Engineering Drawing Instruments and Their Usage

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mechanicalenotes.com/engineering-drawing-instruments/

January 8, 2019

In this
paper,
I am
going
to

familiarize you with the Engineering Drawing Instrument. So let's dive into the article.

Engineering Drawing Plays a crucial role in the life of Every Mechanical Engineering
student because he has to bear that subject throughout his BTech. Apart from the
Engineering Drawing, Production Drawing and Machine Drawing was also need to be
learned by the Engineering student.

In Engineering Drawing, we have to draw and understand the largest buildings on a

drawing sheet, not by reducing the dimensions but by reducing the scale. To measure any
component, we need a set of Drawing Instruments in Engineering Drawing which are
presented below.

Instruments Used in Engineering Drawing:

The instruments used in engineering drawing are:

1. Drawing sheet
2. Drawing board
3. Mini drafter
4. Eraser

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 5. Pencils
6. Protractor
7. French curves
8. Templates
9. Paper Holders
10. Set squares
11. Compass
12. Divider

The Detailed explanation of above mentioned Drawing Instruments are shown below.

1. Drawing Sheet:

Drawing sheet is a white paper on which an object is drawn which is available in various
sizes as shown below.

Drawing Sheet Type Dimensions (Length X Width) (mm)

A0 841 X 1189

A1 594 X 841

A2 420 X 594

A3 297 X 420

A4 210 X 297

A5 148 X 210

2. Drawing Board:
It is an object(table) on which the drawing sheet is placed. It is made up of wood and
available in the rectangular cross-section. The drawing sheet is placed on the drawing
board and is fixed by means of clips which are either plastic or metal materials.

The dimensions of the drawing board w.r.t length, width and thickness are presented
below.

Type of Drawing Board Length X Width X Thickness (mm)

D0 1500 X 1000 X 25

D1 1000 X 700 X 25

D2 700 X 500 X 15

D3 500 X 350 X 15

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3. Mini Drafter:
It is used for drawing vertical lines, horizontal lines, inclined lines, parallel lines, angles,
perpendicular lines, etc. Mini Drafter generally consists of two scales that are
perpendicular to each other and are calibrated in 'mm'. One end of the scale is to be
connected to the edge of the table and the other end is used to mark and measure the
dimensions.

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5. Pencils:
Pencils are the main drawing instruments used to draw the lines, circles, arcs, polygons,
etc. w.r.t. the scale provided. Some of the pencils are hard and some of the pencils are
smooth. The hard pencils are used to draw the construction lines and the smooth pencils
are used to draw the main lines.

Depending on the smooth and hard quality or the hardness, pencils are classified into 18
grades and they are as follows.

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 Grade of Pencil Hardness of Pencil

9H Hardest

6H, 5H, 4H Extremely Hard

3H Very hard

2H Hard

H Moderately hard

F Firm

HB Medium hard

B Moderately soft and black

2B Soft and black

3B Very soft and black

4B, 5B, 6B Very soft and very black

7B Softest

Out of the above 18 grades of pencils, the following grades are used in engineering
drawings.

Grade of Pencil Used to Draw

3H Construction lines

2H Dimension lines, center lines, sectional lines, hidden lines

H Object lines, lettering

HB Dimensioning, boundary lines

By Pbroks13, 1. Solid pigment core (typically

graphite, commonly called pencil lead). 2. Wood.
3. Painted body. 4. Ferrule. 5. Eraser.

6. Protractor:

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A protractor is used to mark the angle w.r.t. point or a line. It is in the shape of a semi-
circle which is transparent and made of plastic. It can measure an angle from 0-180
degrees. The centre of this bottom line is marked with “O” or “C” from which the angles
are measured.

By Zephyris

7. French Curves:
These are irregular in cross-section and were used to draw the small arcs and large
splines which were not possible using a drafter. They are made up of plastic material.

The bottom object is most commonly used for

hyperbolas; the smaller one above it is suited for
ellipses. The large one is used mostly for
parabolas

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8. Drawing Templates:
If you want to draw a circle of dia 4 mm, then it may not be possible with a compass. At
that time, we need to use the templates. If you buy any geometry box for placing all the
drawing instruments, then a drawing template was also given along with it which has
Alphabets printed on it.

Similarly, in Engineering drawing, there are many things which cannot be drawn by the
compass and that's the reason drawing templates were invented.

9. Paper Holders or Clips:

The clips are used to hold the drawing sheet on the drawing board properly. Generally, 4
clips are used for any drawing sheet.

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10. Set Squares:
Set squares are used to draw lines with an angle between them. In most of the structures,
30, 45, 60 and 90-degree lines are most common.

Generally, set squares are of two types:

One is 45 degrees set square and another is 30 – 60 degree set square. Both are
required in the drawing.

45 set square has a side of 25 cm while 30-60 set square has 25 cm length on one side.

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 By Dnu72

11. Compass:
It is used to draw a line or a circle. It generally consists of two legs. One end has a sharp
tip and the other end has a holder. The pencil is to be placed in that holder and is to be
tightened using a screw.

This is the detailed explanation of Drawing Instruments which you need for
Engineering Drawing. I hope this article is helpful to you. If you have any doubts then
feel free to comment down below, and also do not forget to share this stuff with your
friend.

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Some FAQ on Engineering Drawing Instruments:

What are the instruments used in engineering drawing?

The instruments used in the engineering drawing are Drawing board, Mini drafter, T
square, Compass, Divider, Set squares, Climograph, etc.

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What is a mini drafter?
It is used for drawing vertical lines, horizontal lines, inclined lines, parallel lines, angles,
perpendicular lines, etc. Mini Drafter generally consists of two scales that are
perpendicular to each other and are calibrated in 'mm'.

How many types of pencils are used in engineering drawing?

Generally, for technical drawings, the three grades of the pencil used are HB, H, and 2H.

More Resources:

References [External Links]:

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