On 10/23/2009 8:44 AM J. Clarke spake thus:

Steve Turner wrote:

David Nebenzahl wrote:

On 10/22/2009 8:21 PM Gordon Shumway spake thus:

On Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:42:17 -0500, Steve Turner
wrote:

I always had a hankering for one of those fancy drafting
machines (like this guy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zeichenmaschine.jpg). Does
anybody own one? There are lots of them for sale on eBay; any
recommendations?

We used Vemco drafting machines at Caterpillar until the early 80's
when the digital age was upon us. I would highly recommend Vemco.

Mine's a Bruning (same difference, I guess): I love it. Traded a
parallel rule machine that my company discarded for it. Fitted it
with a couple Vemco rules and it's right purty.

Speaking of the rules, are their designs fairly universal and
interchangeable among the various brands of drafting machines? I've
seen several machines for sale on eBay that didn't have rules, and
my tendency was to shy away from them, but if new rules are easily
obtained for a decent price then I guess I shouldn't let that deter
me.

Can't say with certainty for all machines, but my Mutoh works fine with
Vemco scales and the Alvin "universals".

I'm pretty sure that Vemco is the standard for all machines of this type.


--
Found--the gene that causes belief in genetic determinism