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Question about using a 0.3mm lead for structural details
Everyone in my shop says you need a 0.5mm or 0.7mm lead for structural steel details, that the thin stuff is just for fancy sketches. I tried a 0.3mm on a big beam connection plate drawing last week, thinking it would be cleaner for the bolt holes. It was a nightmare. The lead kept breaking under pressure, and the lines were so light the reprographics machine barely picked them up. I had to redraw the whole thing with a 0.5mm, which cost me about two hours. I learned that sometimes the old way is just the right way for the tools we have. Has anyone else found a good middle ground for fine detail work on shop drawings that still scans well?
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abbyc332d agoMost Upvoted
caleb's right about matching the lead to the machine, that's basically the whole game right there. I've found that even a 0.5mm HB can disappear on a crappy old copier, so I keep a 0.5mm 2H in my kit for the heavy backgrounds and use a 0.5mm F for the fine stuff, gives me the crisp look without the breakage. It's not the lead size that matters as much as the hardness and how well your repro house's scanner is calibrated.
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calebw501mo ago
Yeah, I was the same way, always pushing for the finer lead on my connection details. I thought it looked more like the printed CAD stuff. But after a few prints came back with half the lines missing, I had to switch back. The 0.5 is my usual now, but for really tight spots on a big sheet, I'll go down to a 0.4 if the printer is known to be good. It's all about what the machine can actually read.
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