3/4- or 1-oz bottles of black, red, and green ink
are found in the standard draftsman kit. Larger
bottles are available for refilling the small
bottles. The stopper for a small ink bottle is
equipped with either a squeeze dropper or a
curved pipette for filling pens.
When you are working with ink, always keep
the stopper on the ink bottle when you are not
filling the pen, and keep the bottle far away from
your drawing. Nothing is more frustrating for a
draftsman than to spill a bottle of ink on a
finished drawing. Special bottle holders are
available to minimize this hazard. If you do not
have a bottle holder, it would be to your
advantage to devise your own.
OTHER TOOLS
Many tools other than the ones already
presented in this chapter are currently used to
help create technical drawings. A variety of
drafting machines (not in the draftsman kit) are
available at several shore-based support activities.
Dependent upon the requirements of that
particular activity, an EA assigned to staff or
independent duty may also be exposed to a more
advanced and sophisticated computer-assisted
drafting method.
The standard drafting machine combines the
functions of a parallel ruler, protractor, scales,
and triangles.
Various drafting operations
requiring straight and parallel lines may be
performed advantageously with a drafting
machine.
The majority of drafting machines are
constructed so that the protractor head may be
moved over the surface of a drafting table without
change in orientation by means of a parallel-
motion linkage consisting of two sets of double
bars. Figure 2-33 shows a rigid metal connecting
link or arms, commonly called pin-joint linkage.
Another type of drafting machine has two steel
bands enclosed in tubes working against one
another (fig. 2-34) (although this type may also
45.137
Figure 2-33.-Drafting machine with rigid arms.
2-26
