At least with CAD you can erase errors easily and do not get issues with smudging ! This is really another case where you can teach a monkey CAD but not everyone has the skills to use a drawing board and all those different tools.
Vintage drawing set. . .
- Thread starter B3nder
- Start date
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Stanleymonkey
Established Member
Looks like you have quite tricky job there.
Would some low strength magnets help hold them in place? Might just give you a little bit of a safety net if the lining process gives you any problems
Would some low strength magnets help hold them in place? Might just give you a little bit of a safety net if the lining process gives you any problems
The original box would be fabric covered because it was made of cheap softwood. I would propose solving the real need of making something that will be appreciated by the retiree and an heirloom for their family. Simply cloning the original box is less interesting.
Made out of something durable with nice grain and well finished, a box would be far more attractive uncovered and the recipient would see it as a trade up.
For the inside, how about (is it) "french fitted" where snugly fitted cutouts are made for the instruments and just the vertical sides of these lined in thin leather.
That would be most easily done using a wooden insert plate routed all the way through. You could have a coloured silk, velvet or leather behind to emphasise the cutouts and any missing instrument when putting away.
The wooden insert could be a contrasting colour to the box itself.
I think I would want to make a template with cutouts oversize to help me get the routing clean. It might be a perfect job for a panto router but those aren't so common.
Made out of something durable with nice grain and well finished, a box would be far more attractive uncovered and the recipient would see it as a trade up.
For the inside, how about (is it) "french fitted" where snugly fitted cutouts are made for the instruments and just the vertical sides of these lined in thin leather.
That would be most easily done using a wooden insert plate routed all the way through. You could have a coloured silk, velvet or leather behind to emphasise the cutouts and any missing instrument when putting away.
The wooden insert could be a contrasting colour to the box itself.
I think I would want to make a template with cutouts oversize to help me get the routing clean. It might be a perfect job for a panto router but those aren't so common.
J-G
Established Member
Velvet would have been used in the finest sets by the likes of Riefler.
'Flocking' is simply a poor-man's imitation used to keep costs down.
The outside of the very finest sets could well have been Shagreen but Calf-skin would also have been used.
stuart little
Established Member
If they had smoke filled drawing rooms, then they should've swept the chimneys!! HoHo
When I started my Royal Navy apprenticeship 60 years ago we were issued with a drawing instrument set identical to the one in the original post by B3nder. This was the only item that we did not have to return on leaving the navy, that is apart from the "housewife", (no not that sort, a roll containing sewing materials). I still have it and it has hardly been used. I must get it out and have a close look at its construction (which I have never thought about!). It is stored in a box with loads of other drawing instruments and drawing stencils (remember those?).
I picked up a battered set just like that one in the opening post. Unfortunately the case was well beyond repair. Having trained as a draughtsman myself many years ago I still have fond memories of how technical drawings were produced in the days before CAD and BIM. I put some the instruments on display in a small shadow box frame, which makes an interesting conversation piece in my home.
Talking of stencils
My mother bought these in 1965 when I started secondary school - used them for seven years. £2.
B3nder, I have brought my almost identical drawing instrument out of storage! I have taken a couple of photos. I can confirm that a thin "leatherette" type fabric for the outside over a possibly pine core, second photo shows a small area damaged covering where it has lifted. The inside velvet fabric.
