Reading & Interpreting Drawings

WORKING DRAWINGS AND CUTTING LISTS

The primary purpose of the working drawings you will be given as you work through the various models in practical woodworking is to provide you with all the information you need to make all the component parts, and to show you how each of those individual parts will be joined together. Working drawings tend to be produced by designers, architects or CAD technicians and then passed on to other professionals such as engineers, builders and joiners to read and work from. With this in mind, they have to present the information in such a way that it eliminates confusion. To achieve this, they provide the required information in a variety of formats such as orthographic drawings of individual parts and assemblies, pictorial drawings of individual parts and assemblies, exploded pictorial drawings and scaled detail drawings. They would also include a completed cutting list.

PARTS OF A WORKING DRAWING

The working drawing shown is for an individual part of a mirror frame. To aid clarity for the person who will be reading and working from the working drawing, the designer has provided an orthographic drawing of the part including 3 views and dimensions and a pictorial drawing showing the part completed and in 3D.

assembled and exploded parts

In the working drawings shown, the designer has provided an assembled orthographic view with the overall sizes. To help add clarity to how the mirror frame is assembled, an exploded pictorial view has also been provided. The exploded pictorial drawing also shows how the rails of the frame are joined to the sides.

DRAWN TO SCALE

Working drawings are drawn to scale and the scale used will be indicated on the drawing. the scale used by the designer will depend on wither the actual size of the original product or the level of detail that is required to be shown. For example, if the product has been drawn to its actual size, it has been drawn to a scale of 1:1; however, if the designer needed to show an intricate detail of a part, they may increase the scale used to perhaps 2:1 which would make the drawing twice as large as the actual size.

CUTTING LISTS

A cutting list is an integral part of any working drawing. It includes an accurate, itemised list of all the individual parts that are required in the manufacture of a product.

You would expect to find the following information on a cutting list:

The names of the various parts required in the model.
The number of each required part.
The material each part is to be made from.
The specific dimensions each part must be cut to.
The name of the model the cutting list has been produced for.

As you can see from the example, a typical cutting lis is divided into several different columns and rows to convey this information in a clear and easy to understand format.

THINGS TO DO AND THINK ABOUT

State what the term scale 2:1 means.
State 2 pieces of information found on a cutting list.
Remember sizes are always shown in mm.
State each line type and its purpose.

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