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Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

(OP)
   I was searching through Curries in Mississauga for a lead holder to replace the old one I had just broken, and I found something that will interest some of the older engineers.

   Historically, these were used to work out the resizing factor of artwork to be printed in newspapers and magazines.  I thought all of this stuff was being done on computers nowadays.  I guess there must be a few hard core traditionalists out there.  

   This is the best I can do with my cellphone.  

               JHG

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

I have a pair of proportional dividers that saw much use when having to work from copies with no known scale.  I would find a feature that I knew the size of and go from there.

"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - Robert Hunter
 

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

I've used a proportional dividers before, but I often do something slightly different these days.  Find something with a dimension on it, or something I know the size of, as Ewh suggests; then using an engineers scale, on an/on the incline btwn. the two dimension lines, I divide this into 10ths, 12ths, or 16ths; and draw parallel lines through these marks; and I have my own proper scale for whatever the funny scale of the copy or print is.  The 10ths might be 10ths of an inch or foot; the 12ths might be inches per foot when the dimension I divided into 12ths was one foot.

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

I think a lot of modelers still use these (e.g., for toy rail-road sets, model cars) and for games (e.g., war games, role playing games).

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

Ever run across a Planimeter in the last few years?   

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

msquared48
The last time I used one of these was 1963.
Just for kicks and grins, I did a google search,and behold about 30 of them showed up on eBay in the vintage and antiques section.
 http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-Vintage-Lasico-Planimeter-Drafting-Tool-/180692020553?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&;hash=item2a12156d49


B.E.

The good engineer does not need to memorize every formula; he just needs to know where he can find them when he needs them.  Old professor

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

I think the last time I did was in '69 or '70.  I was generating reservoir area-volume curves and man was it handy.  I learned to add and subtract then!

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

msquared48
You have to admit that they were a lot quicker than using mid-ordinate rule or simpsons.
B.E.

The good engineer does not need to memorize every formula; he just needs to know where he can find them when he needs them.  Old professor

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

(OP)
msquared48,

   I used a planimeter for analyzing PV curves, while engine testing in college.  That was quite a lot time ago.   

               JHG

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

And if you didn't have a planimeter, you could use scissors to cut out your area and weigh the paper.

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

Woah...for a while there I thought I'd joined the pipe and slippers brigade, sitting in their Bath chairs, what with this misty-eyed talk of planimeters.

Fortunately I was thinking of the bright, shiny and cutting-edge electronic planimeters;
http://www.aaisurvey.com/zen1/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=280_282

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

Debaser:

Obviously, you are not in command of "the force"...

The knowledge of the physics of the planimeter will put you on a different plane of the universe.   

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

Pantographs..... the last one I saw looked like it had been built by someone who loved castings and hammerite paint finishes.

It would reluctantly be lent out by the chief engineers and otherwise kept in its wooden case, under lock and key.

Not sure I like the modern plastic stuff on e-bay.

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

Exactly, used one to calculate % photo & artwork enlargement at a student paper. Artwork would be shot to B&W lith or 4 color separation by a repro camera at the printers. They went digital, I'm sure not too long after I left.

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

I have a lot of engineering relics at home: proportional divider, pantograph, planimeter, highway curves, truck turning templates, ruling pens, electric eraser, etc.

Does anyone remember the Ames lettering guide?

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

Letraset.
I have stacks of the stuff mouldering away somewhere.

Sticky tape of various widths and sticky circles with holes so you can lay out PCBs.

 

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

(OP)
bridgebuster,

   I saw a pantograph is a graphics catalogue recently, possibly from the aforementioned Curries.

   I don't know where my Ames lettering guide is.

               JHG

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

"I suspect a lot of us have 'engineering relics at home' - just look in the mirror"  

Looks like we're showing our age sad

A few years ago one of the younger engineers asked me "do you have one of those things that measures angles?"

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

And I thought pantographs were that thing on electric trains and trams that contacts the overhead catenary...

tg

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

I'd forgotten that.

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

I remember the Ames lettering guide - if fact I've still got the one I used and the one my father used.  It had a steel holder for rotating the plastic with holes in it.  Mine had the holder and the rotating piece all from plastic.  The plastic on his has turned yellow or it may have been yellow in the first place!  (I've still got his great drafting desk with drawing storage drawers that he made in the 40's!)

Remember working for the old Cal. Bridge department slipping a printed lined template behind the tracing or vellum paper.  Worked pretty good. Later we got the vellum grid paper - still can buy that stuff today.

All of our college structural engineering notes had to be done on this stuff (1950's).  Junior and senior year structural notes were done on 22 x 34 sheets divided into 8.5 x 11 pages - on grid vellum.

Then came along erasable vellums.  We used to sketch our details and then paste them onto a 22 x 34 piece of paper already having the border printed.  Used a KROY machine for the big titles and other stuff.  All of my engineers were good drafters, so organizing the sketches were pretty easy.  After pasting the stuff onto the paper, we take it to the local printer and have eraseable vellums made.  Somewhat clumsy, but I remember putting about 8 drawings together in four hours.

Remember moving over to Acad as soon as I could.  But transmitting the drawings was still a hassle.  Sometimes it was more hassle to have numerous sets of drawings made at the local printer, signing the drawings, inserting them into big envelopes and running them down to the local FedEx box. (about 9 miles away).  Remember once putting drawings on a Greyhound bus to only have them lost!  Had to jump on a plane in SF and fly to Chino to deliver them on time.

Most everything goes by Pdf over the net these days.   

RE: Found on sale last Saturday (2011Jul02)

Just cleaned my office out to put a new carpet in.
 In a box I had not opened for years was a " New and improved" Leroy II lettering set.
 Does this qualify as a relic yet? :)

B.E.

The good engineer does not need to memorize every formula; he just needs to know where he can find them when he needs them.  Old professor

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