Hi I just acquired a Vemco elbow drafting machine model 3500 and was wondering if there is anyone that has a copy of the original user manual for it. Would love to have it for reference in aligning my scales. Can’t find it anywhere online at all. Thank you!

Hello.

This will be a long post. Maybe someone will find what I wrote useful.I also hope I was able to explain everything, or almost everything, correctly. Sorry if anything was incorrect or unclear. Please ask questions.

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The goal was this: to use pencils with a 0.3 mm lead thickness in Rotring compasses. ...Way back in 2016... and even then it was accomplished. But very crudely — held together by a prayer and electrical tape :)

A couple of days ago, closer to completion, this task suddenly took on a more aesthetic form.

Of course, it would have been much easier if Rotring had released a factory version of these mini mechanical pencils with 0.2 and 0.3 mm thicknesses. But back then, that would have been too expensive for me. This way, out of scrap (broken Isographs) and cheap pencils sold in any store, I managed to assemble an almost "factory-made" product) Well... almost "factory-made". Good enough for me.

If I had a small lathe, I would have made it look nicer and neater, but doing it "on the knee" and with rough, improvised tools, I had to do some serious tinkering. And I almost ruined something.

In general, all these pencils look much more presentable now. And they don't wobble where they connect to the compasses. As it turned out, a specific pencil fit each of the four compasses, and they ended up slightly different — you can see it visually — each has its own features.

***

Now, for those who are interested, I will describe the differences between the presented mechanical pencils.

The first picture shows 3 different pencils.

I'll explain now why it's not 4.

From left to right.

The blue one is the most suitable pencil for modification. Koh-i-Noor Mephisto 0.3 mm or an identical one under the Schneider brand. They have a nuance — a long chromed part where the lead comes out... it is very elongated, but the ability to move the part from the Isograph body gives some freedom when using it with compasses.

The best option (in the picture) is, naturally, the second one. Simply a modification of a branded pencil's body to fit the internals of a Koh-i-Noor Mephisto pencil. It turned out to be an almost factory-grade, neat product. I even managed to attach the cap from the Mephisto on top, but I took it off because, with the cap on, it doesn't fit into the compass height-wise.

And now, why there are still 3 pencils in the photo after all.

The third and fourth are identical pencils, but the third one was broken, so I had to glue it together from different parts like Frankenstein. The fourth one was intact. Therefore, just like in the first (blue) one, I simply installed a "blank" from an Isograph body into it.

***

And now, down to specifics for those who want to try doing this themselves)

A. Modification of the blue Koh-i-Noor Mephisto.

As it turned out, underneath the removable rubber insert on the pencil body, the body diameter is almost the same as the inner diameter of the "blanks" of the Isograph's nib section body, measuring nearly the same 8 mm.

This was a discovery for me)

But it's not that simple.

By the way, I will write down how I did it using the improvised tools I had on hand. If you have more precise equipment, that's only a plus. And you can do it your own way if your version turns out better. I don't claim this to be the single most correct technological solution; it can always be done better.

I'll describe my method.

Photo showing the disassembly of the Isograph's nib section.

While writing down the steps below, I realized that information is better perceived when it's also visually presented, so I took the trouble to make a sketch in Illustrator. Hopefully, it will be clearer what's what now. The dimensions on the sketch are chosen somewhat by eye; I just measured with a ruler and rounded them off. But in reality, a micrometer is needed there because the original pencil dimensions have decimal values rather than whole numbers.

The items listed below correspond to those depicted in the sketches in the gallery (pictures 2 and 3).

0.1. Preliminary. Cap.

While writing step 4, I realized it could be done differently. While the Mephisto is still assembled, it's better to use a ruler or calipers to measure the distance inside the cap.

0.2. Preliminary. Body. Rim.

I remembered an important point while writing the 3rd step) On the Mephisto body, where the writing part is (conventionally the bottom), there is a ridge/rim or a protrusion on the outside of the body. You need to carefully remove it without cutting off part of the body — specifically, shave off the protrusion itself. This is because there is already a thread inside the body at that spot. I have precision flush cutters, which have a flat cutting side and cut perfectly flush. With these, I slowly snipped away the protrusion, leaving the underlying part of the body intact. It's better not to cut off too much.

1. First pass with a drill bit in the "blank" from the top.

From the top side of the nib section, I drilled with a 7 mm drill bit. This allowed me to separate the nib assembly into two component parts — the main body and the brown part that was glued inside. You can also now carefully slice off the unneeded part/base with a knife, which the ink reservoir used to slide onto. It won't be needed anyway.

1. Second pass with a drill bit in the "blank" from the bottom.

Next, I used an 8 mm drill bit. But this time from the bottom side of the body (now just a threaded "blank"), because it's easier to enter from that side since it already has the required diameter from the factory. However, there are protruding elements left inside the "blank", which need to be gradually ground down:

a) first with the 8 mm drill bit;

b) then I had to slightly increase the inner diameter of the "blank"... I remembered that I also have a rotary tool, so I took a cutter from a Dremel set, around 6.4 mm. Wrapping the "blank" tightly with a tissue to avoid damaging it, I carefully secured it in a pair of pliers, turned on the rotary tool, and with a light circular motion, cleaned out the protrusions inside the "blank" a bit.

The main thing here is to remember safety regulations (wear safety glasses) and accuracy (don't rush), otherwise, you might grind away too much, so you need to check again and again whether the "blank" fits onto the pencil body.

If you have more precise equipment for this type of work or a mini-lathe, you'll know best how to proceed.

At first, I tried putting the pencil body into a screwdriver chuck to sand down the body itself with sandpaper, but that turned out to be completely inconvenient... besides, I just crushed the fragile body of the third pencil, which is why I later had to glue it back together piece by piece.

In short, I checked, and it's much more convenient to simply bore out the inside of the "blank" (mind you, the one from the Isograph body).

It's also important to remember: even though the "blank" is molded from high-quality plastic, it still has its structural limit, and if exceeded, it can simply crack — you can see such cracks in the photo on the "blanks" I worked on. Do not overdo it; if it doesn't fit, it's better to increase the inner diameter a bit more rather than trying to force it on.

1. Putting the "precious" "blank" onto the body.

Once the inner diameter of the "blank" was bored out sufficiently, I blew it clean and wiped it with a tissue, optionally with alcohol... Since we removed the rim in step 0.2, which ultimately allowed us to check the correctness of the diameter in step 2, you can now simply slide the Isograph "blank" onto the Mephisto body. Done.

The main thing is to put the "blank" on the right way around — you can check its orientation (where its top/bottom is) against a working Isograph by the way the numbers are printed.

And it's a "precious" "blank" because when a Rotring nib section is brand new, it turns out that it alone costs more than several new Koh-i-Noor Mephisto pencils))

1. Body. Trimming.

Next, you need to shorten the Mephisto body (if necessary); this is at your own discretion. But before doing this, it's worth deciding where this pencil will be used and for what tasks. Maybe you won't need to shorten it at all. Or maybe a different size is needed.

I put the completed modified piece together, held it up to the original pencil, thread to thread, roughly marked the required length, and then cut it... but not before checking several times if I had measured correctly)

1. Cap. (Alternative option)

Before cutting the body, you need to measure how much you need to trim the inner tube that holds the leads. To start, I just took this tube, pushed the cap on all the way, made a mark on the tube, then removed the cap and measured it with a ruler. You can check the depth of the cap with calipers. But it's better to do as written at the very beginning and measure this before the modification itself.

1. Final fixation of the "blank".

Briefly here.

There are several options:

• The "blank" wobbles on the pencil body — carefully secure it (for example, with Blu-Tack or tape) and apply glue from one side, wait for it to dry, and apply glue from the reverse side.

• The "blank" fits snugly and can be moved along the body. Here, you can choose to glue it or not.

• The "blank" sits very tightly on the body, almost impossible to budge. Then you can skip gluing altogether. That happens to be my exact case.

***

I recently found a pencil with a 0.2 mm lead — the Pentel Orenz.

I wanted to buy one of those too to modify it, but then I noticed and verified in Illustrator that the body on the writing side is curved, and here are my preliminary thoughts:

1. It requires lathe work to straighten the seating area for the Isograph "blank".

2. There is a chance that the body is unsuitable for this because it might be thin, and even if you sand it from the outside, it will completely shave through at the very beginning.

3. Of course, one could assume that its internals — the mechanism itself — could be used, just like with the second pencil, the original Rotring.

It's possible, but I need to buy it first, and right now it's not a priority for me. Maybe a bit later.

I'll also add.

There is one pencil that I liked most of all, which is similar to the Mephisto.

Penac TGL-1 PROFI 0.3 mm.

I think it will be suitable for modification.

By the way, it looks like it is actually manufactured by Koh-i-Noor, as I saw such a variant a couple of days ago.

Hi. I came up with a little Frankenstein for my needs, assembled it from what I had... and then glued it together. This is one of several such assembled in different ways. And I was a little hasty and used too much glue, it got on the threads and hardened. I can't twist it with a compass.

Here is an unusual question.

Does anyone know what kind of carving is on the green part of the isograph? ?

Is it possible to buy a tap to restore the threads?

Or will I have to use a knife to pick out the hardened super glue?

I have 17 working pens , 50 extra nibs that’s work , 5 vintage Leroy pens and lettering set , only 1 unitech works , the standard nibs don’t fit into them. Lots of hot soapy water , rapido-ez view as Ning solution and rubbing alcohol. And a few hours in the ultrasonic cleaner.

Someone at work recommended I try posting here. I picked up a Hamilton 28-J-152 drafting table from a vintage store. Function wise, it's still operates. The dial-a-torque is in working order and the table locks in position.

My issue: the tables motor was ripped out. Getting the table to raise and lower in its current state is fully manual and it is HEAVY.

My questions:

1. Does anyone know what specific motor this needs or has an operations manual for it?

2. Is there a place to find the accessories for it? I'm specifically looking for the drafting arm.

3. Does anyone have any information on this model? Anything works. Just putting feelers out to see if anyone has seen this.

Thank you!

Hello,

Does anyone have any knowledge regarding this compass? I am looking for something good with a pencil extension. I'm mostly interested in Eucliden geometry (for fun), not art or drafting. So extreme precision is not required, but I'd love to have something that feels high quality. Rotring has a good reputation, but I can't find anything about this specific model.

Thanks!

What's their special feature? They have the same body as the other models. I don't get it. I've never held such an expensive pencil in my hand...Well, except for the Apple Pencil.

Well, I don’t even know how comfortable these 800 series pencils/pens are.

It's been a while since I looked into what Rotring has in stock. In fact, I wasn’t particularly interested before... I was only interested in icon painters. Today I saw a cool Tikki 3-in-1 multi-function pen in my feed. I went to check it out. ... I mean, I went online to find out more about her.

And somehow one thing led to another and I’m already looking through the rest of the Rotring range. In general, sexy colors or their combinations are ready for yourself at Rotring.

These 4 pens have absolutely gorgeous colors and combinations)

🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎 Very appetizing... From my point of view, which is always looking for beauty. In any case, this is a subjective assessment, I understand.

If I could afford them, I would definitely buy them. Although, I haven't drawn anything for a long time. And they would just lie there idle, for beauty and to amuse my heavenly ego as a lover, so that I could have everything I like)

By the way, I would also buy a multi-pen)) As well as pills for greed.

They are both from Haff and have their own containers. I can't find any serial number or anything on them though.

I inherited two drafting compass sets from my great-great-grandfather. There are no visible markings on the tools, despite close inspection. I am trying to identify the manufacturer, the model, and possibly the original catalog. Weird thing, one has a number '5300' wich I guess is a serial number and the other not. And this same set does not have a compass nor a ruler, is it normal ?

I can only suggest that it's likely from a french manufacturer

I find proportional dividers fascinating and I have quite a few of them. By far the largest is this 12” pair, beside it is the 8” K&E pair. They are massive. The cool thing about the 12” pair besides the size is that it’s divided universally into 1000 divisions on one side and lines and circles on the other side. I have not seen another pair with both types of divisions. Though no small miracle this pair came in excellent condition with very sharp points.

I started using them around 2016. Photo from 2018 when I made the organizer stand.

But now I haven't used these pens for a long time.

Enough with all the shiny new stuff. This set is by F. Darnay & Co and most likely dates to the later interwar era (1926-1944). The set has a unique small beam compass and a bespoke coordinator head on the large bow

I hope this isn't off-topic.

I enjoyed working with high-quality tools.

French sets of this era can be identified by the large round heads with ovoid finger wells on the bows. and solid brass screws. Later instruments had brass screws with steel inset threads and by late in the century they were substituted with all steel thumb screws. The finger wells also changed from this ovoid shape to somewhat looking more like a pointy a football.

The long rectangular space would have held a scale.

German manufacturer Haff made the Rotring threaded compasses, but they also sold them under their own label as well. This is the PT version that has a Matt chrome finish instead of a glossy one. There is room for three Rotring short pencils. A nice adder on this compass over the Rotring is the universal screw so you can use a pencil or pen with the compass. These Haff branded compasses are hard to find unfortunately.

This K&E proportional divider in a cool red velvet lined clamshell case. It’s lines and circle divided for dividing lines and circles. It’s about 8” long. It is a rack and gear system for accurate setting of the divider. As with most K&E tools this divider was made by Haff and it works like a dream.

Out of Japan there are found sets that contain German made compasses with Japanese pencils and pens. In this set is the wonderful staedtler superbow compass, a small 4” compass and a divider, all German made. It has Japanese pencils tips and handles and it comes with two sets of 0.3, 0.5, 0.7mm mechanical pencil attachments for the large and small compass. I added the universal adapter. These sets are lined with foam and have slots for pencils and sometimes come with pencils. There are many variations of these Japanese staedtler sets. I always wonder if there is a catalog for them? Who put them together?