Noticed a neat trick at a drafting shop in Portland last month

I was at a small drafting supply spot downtown and the guy behind the counter showed me how he tapes his vellum to the board with a slight curve instead of flat. It keeps the paper from buckling when you add pressure. Anyone else use a trick like that for keeping things flat?

2 comments

2 Comments

evan_wilson181mo ago

I remember reading an old blog post by an architect from like 2008 who swore by putting a thin strip of felt under the edges of his vellum before taping. He claimed it created a tiny air gap that stopped the buckling better than taping it straight down. I tried it once with some scrap felt from a craft store and it actually worked pretty well for me, though your mileage may vary depending on the humidity.

samjohnson29d ago

Wait, that felt trick is interesting but nobody's talking about the REAL enemy here: the tape itself. Most drafting tapes are fine for paper but vellum is basically a different planet. The adhesive on standard tape can actually react with the vellum coating over time and cause this weird yellowing stain around the edges. I saw it happen on a set of blueprints that sat in storage for a few months. Using a low-tack painter's tape from Home Depot, the blue kind, has been my go-to fix for years. It holds fine during drawing but peels off clean like a dream.