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!

Edited August 27, 2012 by cadkiwi
spelling

[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.

[ReMark]

Yes, I remember the yellow too. They were really waxy!

 

The burnisher is just as you describe rkent.

[cadkiwi]

oops sorry i didnt read the question properly...i was still thinking 'electric eraser'....those ones were grey...yes i remember the plastic erasers! And the 'plastic' clutch pencil leads.

Edited August 27, 2012 by cadkiwi
spelling

[BIGAL]

Yeah ammonia First day as an Engineer here son we need 10 sets of the A1 tender documents all folded, the old yellow paper and got a sun tan on my hands.

 

Any body one to have a guess at the sheet folding machine ?

[cadkiwi]

i think you are thinking of a more 'modern' method. Was that the yellow paper through the blue light machine and the liquid developer rollers at the top ...where you mixed up an 'ammonia' developer powder.

I was talking about before that where there was no such developing method ...the machine had no such attachment. We had a metal cabinet on the wall and had to put straight ammonia of the 'real' sense into a tray at the bottom of the cabinet and then throw a rolled up backwards (yellow side out) print in the cabinet above, slam the door and quickly run out of the room before the fumes got yuh. We poured the ammonia straight from a bottle of ammonia and one day I sniffed it because I thought it just had water in it and blew out my sinuses!

Also we used chloroform for erasing (wiping) ink from sepias..do you remember that?

Talk about health and safety....so easy these days!

Edited August 28, 2012 by cadkiwi
wrong word

[ReMark]

Chloroform? Jeez! Did you pass out while using it?

 

I did have experience on diazo machines, working with one gallon jugs of ammonia, but our office wasn't big enough to justify the cost of a folding machine. Really big jobs were sent out to a reprographics firm.

[cadkiwi]

I felt woosy I can tell you...I must say it was a short-lived method...who'd have thought it...lol

 

I never came across a folding machine? I was the folding machine!!!

[Dana W]

I felt woosy I can tell you...I must say it was a short-lived method...who'd have thought it...lol

 

I never came across a folding machine? I was the folding machine!!!

Yeah, me too. In fact at my last job I had to show the boss how to fold ARCH "D" size plots so the title block showed and they opened from there to flat without having to flip 'em over. His first time at putting a county submission package together, roughly my 1000th one. He is a cabinet maker but he was acting as his own G. C. on an addition to his house.

[cadkiwi]

Folding was an art...just like manual drafting!

[BIGAL]

Ok The folding machine !!

 

It was a rectang of tin plate with little notches cut out, you laid it on the sheeets and this gave you the fold points, fold, crease, remove, adjust fold again etc.

 

Yeah 120 sheets later all done using the folding machine Oh and me.

[ReMark]

The "art of folding". Yep, I took that class too! LoL

 

How about trimming prints with a pair of scissors that had 8" long blades (very sharp ones too)?

 

Anyone still have a steel straightedge hanging around, the kind with a bevel edge on one side?