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!}
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…
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…
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.
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).
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!
I just emailed this to Ralph, but since we’re on it, how about these memories:
Do you remember when:
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.
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.
when working with ink, (if right handed) always move left to right and up to down so as not to smear the ink.
spit works the best to help activate the imbibing fluid in the ink erasers
White-out on vellum prints opaque on a blueline
A string and a thumbtack, or several wooden yard sticks taped together worked great for a large compass.
You knew what plastic lead was.
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.
You thought French curves were sexy.
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!
Nathan,
A few others (“Two words”):
Scum Bag.
Spi-roll.
Diazo amonia.
Electric erasers.
Ahhhh . . . the good old days.
Scum Bag! I forgot about that one! Still have one in a box in my drawer…under all those unused drawing templates 
I can’t believe nobody has yet mentioned LEROY lettering. I still have a complete set with templates AND the little tiny inkwell points!
Doug,
You’re dating yourself! But then if I know what they are I’m dating myself too!
You know what an Addiator is. (Still have mine, and even use it once in a while)
Here a few more from our office–
What a bunny bag was.
When a modern drafting machine cost a weeks pay and needed a 4x8 space to operate.
How to use a planometer.
Throwing your tie over your back so it didnt 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 wouldnt 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
Ralph: “Rick Hampton”???
Pin bars
Vacuum printers
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
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…
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
George - yes, stippling, that is an awesome memory. Thanks.