Mechanical drawings
Freehand
In the electrical trade there will be times when you need to draw plans for a fabrication job on site. In this situation it is not practical to use a computer or drawing tools, you need to do a freehand sketch.
To be able to interpret the drawing at a later time or different location the drawing must be done to engineering drawing standards. It must also contain all the necessary information. You may choose to do the drawing in any one, or all of the views, depending on the complexity of the object to be fabricated.
The sketch should be kept as near to proportion as possible to give a good representation of what the finished object will look like. Do your drawing as if you are doing it for another person.
Some drawing tips
- Draw very light guidelines on the paper first.
- Draw lines in a continuous movement by sliding your hand across the paper.
- Draw light guides for a circle, a cross showing the centre, and a square to the diameter.
- Use scraps of paper with pencil lines for measuring, eg to draw each side of a square the same length.
Following is a sample of the stages of drawing a freehand diagram of a bracket.
