid mechanics, engineering materials, and a good design handbook. (I use Rothbart, but you could use Marks')

Rating:
Summary: Excellent tool for working engineers.
Review: This book provides quick, easy to find and use formulas for everyday use at work. It has been extremely helpful in providing information on the strength of welded joints and on determining the preload required for bolted assemblies. A must have for engineers.

Rating:
Summary: So valuable the binding is already broken...
Review: This is a "must keep" book for any undergraduate level engineer. I've been out of school 6 years and still find myself frequently turning to this book to answer a design question. Often an excellent reference point for complicated FEA problems; get the back of the envelope answer in about twenty minutes and verify your model before too much computing time has been wasted.