You know your an old draughtsman when...

[cadkiwi]

I got this email a while ago, Maybe not AutoCAD museum, well I guess it had to start somewhere! All before my time but I'm sure some of you might find it relevant!

You know you are an old Draughtsman when............................
You know how to control line weights by rolling your pencil.
You know that a French curve isn't a grade change on a language exam.
You've erased sepias with chemicals.
You've had a roll of toilet paper on your drafting board.
You remember when templates were plastic and not a type of electronic
file.
You know what sandpaper on a stick is for.
You know that compasses draw circles and are not used to find the
North Pole.
You remember the head rush from the smell of ammonia.
You own a roll of masking tape so dried out, it will never be tape
again.
You've done cut and paste with scissors and sticky back.
You've etched your initials into your tools.
You have had a brush tied to your drafting board.
You've come home with black sleeves.
You've made hooks out of paper clips to attach to your lamp.
You know an eraser shield isn't a Norton program.
You've used "fixative" spray.
You've had a middle-finger callous harder than bone.
You have a permanent spine curvature from bending over your table.
You could also smoke in the office
You could put the 'page 3' calendar up in a prime location with no one
complaining
There were a lot of 'cowboys' about but now it's all Indians
The Evening News printed the words "Piping Designers wanted" on a
Wednesday
Agents didn't sound like spotty kids
You'd change jobs for an extra 50c
You'd have a set of blunt razor blades but not for shaving
You'd have the 'taste' of an old white rubber on your tongue
You'd be able to speak to the engineers in English
There'd be more than one way to sneak back into the office after lunch
You'd actually do a time sheet on a Friday
You learnt to fold an A0 drawing to get the title on the front
You'd have to be nice to the print room staff
You had to find new ways of persuading the stationary bloke to give
you a pencil
The old Doris in the office looked like she was 'chewing a wasp'
There were NO old draughtsmen
You also were accurate from 100 paces with an elastic band.
Your personal phone calls were in front of the chief draughtsman.
You went to the pub most lunchtimes.
Friday afternoons were spent colouring in.
There was an office junior.
Everybody hated the same person.
The chief draughtsman wore overalls with ink stains on the pocket.
And your timesheet bore no relevance to the hours you had worked!! (Well....something's don't change!!!)

omg does that bring back sweet memories........arrrrhhhhh

[cadkiwi]

OH I know this well. I have another twist, I was the only female out of about 10 at my first job. In fact the only other female was the girl who answered the phone.

I can relate.........I am female ....I started drafting in 1973...i knew of no other females in the industry at that time..it was great

[ReMark]

Anyone recall paper or mylar sepias?

Do you know what a "burnisher" is?

[cadkiwi]

Oh yes indeedy!

Wasn't a burnisher an electric eraser????

Do you remember having to develop your prints one or two at a time in an ammonia cabinet...where you poured ammonia into a tray at the bottom and put your rolled up print or linen above? Nearly knocked me out a few times!

[Squirltech]

Wasn't a burnisher an electric eraser????

I saw one of those in a museum once!

[cadkiwi]

Hey!!!

You missed out on a real treat......obviously batch plotting was not in our vocabulary!

[ReMark]

No, a burnisher was used to smooth out the air bubbles when Letraset lettering was used.

What color was the eraser that was used to remove ink from a mylar? Hint: I'm not talking the soft white one either.

[cadkiwi]

oh yes thats right....its been awhile..the memory fades.

Grey!

[ReMark]

Sorry....no.

It was a light blue vinyl (waxy feel to it actually) eraser.

[rkent]

No, a burnisher was used to smooth out the air bubbles when Letraset lettering was used.

What color was the eraser that was used to remove ink from a mylar? Hint: I'm not talking the soft white one either.

The burnishers I used had a 3/4" flat plastic blade on one end and a small ball bearing on the other end that was spring loaded.

The ink erasers I used were a fluorescent yellow, imbibed they called them, IIRC.