A bit of pre-AutoCAD drafting history

[ReMark]

Hmmmm....seems my last post went missing in action.

Pencil number 2886 by Mars-Staedtler was indeed a blue-line pencil. Not only did it not reproduce when sent through a blue line (ammonia based) printer but it was also invisible when photocopied. The nice thing was you could ink over the blue lines as they were not greasy like the Prismacolor pencils. rkent is our winner. Give the man a stuffed trout. Congrats.

[Coosbaylumber]

ReMark....

I may be wong, but sort of remember the Lumo series of leads to be made of some sort of Plasticky material. Used them on Mylar, for lead pencil often smeared. I remember they were difficult to sharpen when in a coffee grinder. We had yellow and blue pencils. Blue would not show up on a blueprint, whereas yellow showed up with a force harder than black pencil. Had to use some sort of special white eraser to remove the lines or text too.

Here in California, we had the major blueprint places get rid of their Ozalid type machines and go to the dry OCE' styles about four years ago. Said the ammonia was hazardous, for operators were not disposing of it properly, but just dumping it out.

I don't like the new OCE' machines for Repro's as there is a gloss on older linen, and it makes for a speckled spot on the final paper, or will not let light penetrate on through, and thus pick up work done on BOTH side of a sheet. The newer machines also ignor colored pencils too.



Wm.

[Teeds]

I started with Koh-i-nor tech pens but quickly became a big fan of the Mars-Staedtler series. Worked a lot with triple and quad "0" pens. Had to be really careful cleaning them. Anyone here remember using ultrasonic cleaners?

I never had trouble cleaning them, but had a devil of a time getting them back together.

I still have an ultrasonic cleaner. It is on a shelf on the back porch.

[Biscuits]

My post isn't about drafting equipment, but of a print I discovered a few years back. I was a CNC programmer/operator for a wood trophy company using a 2 1/2 axis wood router. Programing was done without the use of a computer and took ages to get a program right. As I slowly learned Autocad in school and at home, I convinced the big boss to bring in a Cad station for programming purposes which eventually led to me becoming the company drafter. The previous drafter only worked a couple hours a week and was about to retire (he was in his late 70's). Ray Hansen was the man's name and Ray was the original owner and developer of the company in 1957. He had sold the company to a much larger organzation in the 70's and retained a position as drafter & advisor. When Ray finally hung up his drafting tools and I began the transition to the electronic age, my first duty was to convert his old office and drawing station into one I could use.
As I cleaned out his desk, I discover an old print stuck way back behind a drawer. The paper looked to be made of the same material that grocery sacks are made of and had a date of "1947" on it.
When I showed it to Ray, he remembered the print and told me it was of an engine part for a B29 bomber being manufactured at the Martin Bomber plant in Omaha. He was very pleased to get it back and I enjoyed the idea of having a piece of history in my hands. Turns out, Ray had been a graphic illustator during the war and is even credited for creating the nose art on General Jimmy Dolittles plane.
Well that's my long winded story....and I'm stickin' to it!

[brassworks]

That's really neat to know! Thanks for posting your story. I'm going to send it to a friend of mine, a WWII veteran who flew for the RAF and the Polish Air Force. He still has an active pilot's license, although he does not pilot anymore. He has just published a WWII novel about the efforts of an American Army pilot charged with keeping three new P-40 fighters out of the hands of the Japanese on the Malaya peninsula in Dec 1941-Jan 1942.

[Biscuits]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[miscille]

I remenber the days of tracers....still remember a funny story happened a long time ago.....

One of the drafties wrote "6000 wide driveway" on the plan (in his sloppy manner).....the tracer typed "good wide driveway"......and that got missed on the check.....and went out to contract.......

THAT STILL HAPPENS - a senior tech here put 'LOL' in the corner of a legend in a set of 120 drawings or so, 50 some sets were printed, no one has yet to comment on his addition and the building is going into commissioning, so much for drawing checks LOL

[miscille]

I remenber the days of tracers....still remember a funny story happened a long time ago.....

One of the drafties wrote "6000 wide driveway" on the plan (in his sloppy manner).....the tracer typed "good wide driveway"......and that got missed on the check.....and went out to contract.......

One of our senior techs did a 'where's waldo thingy' - he added LOL to his standard legend, on the front of a 120 page drawing set, 50 sets were printed and no one has yet to catch it or question it, this was only last year. So much for drawing checks LMAO

[PotGuy]

I might be dating myself here but I used ruling pens at one time and still have one or two hanging around. Don't know why I can't part with them even though they haven't been used in many years.

Sentimental value?

[ReMark]

Just had an intern complain to me about how awful it was using AutoCAD LT to create a drawing. I went back to my desk and took out my triangles, drafting pencil, erasing shield, compass, circle template and a sheet of vellum. I dropped them on his desk and said, "Try doing the drawing with these instead" and walked away. I should have given him the ruling pens and my set of Koh-i-noor technical pens too.