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Good stuff. Here's a de Havilland Drawing Office Handbook dating to the mid 50's but the content is very much a wartime derivative: http://vhjet.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/DHA-Drawing-Office-Handbook-OCR.pdf
I'd love to see that DH part numbering practice. In working on our Mosquito I have found the system to have SOME logic in that part numbers start with a letter that signifies a structure or system followed by a two or three numeral model number (98 for Mosquito). So a part beginning with N98 is a part in the Mosquito electrical system. It's the numbers after the first 3 or 4 digits that seem quite random.
Anybody have any suggestions on how to learn to read blueprints better. I am somewhat weak in that area and my job responsibilities are about to change. My employer has no problem with them but he does not have very much time to teach me what I should know. I was hoping for a website or a book or something I could study. I took some electrically related classes a while back but they just glossed over reading prints. Any ideas? ThanksDifferent companies have their own approaches. Boeing's was different from most others. I can recall an engineer in our office unfolding a drawing and saying, "Oh, God! It's from Boeing!" and then going to get a fresh cup of coffee. He knew he was going to be at that task for a while.
For sheet metal parts Boeing would put things like "BUP" on the drawing. I asked a highly experienced engineer what that meant. He replied, "It means Bend Up." That meant that flat drawing representing the layout of a sheet metal part indicated that part of the metal should be bent upwards along the bend line. He could handle understanding it with no problem, which meant that drawings needing engineering review prior to procurement actions got stacked up around his desk, since few others could make heads or tails of them. He also asked for First Article review of the parts that were to be delivered, because he had seen far too many cases where a part that "Joe's Screen Door Repair and Airplane Parts" should have been able to build per the drawing but would screw up in some way.
General Dynamics and Grumman used the same approach for their drawings Blueprint reading. They standardized when they were both going to be building F-111's and Grumman kept the GD approach after the Navy part of the program was cancelled.
I gather you never took any Mechanical Drawing classes in high school? That was standard when I went to school and I also had a rather less valuable course in it in college. I was never very good at making drawings, at least according to the kind of people who think they should be like artwork, but I could sketch something well enough to enable it to be manufactured. In fact, in some cases I would make an engineering sketch and some bureaucrat would insist that it be turned into an Official USAF Drawing by a real draftsman, usually imposing a significant delay. Then I would get a call from the shop asking what the thing was. I'd take them my crummy engineering sketch and they'd say, "Oh! That's better! I see!" Of course, it did not help that every bureaucrat along the way would unfold the official drawing and look at it, so that it was worn out by the time it got to the shop.Anybody have any suggestions on how to learn to read blueprints better.
I gather you never took any Mechanical Drawing classes in high school? That was standard when I went to school and I also had a rather less valuable course in it in college. I was never very good at making drawings, at least according to the kind of people who think they should be like artwork, but I could sketch something well enough to enable it to be manufactured. In fact, in some cases I would make an engineering sketch and some bureaucrat would insist that it be turned into an Official USAF Drawing by a real draftsman, usually imposing a significant delay. Then I would get a call from the shop asking what the thing was. I'd take them my crummy engineering sketch and they'd say, "Oh! That's better! I see!" Of course, it did not help that every bureaucrat along the way would unfold the official drawing and look at it, so that it was worn out by the time it got to the shop.Anybody have any suggestions on how to learn to read blueprints better.
thank you so much for your suggestion.Here's one series that is pretty good:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht9GwXQMgpo
Here's on on Zenith aircraft:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6YYHtgcc8Q
A NASA primer on engineering drawings:
A word of caution: If you are wanting to learn to read aircraft drawings, they can get pretty complicated in a hurry. Often, information is split between both detailed parts drawing and assembly drawings. It takes time to learn how each company implemented their drawing standards and conventions. A good example, was when I was a lead in my area of F-16 production. It took me about 3-4 weeks to bootstrap a new assembler to where they could reliably and correctly read our drawings and chase down all the relevant information about a particular job. Most of the "new" kids I had, Discover the perfect harmony of comfort and convenience - Rent an apartment in Metn and unlock a lifestyle tailored to your desires check this Rent an apartment in Metn. were assemblers with anywhere from 7 to 15 years experience already in aircraft assembly work.