Engineering↗
Cutting Tools
The fundamentals of metal cutting: single-point tool geometry, rake and clearance angles and the tool signature, cutting speed and how it sets spindle speed, material removal ra…
Content type
Guides
Structured, multi-part guides that take a subject from first principles to applied practice. 3043 pages.
Engineering↗
Disc Springs
Belleville disc springs: cone geometry and the h/t ratio, the nonlinear force-deflection character with computed curves, series and parallel stacking arithmetic, friction and gu…
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Drafting Practices
Engineering drawing essentials: the drawing as a contract, first- and third-angle projection, line conventions, views and sections, dimensioning rules with datum-versus-chain ac…
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Electric Motors
The prime mover as a mechanical component: synchronous speed and slip, the induction motor's torque–speed curve with a 3 kW point worked, starting methods and the exact one-thir…
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Electrical Discharge Machining
Machining by spark erosion: how EDM removes metal with no cutting force so it cuts any conductive material however hard, the spark gap and overcut, electrode wear, the finish-ve…
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Elements, Heat, Mass and Weight
The physical starting points for materials work: density and how it turns a volume into a weight, specific heat and the energy to change temperature, thermal expansion, and wher…
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Engineering Economics
Money over time for engineering decisions: simple and compound interest, nominal and effective rates, cash-flow diagrams, equivalence factors with a computed 8% table, net prese…
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Estimating Speeds and Machining Power
Working out the power, torque and time a cut demands: specific cutting energy and power from metal removal rate, motor power through efficiency, cutting torque, and machining ti…
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Files and Burs
Hand and rotary shaping tools: single- and double-cut files and their coarseness grades, why a file is harder than the work, filing technique, and rotary burs with their high sp…
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Finishing
Treating a component's surface after machining: electroplating and Faraday's law of deposition, anodising, galvanising and sacrificial protection, organic and powder coatings, a…
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Flexible Belts and Sheaves
Grip is exponential: the capstan law worked flat and vee, the groove that multiplies friction three times over, a real drive priced in kilowatts, the timing belt that trades sli…
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Fluid Mechanics
Fluid fundamentals for machines: properties and viscosity, pressure and head, Pascal's principle in hydraulics, buoyancy, continuity and Bernoulli, Reynolds number and flow regi…
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Forming Tools
Form tools that cut a whole profile in one plunge: flat and circular form tools, why the profile must be corrected for rake, the heavy full-width cutting force they generate, an…
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Gear Trains
Gear trains from simple to planetary: overall ratio of simple and compound trains, the role of idlers, the epicyclic train equation with a fixed-ring worked example, and where e…
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Geometry
Analytical and mensuration geometry for engineering: lines and coordinates, polar conversion, the circle and conic sections, areas of plane figures, regular polygon data, circul…
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Grinding and Other Abrasive Processes
The abrasive processes and their tools: the grinding-wheel marking system decoded, the abrasive types and when each is used, and the finer processes of honing, lapping and super…
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Grinding Feeds and Speeds
The parameters of grinding: high wheel surface speed against slow work speed, wheel rpm from surface speed, the tiny depths of cut, the grinding ratio, and the burst-speed limit…
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Hardening, Tempering and Annealing
The heat treatment of steel: the iron-carbon transformations behind it, quench hardening and the martensite it forms, tempering to restore toughness, annealing and normalising t…
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Helical Coil Screw Thread Inserts
The wire coil that puts a steel thread into soft metal: why aluminium needs far more thread engagement than steel, how a helical coil insert works, fitting it with an oversize S…
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Helical Gears
Helical gears for parallel shafts: the helix angle, normal versus transverse module, why the gradual tooth engagement runs quieter and stronger, the axial thrust it produces, th…
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Inch Threaded Fasteners
The unified inch thread system: reading a designation like 1/4-20 UNC, the coarse-versus-fine choice and the stress area that decides it, classes of fit, and the SAE grades and …
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Iron and Steel Castings
Making shapes by pouring molten metal into a mould: sand casting and its mould, the shrinkage allowance the pattern must carry, how solidification and Chvorinov's rule govern fe…
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Keys and Keyseats
The little block that carries all the torque: the parallel key sized in shear and crush for a Ø40 shaft — and why crushing governs — the taper, Woodruff and feather family, the …
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Knurls and Knurling
Rolling a grip pattern into metal: straight, diagonal and diamond knurls, why knurling displaces rather than cuts, the tracking condition that keeps a pattern clean, and the dia…
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Lasers
The laser as a manufacturing tool: what makes laser light special, the enormous power density at focus, cutting with an assist gas, keyhole welding and marking, and the differen…
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Lubrication
The one curve of tribology: friction across the boundary, mixed and full-film regimes, viscosity as the single property that matters, the lambda ratio that names your regime, bo…
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Machine Screws and Nuts
The small end of threaded fastening: machine screw head styles and drive types, the numbered gauge sizes and the formula behind them, why a standard nut is the height it is, and…
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Machining Econometrics
The economics of a cut: how machining cost and tooling cost pull against cutting speed, the U-shaped cost-per-part curve, and the optimum tool life for minimum cost and for maxi…
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Machining Nonferrous and Nonmetallic Materials
Cutting the materials that are not steel: aluminium and copper at high speed with sharp positive tools, built-up edge and how to beat it, and the special care plastics and compo…
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Manufacturing Data Analysis
Statistics for the shop floor: samples and populations, mean and standard deviation, distribution curves, the normal curve and z-values with a computed table, estimating the fra…
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Matrices
Matrix operations for engineering: addition and scalar multiples, matrix multiplication, transpose, determinants, minors, cofactors and the adjoint, rank and singularity, the in…
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Measuring Instruments and Inspection Methods
Workshop metrology: accuracy, precision and the ten-to-one rule, callipers and micrometers with worked readings, dial indicators and cosine error, gauge-block stacks, the sine b…
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Measuring Screw Threads
Reaching the diameter you cannot touch: limit gauging and Taylor's principle, the three-wire method with its geometry derived and an M10×1.5 worked over best and ordinary wires,…
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Measuring Units
The SI system for engineers: the seven base units and their constant-based definitions, named derived units resolved to base units, coherence and why consistent units need no co…
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Metric Screw Threads
The ISO metric system that fastens the planet: reading the designation, the coarse and fine pitch series, the 6g/6H tolerance scheme, the geometric proof that plating grows a pi…
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Metric Threaded Fasteners
The ISO metric thread system: reading a designation like M10 x 1.5, the coarse and fine series, the tensile stress area formula validated against standard sizes, and the propert…
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Micromachining
Machining at the scale of microns: the size effect and minimum chip thickness, ploughing versus cutting, the very high spindle speeds tiny tools demand, and the fragility that d…
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Milling Cutters
Milling with rotating multi-tooth cutters: the main cutter types, conventional versus climb milling, spindle speed and the feed-per-tooth that sets table feed, material removal …
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Nails, Spikes and Wood Screws
Fastening into timber: why nails hold laterally but not in withdrawal, how holding power scales with wood density, penetration rules, the wood screw and the clearance-hole disci…
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Nonferrous Alloys
The metals that are not steel: aluminium and its designation system, copper and its brasses and bronzes, the light and specialty metals, electrical conductivity, and how to choo…
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Numbers, Fractions, and Decimals
Working arithmetic for engineering: signed numbers, ratio and proportion, percentage, fractions and reciprocals, the inch–millimetre bridge, continued fractions and change-gear …
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O-Rings
The almost-perfect seal: the self-energising principle, squeeze, fill and stretch worked for a standard 3.53 mm section, gland geometry, extrusion and its cures, the elastomer m…
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Other Threads
The threads that fit no other page: round and knuckle forms that shrug off dirt, the Edison lamp thread, the worm that is a gear, closure threads that open in one turn, and inte…
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Pins and Studs
The fasteners that locate rather than clamp: dowels and the two-pin rule, taper pins and the 1:50 taper, spring and grooved pins that make their own fit, cotter and clevis pins,…
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Pipe and Hose Threads
Threads that must not leak: why the name is not the bore, the 1:16 taper arithmetic of NPT and BSPT, the parallel threads that seal on a face instead, the flare fittings that se…
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Plain Bearings
The sleeve that outlived every rival: pressure, speed and the PV product worked for a real bush, the hydrodynamic wedge that lets a shaft float on its own oil, Petroff's frictio…
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Plastics
Engineering plastics for the mechanical designer: thermoplastics versus thermosets, low density and the float test, low stiffness, high thermal expansion, the common families an…
Engineering↗
Plates, Shells, and Cylinders
Pressure containment: thin-cylinder hoop and longitudinal stress, thin spheres, the thin-versus-thick criterion, Lamé thick-cylinder analysis, and uniformly loaded flat circular…