AMES Letting Guide & Rule

I wish I had this AMES guide sooner! It works great. I thought they were made in the US but no longer. It’s okay because the quality is better than the imitations out there.

The AMES Lettering Guide, in general, is a nice tool. Unfortunately, the one I received has a rather loose wheel, rendering most of its settings unusable.

<p>This "gadget" is used along with a T-square to make guidelines for lettering on drawings. It offers an infinite number of options for line width and is of great use in doing technical drawing. I have my students learn to use it in drafting class and it is easy to use. Very durable and useful.</p>

I recently learned that Alvin is no longer in business as everyone is going with CAD for producing drawings. While I have used CAD and find it useful for design purposes I prefer and enjoy producing drawings by hand. It is sad that traditional drafting equipment is fading away. These lettering guides are of high quality and are very useful when trying to produce guide lines for hand lettering. I recommend getting an Alvin lettering guide while they are still available if you do drawing by hand. DEW Drafting Supplies has always provided a source for high quality drafting equipment. The items always arrive on or ahead of schedule, and are adequately packaged to prevent shipping damage. The prices are very reasonable as well. I sincerely wish it were still possible to purchase the yellow colored Koh-I-Noor ink erasers with the liquid core since they were indispensable when correcting mistakes made when using ink on drafting film (when lettering using Leroy Guides). Unfortunately, these erasers have a finite shelf life and deteriorate over time.

*(This is not a comment on the DEW website itself. They do not manufacture the items they sell.) I have used drafting tools / products for over forty-five years. I have seen the quality of these products diminish considerably during that time. This lettering guide was very cheap and appeared to have been unfinished on the back side; the plastic itself looked wavy and the holes had been drilled in it in such a way that the edges protruded on the back side. It did not lay flat on the paper to be easily slid during use. Very aggravating. I threw them (I had purchase several) directly into the trash can. I contemplated complaining to DEW but decided against it - until I received this review request. They simply DO NOT make things with the quality they once did.

Just what I needed!