This week @TheOnlyAaron rolls up his sleeves and models a drafting table, from scratch! Psst – look for a potential Luxo Lamp cameo from last week’s stream 
Join us for a whole two hours of great SketchUp tips and the usual playful banter.
Watch live on YouTube, Facebook & Linkedin
2026-02-20T19:00:00Z
You guys know the drill – there’s a lot of drafting table designs out there. What would you like to see Aaron tackle? Drop your ideas in the thread!
This is the kind of drafting table that was used, and that I used, when I started my career in engineering in 1978.
A parallellogram drafting machine looks cooler and would give Aaron a bit more to think about, and his experience with the Luxo lamp would come to hand
…and then there’s reality. Here’s my father in late 1940’s drawing a Buick dealership for a competition.
BTW, he’s holding a ruling pen which predated modern technical pens and were an absolute bear to draw with.
My drafting table is a 3’0"x6’0" hollow core door on a trestle and file cabinet.
Speaking of messes, here’s a Yale studio in modern times.
(I posted this picture already in this thread.)
There are actual Luxo lamps here.
I don’t see mess, I see creativity piling up in corners 
I see a bunch of youngsters whose mothers don’t come there to clean after them.
A lot of history in the photo. Steam heating. Single pane glass in the windows. Isn’t the drawing board resting on an Artek (Alvar Aalto) dining table?
I think so, but most of it is hidden by a table cloth or something. I need to see what one really looks like. I don’t remember this table, so I don’t know what happened to it, but we did have several of his stools that I remember, and I did inherit two Hans Wegner chairs and one Design Research couch which all need restoration.
The tables have been made in many sizes and finishes but in the photo I think I see the signature bent wood table leg. This is from the current catalog. The one in the photo might not be in birch.
This is a photo of a miniature Architecture classroom I first saw in Fine Woodworking magazine. I think it might be like the one my Grandfather learned in. Looking forward to the live ‘un!
Here’s one I designed for a guy who built it for his daughter.
Based on the design brief I was given it was designed with two sets of legs so it could be set for standard table height or standing height. Top angle is adjustable and the pencil stop retracts. The drawer unit and shelf unit are removable and the whole thing can be broken down almost flat for moving.
Before computers kicked in, in our parts, the T-square had almost totally given in to the parallel ruler that worked with small rollers and string.
Impressive!!
Better than the U-shaped bracket. Stronger attachment to the top and with a solid top the cleat helps keep the top flat.
