The Triangle Method

Re: The Triangle Method

Pat Evans

If you joint or plane the boards after marking them, don't forget to remark them. DAMHIKT

Absolutely the best

Steve Elliott

No other way of marking parts conveys information so concisely. A glance at a part shows top/bottom and left/right orientation. Any part with half a triangle is understood to be one part of a pair.

Even if I use additional labels the triangles are more important.

Re: Agree *****

Re: The Triangle Method

North of the Border

For the legs, it's even better to mark the triangle on the top (endgrain).

Indeed

Ellis Walentine

That is a good option and one that I've also used, often in addition to marking the faces.

Speaking of marking endgrain, that is also a critical way to keep track of the order in packs of bandsawn laminations. Mark your blank first, then resaw, joint, resaw, etc. The triangle keeps the sequence straight.

Ellis

Re: The Triangle Method

William Duffield

There is an older, but not necessarily better, cabinetmaker's triangle method described and illustrated by Andre Roubo. Reference With All the Precision Possible, Roubo on Furniture, Plate 18, Figure 19, with explanations on pages 73, 74 and 76. Roubo's method only covers marking boards to be glued up into panels.

Re: The Triangle Method

Jim O'Connor

I've used the system for over 40 years. On legs I mark the tops with the triangles AND a fence (or face) side mark at the same time to make sure the mortices will be where they are supposed to be.

Architectural Drafting Background?

Tim Greif - West of Chicago

Ellis, very nice notations on your drawing. As a retired civil engineer, I am a veteran of manual drafting, although we used a much more plain "engineering" lettering style. I was always envious of the architects who used the much more elegant fonts with angled elements for their drawings, much like your font in the drawing. I can only assume you were at some point taught to use those fonts in some architectural coursework or occupational training. Attractive notations always make drawings more effective. Nice work.

Thanks

Ellis Walentine

No, I never had any formal training in "draughtsmanship" (as the Brits would say), but I learned early-on to make drawings that communicated what was necessary for building stuff, whether it was houses or rooms or furniture, and I emulated a lot of the drafting conventions of the pros I worked with. When I was a kid, my dad had gotten me a book on speedball lettering, which intrigued me a lot, and I went through a lettering phase, with pens and nibs and ink pots, practicing the kinds of engineering fonts you mentioned. It wasn't until I got a commission for a 3,000-sf addition in the mid-80s that I decided to hire a young engineer/draftsman to crank out large (B-size) drawings for me, about 30 of them in all, because I was too busy coordinating the project and scribbling out daily detail drawings and work orders for my crew. He's the one who first turned me on to triangle lettering, and I adopted a casual form of it that I've been using, more or less, ever since. I don't even think about it anymore. I appreciate your appreciation.

Ellis

Re: Architectural Drafting Background?

GolfSteve in Calgary

I just finished scanning hundreds of drawings that were hand drafted in the 1970s and 1980s. The lettering was so perfect that you would think it was type-set. Some of those drawings were works of art and it was painful to scan and trash them. Plus the vellum and paper media were something you don't experience anymore.