Drafting Supplies - Uk

[Mark Robinson]

Hi All,

I am back and continuing my course with YDS - Up to Lesson 2 !!

My life would be much easier with some Battens and Ducks.

These seem to only be available from the US (places such as YDS) - Postage costs are therefore a problem.

Does anyone know of a source in the UK ?

I do not have the skills or equipment to make my own.

In addition I need a drafting table. A0 in the UK is too large and A1 is too small.

I could make my own, but am interested to know peoples thoughts on a built in parallell rule. Should my drafting table/board have one, or can I survive without one ?

Thanks for any help.

Regards,

Mark

[tdcbaldwin]

I can't directly help you for drafting supplies in the Uk, except I have got some excellent stuff through looking on UK websites - though not ducks or splines. I graduated from the Landing School last year, and have got a my splines from them. It may be easier to make your own ducks (or get someone to cast them for you)

At the school we didn't have sliding rulers - we made do by securely taping a heavy steel rule across the bottom of the table and used large (up tp 24in) and small set squares. You can build them up to get the right orientation and position. This is perfectly accurate, and on discussion with Steve Dalzell (School deisgn manager, and former southampton lecturer, and limey) he didn't rate the sliding rules as being accurate enough. This man wouldn't let us be more out than the thickness of a pencil line, and as we all gradually improved our drafting and intersections, satisfactory accuracy was achieved!

So, now back in Poole when I do hand drafting at home, i just make sure I have a perfectly smooth surface - actually an Ikea Vinyl table - and use my 3 ft heavy steel rule!!

Tim