Illustrated Sourcebook of Mechanical Components

This book contains a sea of novel ideas. I intend to protect it and use it liberally throughout my career. Note that some drawings take time to understand—the author compiled these from older references and intentionally kept them in their original format. Many concepts omit isometric views. This book can be found digitally on InternetArchive but paper will be more user-friendly. See if your employer will cover the cost.

I am a farmer who enjoys making machinery. I design my contraptions on paper, then using a CAD program to refine the designs. Having no training in engineering I am frequently using references such as "Machinery's Handbook" and "Moving The Earth" and "Mark's Standard handbook of Mechanical Engineering" and others.I have to say, that Parmley's book is a treasure trove of information, with heaps of unusual ideas for common compnents such as O-rings, rubber balls, pipe connections, washers and many others, plus hard information about more complex components such as gearboxes, cams, governors etc etc.This is a big book, with many pages (numbering within each section only), lovely clear diagrams, and enough but not too many tables, formulae and specifications. It can be browsed cover to cover, (as I am doing for the 2nd or 3rd time), open a page at random and be fascinated, or look up specific topics in the excellent index.I have read the other reviews on this book, and clearly it is a valuable rescource to professionals. I can tell you that it is also a fantastic mine of information to the interested amateur.

It seems like a book that is beyond my level. Comprehensive and informative, it may take years to finish. Nevertheless, it's a treasure.

I have this book open on my desk at work. I skim through it when I have a free second and it gives me great ideas for my mechanical design projects. Every page has something interesting, and the author does a great job at pointing out not only how a device works, but in what type of application it is useful. It's not a tell all book on mechanisms and machines, but it does have a wide variety of subjects, everything from complex mechanisms, to clever ways of implementing common hardware. The author also includes some equations for complex machines, usually it how to calculate the velocity or acceleration of an important point on the mechanism. My favorite thing about the book is the way the author shows several solutions to common problems and compares them, like sections titled "Typical Methods of Coupling Rotating Shafts" or "Mechanisms for Adjusting Tension of Belf Drives". I do have one complaint...the spine on the book is cheap and I know it will be ruined sooner or later, I'm going to be careful with it but I know it's inevitable. In all honesty though, I would still recommend buying it.

It is mind boggling to think how much time it took the author to find, let along compile in a useful form, all the information in this book. Unfortunately, most engineers today bypass this kind of info altogether, in favor of electronic devices and their design in the never ending quest to become the next Bill Gates. In my mind it is a case of having thrown the baby out with the bath water, we have forgotten about the analog baby and went directly to far more complex, black box, technologies that may be a step backward in efficiency. Less and simpler might be better. My thanks to the author for providing a concise study of useful devices and methods.

This book is fun to mindlessly peruse if you are a giant engineering nerd. Also, its sometimes helpful if you are trying to brainstorm some mechanical component / mechanism. Its definitely for a niche audience, but I've had it for 10 years, and it's made the cut each time I've moved, so I must love something about it.

The content is great, as an amateur maker and DIYer there are so many unique solutions and applications of mechanical designs that I would never have had the exposure to otherwise. I don't buy many physical books but this type of content feels a lot more accessible in this format versus accessing it in digital forms.Unfortunately the physical quality of the book does a disservice to the content. It's probably the poorest quality book I've ever owned. The first copy I bought had pages that were partially glued together, many were bent in the corners, and some were immediately falling out. After returning it and trying again I got a copy that still had bent pages and the cover, paper, and construction is of such low quality, I don't think it will stand the test of time very well.

I found this book to be one of the most useful books I have in my collection. It is everything I had hoped it to be and more.