blueprint reading

[aametalmaster]

Take a drafting course at your local JC.

I agree. My grampa told me when i was a kid that he couldn't read drawings so he took a night class at the then local high school. He said if you ever get a chance to learn do it. So i signed up for classes at my high school and learned...Bob

[JSFAB]

Bob, I was always sorry I didn't take a drafting course in high school or college. I did end up taking one at a local JC, about 4 years AFTER I finished my (non-engineering) Batchelor's degree. Bunch of teenagers there, I was the oldest one in the class, felt like a dirty old man looking at girls. I had already left the job that suggested I take the class, but I finished anyway because I very quickly realized the benefits to understanding blueprints. I still can't draw worth a dam, but I can sketch pretty good.

[JSFAB]

And I CAN read the friggin' prints.

[Rbeckett]

If you would like to teach yourself to read and draw blueprints order the Popular Mechanics book, Titled "The Art of Mechanical Drawing" It will teach you to draw well enough to read any print out there and it was only about 10 bucks and a little investment of time. I didn't get the chance to do it in High School, but I have managed to go back and pick up a lot of the things I blew off as a stoner back in the 70's. Shoulda applied myself way back then, just had the wrong priorities back then.
Bob

[kevin]

here is the best of both worlds, my deceased pop,n,law, in his day was quite an engineer and a top notch draftsman, each day after work he would go to the shed, grab a rabbit, lop off its head, and cook er up for supper,

[drpipe]

Well I assume your in the welding fabricating business so I would ask a coworker or get with the shop foreman and go over some old prints I work with pipe isometrics on a daily basis I learned by asking the more experianced guys I don't think any book would help on its own just get a blue book a square a plumb bob and a pencil and soapstone and read your ISP make a cut list and go from there

[Drewcifer]

Hey Luis,

A blueprint is usually nothing more than a front view (elevation) a side view (profile) and a top view...(plan) Since it is sometimes read around the world from where it's drawn, a bunch of other info and measurements are used to guarantee they'll be understood and the measurements will be the same. There are traditions to how you do those measurements (this is what you learn in drafting classes...but you can see the conventions if you just look at a lot of blueprints...)


Here's a link that helps understand how objects are divided up into blueprint views.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multivi...hic_projection

You do learn HOW to draw them and divide them up if you take a drafting class,

programs like Google Sketchup allow you to move around the views and see them in 3-d where as older guys like myself had to do the 3 views on drafting paper and imagine the object when it was done.... So it's a different learning curve and it's frankly a dying art. Someday soon there will be only 3-d forms that you can view in rendering programs...and you'll be able to print out the 3 views with no work at all.

I read a great book on how to quickly see things in your mind from blueprint view called RAPID VIZ and it showed how to think quickly and visualize quickly.

So you can start there.

Another way to learn is to take an object that is pretty regular, like a box or something, and draw a front, side, and top view of the thing and match the measurements to a scale...like if the box is 8 inches high you use 1/2 scale and draw it 4 inches high on the paper.

You can learn it and you'll find it's easy. Just a new skill

Good luck

Drewcifer

[J C]

I took a Welding & Blueprint reading course at my local adult education school. It was a 900 hour program with a day or two every week set aside just for blueprint reading. It was extremely helpful cause your working specifically with all the different welding symbols & lines & the different materials. In my mind unless its drafting for welders a drafting class is only a little helpful. If you dont know what the symbols mean your still pretty clueless.

[beamwalker]

hint 1c1 is a column, 1b1 is a beam 1br1 is a brace, 1a1 is angle, 1t1 is tube, and so on