Full size drawings

[lou sansone]

good morning ww's
How many of you do full size drawings of your furniture before you build it? I have found over the years that although it is another step, it has saved me countless hours of fixing poor looking designs.

lou

[Bill Lewis]

Lou,
I do make drawings but not full size, usually the drawings are only for dimensions. If I am building something from my own design I usually build it first in a 3D solid CAD program first. So, I guess you could say that it is "full size" even though I'm looking at it on a "small screen".

[Alan Turner]

Lou,
I said yes, but actually only do full size drawings of the complex portions of a piece. Rarely do I do them of an entire piece.

[Jim Young]

Never done a full size drawing. I only rough draw my projects on AutoCAD with minimal dimensioning. The rough drawings give me a perspective of how the part will look and to see if it is proportionally pleasing.

[David Fried]

I really don't have the means or space to make a full size drawing except for very small objects. I do make scale drawings and do draw some parts to scale on graph paper. The one time I made a full size model I found it really helped.

Dave Fried

[Bob Johnson2]

You need another option, "Use plans but not full size".

[Frank Pellow]

You need another option, "Use plans but not full size".
That is what I do (so I guess that I will not vote in this poll).

[Earl Reid]

I have only made full size drawings on a few parts of a complicated project.
Most projects are from magizines or pictures. Some things start with a idea
and a rough sketch and sometimes changed a bit as I go along and sometimes they end up as pen blanks:D

Earl

[Roger Myers]

Full size for all of the joinery of any pice that is more than very basic. Really helps to lay out the joints on some of the more complicated pieces.... nothing worse than two tenons fighting for the same space.... kinda like kids fighting for the drumstick on Thanksgiving...something usually ends up on the floor, something gets broken, and there can be a lot of cussing....
Roger

[Matt Meiser]

I didn't vote either since none of the options seemed to fit. I'll sometimes just start from a sketch and sometimes I'll make a Quickcad drawing. I've also done drawings in Visio before. Usually if there are sheet goods, I'll do a pretty good drawing so I can make a cut list in Cutlist Plus to maximize material usage.

[Dave Walker]

I'm another that makes scaled drawings for my pieces. Rarely ever make full sized drawings.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I make full sized drawings whenever I need a jig for my router.

[John D Watson]

I full size the "details" only, and find it helps alot.

[Mark Singer]

I do scaled drawings for cabinets...usually 1/2" per FT...For chairs and difficult pieces I make full scale and plot them on an HP plotter...then template each piece for multiple pieces of the same component....I do make full scale of dovetail paterns to see proportion. On complicated joints I make a mock up on scrap...this sets all the cuts , stops etc.

[Jim Becker]

I work from simple sketches most of the time and occasionally from more detailed CAD or CAD-like drawings when necessary. Only once have I done something full-sized and that was for my chair project. (still stalled on the shelf) I have also worked from dimensioned drawings from others, such as Thos Moser and Norm Abram; sometimes making changes, sometimes building per the spec. Whatever is appropriate for the particular project.

[lou sansone]

I guess I should have qualified the question.

When I think of full sized drawings, what I mean are ones that show all the major parts and the curves and angles associated with the piece. I don't include all the little nit picking details unless they are deal breakers

lou

[Lee DeRaud]

I usually do, but then again most of my projects are smaller than 8.5"x11".:cool:

[Steve Clardy]

No. I usually come back from a bid job, with some scratching on a tablet, then do a scratchie layout on a tablet, and go to building.

[Frank Chaffee]

I don't include all the little nit picking details unless they are deal breakers.
Those nit picking details are the ones I am especially careful to draw.
Frank

[Dan Oliphant]

Scaled drawings only to this point. Although I will take a scaled drawing and make a full sized template for items that have curves.

[Rob Millard]

I always work from photographs of originals, and from these, I most often make quick sketches. If the piece is photographed with an angled view, or if there seems to be considerable distortion in the photo, I will make a full size drawing, to insure I get the proportions correct.
Rob Millard

[Charlie Mastro]

When I was building kitchens and other built in cabinets before I even had a cad program and after I always used story sticks. Everyone that worked for me learned how to do it and we got our cutting lists and every other important measurement off those sticks. I guess that's why my cabinets always fit.
After getting MiniCad, now VectorWorks, I became a convert to shop drawings, something I never did unless forced to. I remember telling an architect why should I redraw his drawings, they would just look the same. I even took my story sticks to an architect and told him "here's the shop drawings, they're full scale".
I actually like to draw and when the CAD made it easier and quicker to draw I did. But I still used the "sticks". Now I never build without firing up the CAD. I have used it to make full scale parts that I printed on a plotter just like Mark but I no longer have access to one so I've been known to tape several sheets together to get the full size part.

[Jim Tobias]

I have found that the full size drawings really helps me "get comfortable" with the proportions and design of whatever I am building. I will usually do them if I think I need to look at full sized in order to decide on curves and thicknesses, etc.

Jim

[Mike Henderson]

I only do a full size drawing when the project is very small and will fit on standard size paper at full size. After all, we build ships, skyscrapers, airplanes, dams and other complex things without ever having a full size drawing.

The only advantage that I can see or a full size drawing is that you could lay your workpiece against the drawing to see if it is approximately the same size. But you could do the same thing by measurements.

The disadvantage of a full size drawing is the amount of space it takes to read it. A full size drawing of an 18th Century secretary, for example, would take a lot of shop floor space to lay out and read. Drawings should be of a size that is convenient to use. For example, in the old days when we did the layout for a semiconductor chip, we drew it many times bigger than it would finally be.

I prefer to have plans on a convenient size of paper, that I can easily read and transport.

Mike

[Jim Dunn]

Paper and pencil rough sketch generally. I'll do a scale drawing if it complex, but since I don't do complex very good it's a moot poing:)

[Steve Wargo]

I usually do drawings of everything, but only to scale. The only time I do a full size drawing is for table legs or difficult angles on pieces.

[larry merlau]

Never done a full size drawing. I only rough draw my projects on AutoCAD with minimal dimensioning. The rough drawings give me a perspective of how the part will look and to see if it is proportionally pleasing.

hey jim must be they didnt have auto cad when you and i were designed becasue our porportions are outa line:D in my case and yours the minumal dimensions were way off:D

i try to use them for detailed areas but the dimensions are what i use the most. i usually look at it on paper or screen and can get a good feel for it from there. but i am just a beginner and have lots to learn .

[Alan Burhop]

I have a picture in my head of the finished product. I will usualy make some scratchy drawings for general demensions. As I go along I make more scratchy drawings to calculate other pieces.

Here is an example:

http://ajb2222.dyndns.org/woodworking/Garbage%20Can%20Cabinet/Garbage%20Can%20Cabinet.htm

[Mark Singer]

This is a great thread and one of the keys to high quality woodworking on difficult projects. If I am making Euro style cabinets I don't need a full size drawing....only a scaled drawing...it is an easy project and once you have done it a few times...a no brainer. Now a chair....thats different! There are angles, curves, rake, proportions and comfort is a prime objective. Maloof started as an artist doing graphic work.....he drew before he was a crafstman. David Marks and others take a great deal of time to draw out...plan out each component to arrive at a design that works and the full scale drawings make it easier...or in some cases possible to build. My drawings show a chair going from sketch to drawing.form. The components are then drawn and templated and transfered to the stock...marked cut out detailed....mortises cut and finally a prototype is made....checked by just siting in it....back to the drawing board...a little more curve in the back ..a bit more rake...adjust the drawings...and build ten chairs!...It is very easy to have a top full scale view and determine the angle of the stertcher to the back leg....the drawing tells you... This is how to take a very difficult project and break it down to repeatable precise components....once cut out they are shaped with rasps,,,sanded etc,,,,the "hard line" the form...the "art" comes into play....The drawings are the beggining.. Lou a great thread...next time remember we have a Design Forum :rolleyes:

[Mark Singer]

and one more....

[Barry O'Mahony]

I usually do plans on Visio, which can be printed out at scale or at full-size at will. I'll usually print out the whole thing at scale, and may print out complicated details at full-size. Or curved parts that need a template I print out full-scale, as a step toward constructing the template.

[tod evans]

lou, anytime i have complex joinery or am worried about proportion i do a full scale drawing on mdf `cause it`s ridgid enough to do takeoffs from...02 tod