Adding Another Year

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Author Message Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI Senior Member Username: rliebing Post Number: 276 Registered: 02-2003 Posted on Friday, December 30, 2005 - 09:15 am:    Since many of you are outcroppings from the drafting world [and I know many of you are not, but bear with me, please] you will revel in this-- www.cadinfo.net/humour/grow_old.htm Oh, and sure, have another Happy New Year!!! Wonder what we'll talk abut in '06!! [That's 2006, old timer!} Brett M. Wilbur CSI, CDT, AIA Senior Member Username: brett Post Number: 84 Registered: 12-2004 Posted on Friday, December 30, 2005 - 09:33 am:    Ralph, happy new year to you too. I was blocked out of the website you posted. We have St. Bernard, bummer. And, yes, I'm from the hand drafting era, too. I know one thing we can always talk about this time of year, is what to do with our old Sweet's catalog. Especially this year now that Sweet's has just changed over to MasterFormat2004. We jsut got our new one last week. I loved that string we had last year. Wonder if anyone has some new ideas... Jerome J. Lazar, RA, CCS, CSI, SCIP Senior Member Username: lazarcitec Post Number: 173 Registered: 05-2003 Posted on Monday, January 02, 2006 - 01:25 am:    Brett - Top Ten Uses for 2006 Sweets Catalogs? Just got back into town and sure enuf the two boxes of sweets catalogs were there next to my front door, blocking it, so I guess the first possible addition to the 'Top 10 Uses for the 2006 Set of Sweets Catalogs' was for security, any one breaking in would not be able to get out cause the catalogs were blocking the door; and since the door light had burnt out while I was gone, they made an excellent stool to reach up and change that light bulb, damn, these sweets catalogs are sure useful, and they are still in the box...imagine what uses we will find once we get them out of the box..now if I could only lift these boxes...ok folks its all up to you, you remember how we played this game last year, I may have a sick cents of humor, but I need help creating this list, so respond please, add your use, don't be ashamed, however sick, or perverted, hell I'll even except an actual professional us.....well maybe not, but its still early and this list has plenty of time to grow, so consider the possibilities...no cheating now, don't go back and use any items from last year's list, this needs to be new, inventive, timely...for example - how about using them to hold down them there blue tarps on everyone's roofs, why the tarp will disintergrate way before the sweets catalog does, of course the added weight may be a problem, so we may need an engineer's thoughts on that one...you know if we donate them to the Army Corps of Engineers maybe they couls be used to reinforce the levees...you get the picture, as the list grows, I'll update it here and we can all vote on it...well maybe not... Harold S. Woolard Senior Member Username: harold_woolard Post Number: 21 Registered: 12-2003 Posted on Monday, January 02, 2006 - 01:19 pm:    All kidding aside, I liked all the stuff last year on the sweets, but I had our office in Ft. Worth call the architectural department at Tarrant County Junior College and they even sent a student by to pick them up. So before you throw them out try a college in your area and they could use your old set before becoming landfill material at you local dump. Lynn Javoroski Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 275 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2006 - 01:17 pm:    I need something to hold down that empty shelf where the 2005 Sweets were. (and yes, we donate them to local institutes of higher learning, including interior design centers). Nathan Woods, CCCA Senior Member Username: nwoods Post Number: 57 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 01:50 pm:    For potential use here: http://www.cadinfo.net/humour/grow_old.htm Those new fangled mechanical pencils were "cute", but real drafters only used lead holders… You know your leads (2H, HB, F, etc…), and why/how you'd use them. You remember when Halftone lines where drawn with a red pencil Two words: Sticky Back You know how to splice an "as-built" sepia into a new sheet of velum. Every young drafters nemesis: the Kroy machine. Whir...click, whir...click, whir...click, whir...click, Ka-chunk! Brett M. Wilbur CSI, CDT, AIA Senior Member Username: brett Post Number: 87 Registered: 12-2004 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 02:05 pm:    I just emailed this to Ralph, but since we're on it, how about these memories: Do you remember when: 1. You drew it right the first time so you didn't have to erase and re-draw it. You couldn't just hit one keyboard key and make it go away. Or, you noted it once, in the right place, you didn't just copy the same note fifty million times like you can with CAD. 2. you used to use your left index finger (if right handed) to unclog your rapidograph. You'd go home with thousands of little black lines on your fingers. The side of you right palm and both shirt sleeves would be black because you didn't have time to let the ink dry. 3. when working with ink, (if right handed) always move left to right and up to down so as not to smear the ink. 4. spit works the best to help activate the imbibing fluid in the ink erasers 5. White-out on vellum prints opaque on a blueline 6. A string and a thumbtack, or several wooden yard sticks taped together worked great for a large compass. 7. You knew what plastic lead was. 8. You knew the lead hardness's by heart, and how dark or heavy they would print, and how much pressure they could take before breaking. 9. You thought French curves were sexy. Lynn Javoroski Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 279 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 02:11 pm:    I don't know about sexy, but I loved my set of French curves. It was so cool to be able to draw sweeping curves with such preciseness. I had envied my brother (an older, engineer type) his French curves and I was overjoyed when I got my own set! David R. Combs, CSI, CCS, CCCA, MAI Senior Member Username: davidcombs Post Number: 90 Registered: 08-2004 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 02:14 pm:    Nathan, A few others ("Two words"): Scum Bag. Spi-roll. Diazo amonia. Electric erasers. Ahhhh . . . the good old days. Nathan Woods, CCCA Senior Member Username: nwoods Post Number: 58 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 02:21 pm:    Scum Bag! I forgot about that one! Still have one in a box in my drawer...under all those unused drawing templates :-) Doug Frank FCSI CCS Senior Member Username: doug_frank_ccs Post Number: 129 Registered: 06-2002 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 02:29 pm:    I can't believe nobody has yet mentioned LEROY lettering. I still have a complete set with templates AND the little tiny inkwell points! Richard L Matteo, AIA, CSI, CCS Senior Member Username: rlmat Post Number: 134 Registered: 10-2003 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 02:31 pm:    Doug, You're dating yourself! But then if I know what they are I'm dating myself too! Dave Metzger Senior Member Username: davemetzger Post Number: 149 Registered: 07-2001 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 02:43 pm:    You know what an Addiator is. (Still have mine, and even use it once in a while) Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI Senior Member Username: rliebing Post Number: 283 Registered: 02-2003 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 02:56 pm:    Here a few more from our office-- What a bunny bag was. When a modern “drafting machine” cost a weeks pay and needed a 4’x8’ space to operate. How to use a planometer. Throwing your tie over your back so it didn’t get on the drawing. Spending most of every Monday morning getting your Rapidigraph pens working again. Rick Hampton India ink Crow quill pens Casting shades and shadows Green eye shades and sleeves garters Battleship linoleum for board cover Ink drawing on opaque/manlla drafting medium Drafting tape replaced thumb taks which replaced leather pouches full of shot Drafting rooms with no air-conditioning Taking one corner of drawing loose so humidity wouldn’t warp or ripple it. And one more personal one-- an old draftsman who chewed, and in an un-air-conditioned office, "decorated" the area outside the windows, from 17 floors up! Sorry Ladies, but history is real world! Ralph Liebing Jerome J. Lazar, RA, CCS, CSI, SCIP Senior Member Username: lazarcitec Post Number: 180 Registered: 05-2003 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 03:03 pm:    Ralph: "Rick Hampton"????? Brett M. Wilbur CSI, CDT, AIA Senior Member Username: brett Post Number: 88 Registered: 12-2004 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 03:04 pm:    Pin bars Vacuum printers Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI Senior Member Username: rliebing Post Number: 284 Registered: 02-2003 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 03:21 pm:    Jerome, sit down and take a deep breath. Rick Hampton is not an old drafting "thing" that you missed, he is a real live Architect person and Head of our CA group-- he just added his insight.[he is not, to my knowledge, related to Lionel] Brett, you getting "dangerously" close to the present. If we had put holes in our drawings we would have been............... well, something unthinkable Jerome J. Lazar, RA, CCS, CSI, SCIP Senior Member Username: lazarcitec Post Number: 182 Registered: 05-2003 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 03:30 pm:    Ralph - you are making me feel real old now, I know most of these gadgets, devices, and products...gee whiz folks, I have at least 15 years till retirement...if I don't croak in front of this computer screen typing in my last spec section... George A. Everding, AIA, CSI, CCS, CCCA Senior Member Username: geverding Post Number: 92 Registered: 11-2004 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 03:41 pm:    Another audio memory to go along with Nathan's Kroy machine... Late in the day, on deadline, and a bunch of drafters are poche'-ing concrete...the drafting room sounding like a a woodpecker convention...pecka pecka pecka pecka peck Brett M. Wilbur CSI, CDT, AIA Senior Member Username: brett Post Number: 90 Registered: 12-2004 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 03:46 pm:    George - yes, stippling, that is an awesome memory. Thanks. George A. Everding, AIA, CSI, CCS, CCCA Senior Member Username: geverding Post Number: 93 Registered: 11-2004 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 04:28 pm:    OK, this is supposed to be "for specs"; let's get out of the drafting room, and.... Remember when, for example, Division 8 had sections numbered 8A, 8B, 8C, 8D, etc.? And the section topics were never the same from job to job. Windows might be 8C one day, and 8G the next. Remembering THAT system from the 'good old days' will make you appreciate MF04. Anne Whitacre, CCS CSI Senior Member Username: awhitacre Post Number: 280 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 05:30 pm:    from the spec world: IBM Mag Cards -- and the cards were so expensive that we would delete projects from them and use them over a year later? printing government projects on government sized (and provided) paper that was 8" x 11"? And of course, in Courier type face only.. splicing changes onto spec sheets over a light table because the typist always went home exactly at 5 pm and you still had changes to make until 11 pm that night? from my own career: when women weren't allowed to work on Saturdays because the office was concerned about their safety? when no one wore jeans to the office unless they were doing job site inspections? when people smoked PIPES in the office? when people actually drank martinis at lunch? (and ate steaks and smoked cigarettes..) when people took a prescribed break for 15 minutes starting at 10 am and at 3 pm? when coffee wasn't allowed at drafting stations because of fear of spills? when eradicator would make a white splotch on anything it landed on -- except some synthetic fabrics which it turned turquoise as it dissolved the dye? when drafters bragged about being able to finish "a sheet a week"? J. Peter Jordan Senior Member Username: jpjordan Post Number: 165 Registered: 05-2004 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 05:52 pm:    How about: Cutting stencils (one project I worked on for a state project actually required that we turn in stencils). Making changes on spirit duplicator masters with white correction tape and then typing over it. I have drafted on linen and with inking nibs (not technical fountain pens), but not on the same project and not seriously. Jim Brittell Senior Member Username: jwbrittell Post Number: 11 Registered: 08-2004 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 06:48 pm:    Here's my favorite audio memory: When the quiet of the drafting studio was interrupted by a loud sneeze, someone invariably said, "Ooops... better start THAT drawing over again..." T.J. Simons, CSI, CCS Senior Member Username: tsimons Post Number: 6 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 07:52 pm:    My tenure "on the board" spanned the late 70's ('79) to around 1991 or so. Some of what I remember: I worked in one office where we did much of our drafting in ink, and had one of those special IBM typewriters with the open carriage for typing directly on drawings. Xerox vellums Diazo mylars (black-and brown-line) Wash-off mylars (very cool, but expensive. You had to keep the tip of your eraser wet so you wouldn't burn the film). Zipatone The bilious green Castell pens with tungsten points (competitor to Rapidograph jewel points) Gray Rapidograph pens (my last set was the newer white style) Rapidometrics with the little gizmo you stored them in to keep the tips moist (coolest tech-pens of all) The classy-looking green Castell drafting pencils with the white stripe (still have some somewhere) Using those gray kneaded erasers to blot graphite smudges off your drawings-I always had one stuck on the end of my Mayline Heavy blackline and brownline prints for colored presentation drawings. Taping sketch paper ("flimsy", "buff") over exposed portions of your drawing so you wouldnt smear the graphite. Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI Senior Member Username: rliebing Post Number: 286 Registered: 02-2003 Posted on Thursday, January 05, 2006 - 07:04 am:    Let us also not forget our "greaest ally"-- the "Pink Pearl" eraser! John McGrann Senior Member Username: jmcgrann Post Number: 62 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Thursday, January 05, 2006 - 07:44 am:    Timely templates. Around here they were usually freebees passed out by the repro house sales reps. Couldn't begin to annotate door numbers, room numbers, plan notes, column bubbles or revisions without them! Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI Senior Member Username: rliebing Post Number: 287 Registered: 02-2003 Posted on Thursday, January 05, 2006 - 09:50 am:    For any one interested I have a write-up about the old time drafting room with diagram. Drop me an e-mail for a copy. Robert E. Woodburn Senior Member Username: bwoodburn Post Number: 96 Registered: 01-2005 Posted on Thursday, January 05, 2006 - 10:39 am:    Tongue-in-cheek drafting room sayings: "Never draw more in the morning than you can erase in the afternoon." "Cut to shape, beat to fit, paint to match." Russell W. Wood, CSI, CCS Senior Member Username: woodr5678 Post Number: 44 Registered: 11-2003 Posted on Thursday, January 05, 2006 - 10:53 am:    I just used some of my French curves recently to as a guide to trim window tint on my car. Worked even better than the protractor. (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 05:00 pm:    "9. You thought French curves were sexy..." I bought a set of 8 different French curves, and gave them names that seemed appropriate to their shapes. How many can I remenber? Let's see...Yvette, Marie, Jacqueline, Francoise, Cybele, Genevieve...my memory fails. Brigitte? Gigi? Adele? Claudette? Renee? Danielle? Lynn Javoroski Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 282 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Thursday, January 05, 2006 - 05:56 pm:    Then there were the ones popular in the '80's that were shaped like the figure seen on truck mud flaps - a female figure in repose. And yes, they were available in art supply stores where the French curves were sold. Jerome J. Lazar, RA, CCS, CSI, SCIP Senior Member Username: lazarcitec Post Number: 183 Registered: 05-2003 Posted on Thursday, January 05, 2006 - 06:02 pm:    Hey unregistered guest you have names for your french curves? you obviously have been snorting too much of that drafing dust from your scum-bag, god forbid what you are doing with your kneaded eraser.....................................................boy that was fun...its been an awful day and that was really fun, but isn't this french curve thing getting a little sexist - where is Margaret when we need her? Margaret G. Chewning FCSI CCS Senior Member Username: presbspec Post Number: 81 Registered: 01-2003 Posted on Thursday, January 05, 2006 - 07:47 pm:    Oh I'm here. Just sitting back and laughing at all of these memories. Most of which I share. Thanks to all of you. As far as the french curve thing goes I have a set too, inherited from my mother, who was a draftsman in her high school days during WWII. Now that they are no longer used for drafting, I use them when modifying dress patterns and my husband uses them in drawing boat designs. Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI Senior Member Username: rliebing Post Number: 288 Registered: 02-2003 Posted on Friday, January 06, 2006 - 06:49 am:    You k now we all are overlooking the real opportunity. Seeing a static French curve as sexy is one thing, but for the many who always seek "the ideal", we must not forget the ADJUSTABLE CURVE"!!!!! You can form that into any curved shape [!!!!!!!] you desire! Ah, fantasy! Whoa! Trouble is, I'm so old I have forgotten what ideal I was after! David R. Combs, CSI, CCS, CCCA, MAI Senior Member Username: davidcombs Post Number: 91 Registered: 08-2004 Posted on Friday, January 06, 2006 - 11:13 am:    Robert, Two more drafting room sayings that I remember from way back when, from a great mentor: "You get paid the same for erasing as you do for drawing." "The drawings aren't finished until the building's demolished."