"Scott Lurndal" wrote in message
...
Steve Turner writes:
In spite of having used CAD programs for many years (TurboCAD is my most
recent tool, and let's not have this degrade into a Sketchup war, shall
we?) I still resort to (and enjoy!) using pencil and paper for many of
my design activities. I used my Dad's drafting board, T-square, and
triangles for many years, and I still have fond, fond memories of taking
drafting class in high school, one of the two most useful classes I ever
took (typing being the second; and man was that Mrs. Utz a hottie!).
Unfortunately, I no longer have a decent drafting table, the T-square is
long gone, and all I have left are a few triangles and my drafting
pencils and a sharpener. I'd like to rectify that, but then again ever
since taking drafting class 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?

I tend to prefer the parallel-bar[*] tables myself. However, mine has
been
relegated to the Attic since it takes up too much floor space for the
small
amount of time that it actually got used.

scott

[*] Cords on both sides of the reference bar allow it to move vertically
on the table while remaining parallel.

The ancestor of that corded parallel bar is the heavy weight cordless brass
bar. It was equipped with a low profile gear at each end. The two gears
would maintain the parallelism of the bar. It was the first tool that I
used as an apprentice draftsman. Then we progressed to much better tools
not to mention CAD.

Today they make a plastic rolling-paralleled rule that is very good for
small shop drawing and navigation.

See the following link for better details



http://www.draftingsteals.com/catalo...el-rulers.html