"J. Clarke" wrote in message
...
Denis M wrote:
"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.

I'm really surprised that they would have started you out with that
instead
of T-square and angles.

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

Not the same thing at all. The corded bar provides a horizontal
reference,
the rolling rules don't provide a reference, they just allow a line at a
given angle to be transferred or repeated.

Personally I don't see what the things with wheels bring to the show that
the parallelogram type doesn't.

Drafting/Technical school of that day would start you on a classroom
drafting board about 18" X 24" and 36" X 24".

Those boards were only suitable for A, B, and C sizes drawing sheet (i.e.
8½" X 11", 11" X 17" and 17" X 22"). A 24 inches T and small squares were
adequate enough.

(The one I have now is 36 inches long)

However the Ship building and Aircraft industries required layouts and
assembly drawings larger than E size drawing (34"X 44"). At that time,
corded parallel bar and T square were not adequate for an 8 foot long
drafting table. Not to mention that most of the time piles of reference
drawings were stacked at one end of the table.