This provides an optimum surface for pen and pencil drafting. The drafting table surface is usually covered with a thin vinyl sheet called a board cover. Drafting table linkages and clutches have to be maintained to ensure that this safety mechanism counterbalances the weight of the table surface.Ī modern drafting table with a parallel motion rule A heavy counterweight full of lead shot is installed in the steel linkage so that if the pedal is accidentally released, the drafting board will not spring into the upright position and injure the user. Typically, a single foot pedal is used to control a clutch which clamps the board in the desired position. The steel frame allows mechanical linkages to be installed that control both the height and angle of the drafting board surface. The drafting board surface is usually secured to the frame by screws which can easily be removed for drafting table transportation. Typically the drafting board surface is a thick sheet of compressed fibreboard with sheets of Formica laminated to all its surfaces. Steel provides as much strength as the old oak drafting table frames and much easier portability. Modern drafting tables typically rely on a steel frame. Boards used for overlay drafting or animation may include registration pins or peg bars to ensure alignment of multiple layers of drawing media.Ī drawing board with drafting machine, eliminating the need for a T-squareĭespite the prevalence of computer aided drafting, many older architects and even some structural designers still rely on paper and pencil graphics produced on a drafting table. Some drawing boards are magnetized, allowing paper to be held down by long steel strips. More recent practice is to use self-adhesive drafting tape to secure paper to the board, including the sophisticated use of individualized adhesive dots from a dispensing roll. : 1-2 Paper could also be secured to the drawing board with drawing pins or even C-clamps. After drying the paper would be flat and smooth. In the 18th and 19th centuries, drawing paper was dampened and then its edges glued to the drawing board. Many reproductions have been made and are still being produced of drawing tables, copying the period styles they were originally made in during the 18th and 19th centuries. When the working surface was extended at its full height, a drawing table could be used as a standing desk. It was also sometimes used to hold writing implements. This lip or edge stopped paper or books from sliding when the surface was given an angle. The only giveaway was usually a lip on one of the sides of the desktop. Very often a drawing table could look like a writing table or even a pedestal desk when the working surface was set at the horizontal and the height adjusted to 29 inches, in order to use it as a "normal" desk. Unlike the gadgety mechanical desks of the second part of the 18th century, however, the mechanical parts of drawing tables were usually limited to notches, ratchets, and perhaps a few simple gears, or levers or cogs to elevate and incline the working surface. However, with the gradual introduction of computer aided drafting and design (CADD or CAD) in the last decades of the 20th century and the first of the 21st century, the drawing board is becoming less common.Ī drawing table is also sometimes called a mechanical desk because, for several centuries, most mechanical desks were drawing tables. There are instruments for drawing circles, arcs, other curves and symbols too ( compass, French curve, stencil, etc.). Different drawing instruments ( set square, protractor, etc.) are used on it to draw parallel, perpendicular or oblique lines. More recently, engineers and draftsmen use the drawing board for making and modifying drawings on paper with ink or pencil. They became more utilitarian and were built of steel and plastic instead of fine woods and brass. The drawing table used to be a frequent companion to a pedestal desk in a study or private library, during the pre-industrial and early industrial era.ĭuring the Industrial Revolution, draftsmanship gradually became a specialized trade and drawing tables slowly moved out of the libraries and offices of most gentlemen. A 19th century architect at the drawing boardĪ drawing board (also drawing table, drafting table or architect's table) is, in its antique form, a kind of multipurpose desk which can be used for any kind of drawing, writing or impromptu sketching on a large sheet of paper or for reading a large format book or other oversized document or for drafting precise technical illustrations (such as engineering drawings or architectural drawings).
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