I finally got the hang of reading old blueprints after a job in Gary

We were retrofitting a boiler from the 60s at the old plant there, and the original drawings were a mess of faded pencil and old symbols. I spent a whole afternoon just trying to figure out one pipe run. The foreman, an old timer named Ray, showed me his trick: he uses a bright desk lamp at a low angle to catch the indentations from the original drafting pencil. It made the lines I couldn't even see pop right out. That one tip saved me hours of guesswork on that job. Anyone else have a good method for dealing with really old prints?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_oscar2d ago

Nice. That low angle light trick is a lifesaver. I've also had good luck with a cheap digital camera on a tripod, taking a high contrast black and white photo. Sometimes the software picks up details your eyes miss in the bad light on site.

evan2952d ago

Yeah, I read somewhere that police use a similar trick with alternate light sources to find prints or fibers.