Suggestion on applicable TRIG book?

[GunsOfNavarone]

So, to say I need a refresher course on trig is an understatement. I really would like to focus on the more relatable to machining, not so much trig A-Z. Just a little background, I'm new to machining, work more than I sleep and have one hell of a short attention span. This translates to, 500 pages of small print & no pictures will be used as a wheel chock.
Thank you!

 

[mmcmdl]

Get yourself a ready reference from Valenite . Simple to use . All trig tables are in it and not 500 pages .

 

[Bob Korves]

For doing work in the shop, you can get all the information you need for free online, with models ready to plug in the numbers and wait milliseconds for the answers. If you really want to go back and study trig again, just find a used high school textbook and have it on hand for study and reference. It will come back to you in short order if you paid attention back then. I took trig in 1966 (edit: 1965), and can still do it nearly as well as I could then. I still remember a lot of the common questions, like the sine of 30 degrees (.500). Cosine is .866. I did not look those up. Wow, it just occurred to me that it was 52 (edit: 53) years ago when I studied trig. I better not look in the mirror...

 

[mmcmdl]

Bob , way back when I knew it like the back of my hand . The trusty TI solar powered 30 was all I used from HS thru about a year ago . It finally fell apart . Now I measure what I have to make with broom handles and such !

 

[RJSakowski]

In all my machining experience, I have rarely, if ever, needed to know/understand any more than the basic definitions of sine, cosine, tangent, & cotangent. Machinery's Handbook has a good writeup on the basics of trigonometry as well as several thousand pages of useful information for the amateur and professional machinist.

Another good source is Khan Academy, a free online series of courses on various topics in an easy to understand delivery. https://www.khanacademy.org/
https://www.khanacademy.org/math/trigonometry

Finally, don't overlook the power of modern parametric CAD. The heart of these programs is an extremely sophisticated mathematics engine. My go-to CAD is SolidWorks and I routinely use it to easily solve complex machining related math problems that would have stumped me fifty years ago as a math major. Other CAD packages offer similar abilities.

For example, if you wanted to find coordinates of the holes on a 10 hole bolt pattern, you could find them with trig ot you could draw out the bolt circle, placing the holes 36º apart. Then just dimension in x and y to get your coordinates. The bonus is you can print out your drawing to take with you to the shop.

 

[Bob Korves]

Bob , way back when I knew it like the back of my hand . The trusty TI solar powered 30 was all I used from HS thru about a year ago . It finally fell apart . Now I measure what I have to make with broom handles and such !

Texas Instruments invented the hand held calculator in 1967, but I was not able to afford one even as a college architecture student, they were quite pricey in those days. About 5+ years ago I picked up an Ativa AT-30SX scientific calculator for free. It works fine (solar powered), and I know how to use it, but I have not used it even once since I got it. I guess I am old school for the duration. Upside is that I think that doing that work in my brain helps keeps it active longer...

 

[GunsOfNavarone]

In all my machining experience, I have rarely, if ever, needed to know/understand any more than the basic definitions of sine, cosine, tangent, & cotangent. Machinery's Handbook has a good writeup on the basics of trigonometry as well as several thousand pages of useful information for the amateur and professional machinist.

Another good source is Khan Academy, a free online series of courses on various topics in an easy to understand delivery. https://www.khanacademy.org/
https://www.khanacademy.org/math/trigonometry

Finally, don't overlook the power of modern parametric CAD. The heart of these programs is an extremely sophisticated mathematics engine. My go-to CAD is SolidWorks and I routinely use it to easily solve complex machining related math problems that would have stumped me fifty years ago as a math major. Other CAD packages offer similar abilities.

For example, if you wanted to find coordinates of the holes on a 10 hole bolt pattern, you could find them with trig ot you could draw out the bolt circle, placing the holes 36º apart. Then just dimension in x and y to get your coordinates. The bonus is you can print out your drawing to take with you to the shop.

This maybe perfect....and I dont even need to go purchase anything! Thank you.

 

[JimDawson]

@RJSakowski, I'm with you on the CAD, I use it for all of my trig and geometry problems. I'm going to be lost if all of the computers blow up. But I do have a slide rule and a book.

 

[Jake2465]

Because I don't like to take out paper and pencil, I generally use my phone and go to one of the online calculators and find one applicable to what I need and just punch in the numbers and get the answers I am looking for. If you really want to be spiffy, I would go with the "Machinist Calc Pro 2" calculator. It is specifically designed for working out machining related problems.

https://www.calculated.com/prd377/M...088-Machining-Calculator-with-Materials.html#

I never bought one, but it looks pretty legit. It has "Right angle math" and "Trig functions" in its write up.

 

[GunsOfNavarone]

Reading your conversations, a couple things. I don't have any CAD software, i don't have a slide ruler (and I picture a slide whistle...) You guys seems to know when you need to do some TRIG equations and what that problem looks like. If anything, I'm an artist. If for instance, i needed to plot out a 8 hole pattern, it would become more of a drawing very symmetrical, than it would be a math problem. I
Rock_breaker on this forum is helping a lot, but this is a large amount of need here. I don't want to crush him with all my lack of knowledge..
Im running through this online portal RJ gave me, but I'm not sure i will know when they are needed to be used when fabricating.