machinists handbook

taycat

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which is best edition to get?
heard said older ones are better.
 
It depends on what you do. If you are CNC minded you need a newer edition. Into hand operation edition any will do. Most members as I have seen use somewhere around edition 25. I persomally use whatever is closest to my hand.

"Billy G"
 
older copies usually go for less money look for a 14th to 18th edition- they come up reasonably often
 
Any edition will work, they all have the basic stuff. Newer ones will cover stuff like CNC, older ones will cover shapers and planers. They are all good. Just get one that is not falling apart...
 
I think it is best to go with one that is contemporary to the machines you have available as that would be most relevant to the tasks you could perform - as others say there is no need to get the latest edition with all the CNC information if you don't have any CNC capable machines.

My lathe is from the late 1950's so I went with a 17th edition (1964). Also around the 20th edition they started to remove a lot of the blacksmithing/forge work related stuff which was somthing that interested me so I wanted to go with one before that.
 
I have the 20th edition that I purchased in 1979 but haven't used it very much for a long time.
Much faster to just search the internet or use Autocad.
 
I have the CD version that I purchased when I bought the large print 26th edition back in 2003. I go to the computer version frequently, hardly pull any of the editions to reference something.
 
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