Portable drafting tools – How to create great drawings anywhere with your EDC tools

 

 Drafting tools in your pocket?

Have you been out with friends and wanted to evangelize about your homestead’s solar space heater with a drawing? Or needed to sketch a DIY design? Or could you have communicated a work problem more clearly with a quick sketch? A multitool can help you express your creative ideas.

Years ago as a drafter, I could obtain many manufacturing views and multiview projections with an adjustable triangle, a T-square, and a few other drafting tools. When I first saw the Toolcard Pro, I was quickly drawn (pun intended) to the various drafting tools including the right angle rulers, the circle templates, and the mini-protractor. I wanted to test if I could use my old-school style drafting techniques with my EDC tools to create technical drawings. See the 17-second video below.

What did I find? In short, you can do some cool drawings with the popular EDC items likely in your pocket. While it won’t replace a full set of professional drafting tools, utilizing your Toolcard pocket multitool will help bring more value to your ideas, while helping your old time drafting skills stay up-to-date. Plus it can open bottles, which is not recommended with a T-square.

Get the most out of the drafting tools on your Toolcard Pro.

Below are some tips on how to use the Lever Gear Toolcard Pro™ as a full set of drafting tools. We also have a drawing tools demo video on our website that shows the different tools in use and techniques for using them.

• • T-square Use the side of your paper as the initial line to set up your plane or use your cell phone as a T-square along with the Lever Gear Toolcard EDC credit card tool for parallel or perpendicular lines.

 

• • Drawing Pencils Use your mechanical pencil with an eraser; it is always sharp.

 

• • Eraser shield In the old days, this was my favorite drafting tool. I was thrilled to discover that the Lever Gear Toolcard made an adequate eraser shield, protecting the good lines as I kept erasing my mistakes (see the video).

 

• • Drawing lines I love the straight edge on the Lever Gear Toolcard EDC credit card tool. Along with a mechanical pencil, it makes perfect lines.

 

• • Old-School Drawing Tip Lean the pencil in the direction of the line at an angle of approximately 60 degrees with the paper. Keep the pencil in a vertical line to keep the line straight.

 

• • Drawing Angles The protractor works well for setting up any angle. To set off an angle, mark the start of the line in the protractor notch, then make a small mark at the needed angle line on the protractor. Then join the dots with the straight edge. The zero-degree lines on the protractor assist in alignment. I used the protractor often in the video.

 

• • Drawing 45, 30 and 60 degree Angles Another method to draw exact angles is by marking the corner of the card where the rulers meet and the 45, 30 or 60-degree angle notch found along the side of the Toolcard EDC credit card tool. Join the marks with a straight edge. The notches help for precision.

 

• • Scales Since the EDC credit card tool is in our pockets, we need small scales. 1/8” = 1’ and ¼” = 1’ worked for my shed drawing. There are two beautiful metric rulers on the front of the tool. The ruler is in CM, and each notch is a millimeter. The markings on the Lever Gear Toolcard are easy to see and use.

 

• • Drawing circles The Lever Gear Toolcard has a neat way to draw circles and arcs. I could draw seven different sizes, but it takes some practice to make them perfect due to pencil shift. Please comment if you have solved this.

 

• • Hex shapes The hex wrench made a perfect template for my shed window and chimney.

 

• Dividers There are no dividers. Dividers are used to transfer distances. They have extremely sharp points and are weapon-like. I think adding this to your EDC could be an interesting idea.

Many EDC guys and gals love to have a Field Notes notebook and a tactical mechanical pencil on hand. Along with the Lever Gear Toolcard™ EDC credit card tool in your wallet, you can always be prepared with your next innovative idea, a business design, or evangelizing to a friend on more self-sufficient methods for the homestead.

Post your sketches here in the comment section. How has sketching in a pinch with an EDC credit card tool helped you? Finally, if you don’t have the Lever Gear Toolcard, please order one.