Replies

1. 
   user-148830 | Aug 29, 2008 08:23pm | #1

   Nick,
   I don't always use full scale drawings. Usually I just use 1/4 or 1/8 scale drawings. These fit the paper I use and the paper stores better in my files. I also don't find the full scales as necessary for the plan and elevation views unless it's really some new area I'm investigating.
   Remember that any full scale, any drawing not a perspective drawing, lies to you. You draw the piece at eye level everywhere and of course that's not how we really see things. So there is that level of obscuring the truth.

   If I really want to check out a design, I'll model it in cardboard. It's fast, easy to glue up with a hot melt glue gun, or you can cut joints in it too if you want. This gives both form and scale far better than any full scale drawing.

   CAD drawings, and I've heard of Sketchup, just don't hold any interest for me. I spend enough time at a computer and I actually like drawing out designs. I like the connection that is made between hand and eye. I was reading in one of Henry Petroski's books: Success through Failure about "progress". Seems they're teaching some surgery techniques on-line rather than with cadavers. There is a huge difference between reading or watching on-screen and doing it by hand. The connection I think is important.

   So I like drawing by hand. As Curtis Buchanan, a Windsor Chair maker said to me once, "why do something in half an hour that I can do in four hours which I like doing?"

   Use a variety of methods to discover what suits you best. That, in the end, is the best method. Good luck. Gary

1. 
   NickT | Aug 29, 2008 09:14pm | #2

   Thanks Gary...

   I was going to ask if you find that drawing things by hand helps the creative process and you obviously find that it does. I might also give the mock-up thing a go. That sounds interesting as its something that I haven't tried before.

   Thanks for your response,

   Best regards and keep up the good work,

   Nick

1. 
   gusmarbert | Sep 06, 2008 03:07pm | #3

   I use full size drawings on 1" grid paper for making templates from thin (1/8 0r1/4) plywood. The templates are great for tracing parts on the wood. I also find them helpful when buying rough stock. I take my handful of templates and place them on the rough wood at the lumber yard. Then I know if I am buying enough wood. Lumber yards don't like you chalking up their wood!