Reference
Look It Up
Five pages to keep open while you write a drawing or read a quote. The guides explain how to decide something; these are for checking a fact.
21 standards
Standards index
Every standard that touches a machine base drawing, grouped by what it controls, with a note on where each is commonly cited wrongly. ISO 13920, ISO 5817, ISO 3834, EN 1561, EN 1090, EN 10204 and the rest.
14 properties
Construction comparison
Grey iron, ductile iron, welded steel, filled weldment and mineral cast across stiffness, damping, density, tooling, lead time, cost trend and repairability.
16 grades
Material properties
Tensile strength, yield, modulus, density and thermal expansion by grade, with the pros, cons and how common each material is: grey and ductile iron, structural steel, granite, epoxy granite, aluminium.
9 processes
Manufacturing technologies
Casting, welding, stress relief, mineral casting, granite, coating and finish machining, step by step, with a side by side comparison.
58 terms
Glossary
The terms on a drawing, quote or inspection report, defined the way they are used on a shop floor rather than the way a dictionary would put it.
Why these pages exist
Most of the arguments on a machine base order come from one of three things: a standard cited where a different one was meant, a construction chosen before anyone asked whether the problem was stiffness or damping, or two people using the same word differently.
These pages exist to remove those arguments. They are free to use and free to quote from with attribution, and if you find an error in one I would genuinely like to hear about it: how this material is sourced.
The guides
39 guides covering construction choice, design and dynamics, accuracy and measurement, welding quality, cost and logistics.