Drafting people, I need your help (Random!?!)

[Sad, little man]

I just bought this compass set that supposedly fits together to make it able to draw big circles, but I'll be damned if I know how it all fits together. There are no instructions, as if the manufacturer is saying "Well, you spent $20 on a damn compass, we just assumed you'd know how it works." :rolleyes:

Anyone have any idea? Why on earth does one of the compasses just have two pointy ends? That seems worthless.

Thanks. Better photos available upon request, but I'm hoping someone will immediately recognize these parts.

http://gtxforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=733&d=1406932481

733

[thesameguy]

Two pointy ends is for measuring. Drawing big circles happens by inserting the middle piece in the leg of one of the drawing compasses.

[Sad, little man]

Inserting it into the drawing leg or the pointy leg? I don't quite see how it fits into the leg. That's kinda what I figured though, so I'll try harder to figure it out.

[George]

Those are called dividers and they are for measuring.

Signed,

A guy who took two years of Drafting in high school and really wanted to be a draftsman until High School Senior Drafting III class was cancelled along with buggy whip making and I got thrown out in the cold, career-wise.

It turns out they figured out a way to do it with computers. This was in the 1980s.

/sadface

I sold Pro/E software for about six months in 1999 or 2000 through dumb luck of being handed a job I was in no way qualified for. Turns out computerized drafting is slightly cooler than T-square stuff. And, that's how I got to meet GTXFer Fogelhund in his lovely home in Ontario, but other than that and my grandfather's drafting tools and fond memories of tracing Road & Track car diagrams and submitting them as original work in Drafting II, I got nuthin'.

[Phil_SS]

Figure it out yet?

[MR2 Fan]

I think duct tape might help

[Dicknose]

Have you not watched any tv/movies where a ships captain pulls out the map and the steps across a path with a compass/divider?

As for the big circles, that's usually an extension ie 3rd from left.
Take 2nd from left, remove one leg, add extension and then attach either pencil holder or another pointy bit.

Do you have a drawing board, T set or any other tools of the trade?

[Random]

What DN said. Third piece replaces the right leg of the second piece. The end of the 3rd piece articulates to get the pencil point perpendicular to the paper.


That is a super old-skool set-up. The top right piece is for doing inked circles. Dip into inkpot, adjust gap/line thickness with screw.