What's a good brand for drafting tools? Is there a Starrett of the drafting industry? I like their compass, but I'm not seeing how it can hold a pencil; if it can, then it would be a very short pencil. Also no extender. Is there something just as durable but made for drafting?
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Good brands for drawing compass with pencil and other drafting tools
- Thread starter haha
- Start date
- Replies 27
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Scottl
Diamond
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2013
- Location
- Eastern Massachusetts, USA
If you want quality you'll probably have to look for used on ebay. Keuffel and Esser, Dietzgen, and Alvin were all known for quality.
I think all drafting compasses took bare leads rather than pencils, but there were some quality pencil compasses sold decades ago.
CAD has largely replaced manual drafting and these days most of us only do sketches by hand. For that, a mechanical pencil and some templates work OK.
I think all drafting compasses took bare leads rather than pencils, but there were some quality pencil compasses sold decades ago.
CAD has largely replaced manual drafting and these days most of us only do sketches by hand. For that, a mechanical pencil and some templates work OK.
Over here due to the absence of US kit rotring and steadtler, my preference older rotring the rack bow and spring bow being my favourite, there is a bow to directly take ink drawing pen heads from .1 to 2.1 I think, better balanced than the side clamp one, Pentel do some tidy pencils, I have a Kearn set somewhere, not bad, I still draw old school, but mainly buildings so CAD whilst great is slower for one off odd ball stuff, house extensions and the like, the mrs is fed up of my bloody big A0 extended drawing board.
Mark
Mark
L Vanice
Diamond
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2006
- Location
- Fort Wayne, IN
When I started engineering school in 1958, I got a very nice large set of German nickel silver drafting tools. But my experience and working with other engineers led me to buy and use Vemco center bow compasses, drop bow compasses and beam compasses. Back then, Vemco was made in USA and well suited to professional use. Lots of them on eBay.
Larry
Larry
michiganbuck
Diamond
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2012
- Location
- Mt Clemens, Michigan 48035
Vemco was the standard for many years.
4GSR
Diamond
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2005
- Location
- Victoria, Texas, USA
Frederick Post was another well known brand back in the day.
donie
Diamond
- Joined
- May 17, 2003
- Location
- Walla Walla Wine and Wild Turkey
I use the 2mm lead holders, and have sharpeners, I have a vintage set of drafting tools, but have newer Rotring compasses.
The drafting table made in Italy works well, along with a Mutoh arm type drafting machine 12 and 18" scales, and a vintage Bruning detailing machine mounted on the right side-has single 8" scale.
The modern table is solid an has wide adjustment, the table is also use for many other things like electronics, laying out and cutting gaskets.
I obtained this equipment a few years ago, very cheap, but the stuff seems scarce now.
The 2mm clutch pencils are collectors items these days.
So, are good drafting chairs.
The drafting table made in Italy works well, along with a Mutoh arm type drafting machine 12 and 18" scales, and a vintage Bruning detailing machine mounted on the right side-has single 8" scale.
The modern table is solid an has wide adjustment, the table is also use for many other things like electronics, laying out and cutting gaskets.
I obtained this equipment a few years ago, very cheap, but the stuff seems scarce now.
The 2mm clutch pencils are collectors items these days.
So, are good drafting chairs.
Scottl
Diamond
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2013
- Location
- Eastern Massachusetts, USA
Forgot about Vemco. Excellent tools.
Limy Sami
Diamond
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2007
- Location
- Norfolk, UK
All of those Mark, plus I've still got some British Thorton from my high school days, ..when it was known as ''Technical Drawing''
I had a lovely AO board with a German (can't remember the make) ''drafting machine'' and when I no longer needed it, I found it had next no monetary value so gave it away to a young graphic artist starting on her own and had very little of anything.
Nowdays, most kids don't know which end of the pencil to hold let alone how to sharpen one for drawing work! ...........exits stage left muttering '1 full day and 2 evenings night school a week (and god help you if you missed single class) wouldn't do the little f'kers any harm
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John Garner
Titanium
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2004
- Location
- south SF Bay area, California
Kern (of Aarau, Switzerland) made superb drafting instruments in addition to their also-superb survey instruments.
thermite
Diamond
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2011
I had Dad's K&E's from his first year at Uni, 1926. But he later said he had bought them used! We were to buy French & Vierck. I had French, same source. Instructor took it home overnight to compare, said it would do fine, so I saved a few scarce bucks!
My era, we jumped on Rapidographs vs steel-pen tips. Young "Engineers" putting on airs sported them in pocket protectors. Draftsmen just snickered at those guys trying to write a check with the Rapidograph held dead-nuts vertical!
We bought "Osmiroid" calligraphy pens to sign with a flourish, get AWAY from single-stroke.. and not have the silly Rapidograph leakage ruin all our white shirts!
Any shirt but white was still heresy, East-Coast, of course. We herd rumours Californios had invented surfing, sex, "casual" clothing and had even ceased wearing narrow black ties. Figured all that too outrageous an improbability to be true.
It soon became the newer fad to use wax transfers for classy lettering. Then pragmatism returned with a special ball for Selectric Typewriters - "Orator" I think it was called. That typeface was close enough to single-stroke Gothic we could just let a typist do the legends and text for a whole team, cut and hot-wax on as a block.
"Snopake" covered for the changes - everything gone "camera ready" and blackline Ozalid by then rather than "blueprint".
There's an intermediate step for the many among us who find a parallel rule and a handful of triangles and templates faster for the quick and dirty than CAD.
'puter-edit and print PART of what yah need with the Pee Cee, do the actual shapes by hand, cover for changes with more paper overlaid - or the "snowpake" -> scan it, save file as .tiff or .png, print as needed.
BMyers
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2006
- Location
- Radcliffe Iowa
I like my Staedtle compass because it will hold a fine tip sharpie.
thermite
Diamond
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2011
Inventor, solidworks, Unigraphics.....
As razor sharp as you need them, never go dull.
The software may not go dull. It gets "bit rot" and eventually goes unsupported, instead.
It's the operators of it as go "dull" - worn-down by all the overhead, expanse, platform changes, file incompatibilities, and other foolish nuisances.
eKretz
Diamond; Mod Squad
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2005
- Location
- Northwest Indiana, USA
thermite
Diamond
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2011
You've heard the ancient Sumerian proverb?
"The more things change.. the more we find new ways to f**k them up."
I’m still firmly of the opinion that learning manual draughting is a fundamental of engineering, particularly marking out, sheet developments etc, I’ve had to teach new guys how to bisect angles, form right angles, crap even draw a hexagon with a compass, I suppose I’m lucky we had technical drawing, geometric drawing, engineering drawing, building drawing and graphical illustration as separate subjects in school, it was great to be honest, my daughter uses a bloody big Wacom cintiq thing, can’t get my head round it’s infinite menus myself, rather a roll of film and pencils, pens and brushes
(I admit the printed out large format drawings are photographic unlike my pencil efforts)
It’s funny, manual drawing was trying to get it to look like a machine did it, graphic drawing is getting it to look like a person drew it, can’t win
Mark
(I admit the printed out large format drawings are photographic unlike my pencil efforts)
It’s funny, manual drawing was trying to get it to look like a machine did it, graphic drawing is getting it to look like a person drew it, can’t win
Mark
jim rozen
Diamond
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2004
- Location
- peekskill, NY
Look in the measuring tools section of the MSC catalog. They sell a rather pricey but apparently great quality carpenter's divider that is designed to hold a pencil. Oh, there it is. Pricey. Sometimes you get what you pay for.
https://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/58695396
https://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/58695396
old_dave
Stainless
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2002
- Location
- Central Mother Lode, California
thermite
Diamond
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2011
I indeed does fit hand in glove with layout and lofting.
Messed with pencils and leads. If it existed, I tried it.
They mostly got in my way.
Went direct ink to vellum, never really looked back. Most of us do that in one way or another, might not even stop to think about "erasable" at all.
We do even rough sketches with a Biro or a sharpie rather than an eraseable pencil. Then do them over, faster, picking-up corrections and improvements, same go, rather than "erase".
