Work Experience What I learned

Drafting is a way of communicating through various visual and graphic representations. It helps the fabricator visualize the object and find the means in which to create it. It also helps simplify the object and the visual representation helps see exactly how the object would look, instead of offering a complicated explanation that increases the chance of a mistake in the fabrication process. It helps keep the process simple and accurate. This is why it is important that a drafter has the most up to date knowledge and to be familiar with previous standards in old drawings. And it helps the drafter understand old drawings, in case he might need to recreate or revise them.

The construction process begins with the owner wanting to create a building for a particular function. The architect or engineer find out the needs of the owner and study the site plan and the various setbacks, zoning laws and other inputs that influence the design. The structural design team proceeds to prepare sketches of the building and determining the cost for the owner's approval. The design team finalize the drawing giving distances, sizes and locations or structural components and send them to the steel fabricators who make a list of the material required and orders them from a steel producer. After the steel is fabricated it is shipped to site or stored in his yard. If a change occurs in the drawing they are sent to the fabricator or back or back to the structural design group.

For the drafting office the top position is the chief draftsman who is responsible for the operation of the entire office. He assigns the job to the Squad Leaders then they assign it to checkers who assign the work to a detailer who draws the actual shop detail drawing. The apprentice do print room work or simple beams and column details, and prepare shipping bills, bills of material and other similarly required information sheet.

In drafting language there are terms and abbreviations that could describe an object exactly. The structural shop detailer is required to know the member names and the shapes used to fabricate those members. He must also me familiar with the shape designations and range of sizes most commonly available in the Canadian market. A drafter must be able to create a white printing or a blue printing drawing, by using ink on a white piece of paper. He must be skilled in using tools such as the protractor, erasing shield, draftsmen brush and other items. They must also learn the effects of a pencil hardness on the neatness, they should also know how to write in single stroke gothic capital lettering to prevent errors from appearing ( for example B being mistaken for and 8 and a z for a 2, etc) and other text rules. They must also know how to create orthographic views of an object and know the number of views required for an object (determined by complexity).

Steel shapes properties (accuracy of cut lengths and mill tolerance) could influence the shop draftsman during the detailing procedure. The difference in shape due to rolling variation is called the rolling tolerance. The variation of length is not tolerated in the shop it is essential that the detailer is aware of its possibility of occurrence. This ensures that when he orders a required stock the material would fulfill the task it was ordered for. A sweep and camber could result in variations in the dimensions of structural shape. The place or location of one member's attachment shape or plate along with the means of fastening is called the connection detail. The bolts that connect the members is placed on a standard line or gauges. Gauges on an individual member should not vary through the length of the member (consistent). A beam is a horizontal member that carries the force and transmits it to its supports. The detailer finds out the type of beam depending on end loads or loads at support but it is obtained from a design drawing. Dimension should not crowd the sketch but should be uniformly spaced apart and cross the least amount of lines possible.



A column is a vertical compression member designed to support loads parallel to the longitudinal axis of the member the W-shaped column are usually picked unless a heavy column is required. A base plate is required when the column comes into contact with the foundation. It ensures that the weight of the column is uniformly distributed to the concrete foundation to prevent the weight from crushing it. Anchor bolts are used to connect the base plates to the concrete foundation wall, the base plate hole must be 6 mm larger than the anchor bolt diameter. Hook shaped anchor bolts are preferred since they feature aid in developing resistance against uplifting forces.





For the beams to transfer their weight into girders and for girders to transfer their weight into columns and for columns to transfer their weight into the footing they must be connected. They can be fastened through bolts or welding. Shear forces are forces with tend to cause a bolt to fail, it acts perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the shear on the bolt. For a bolt to resist this load it must have a resistance equal to the load acting on the plates this is called the shear resistance of the bolt. The structural unit is only as strong as its weakest element.


Welding is the process of fusing 2 metals into one, fillet and groove welding are the most commonly used types of welding in the structural steel industry today. Shop and erection drawings must provide the shop and field with specific instructions (from weld size to its exact location.) Their exists specific welding symbols such as an isosceles right triangle meaning fillet or 2 parallel vertical lines meaning square. The length is expressed in millimetre even if the length is greater than 1 meter.