How to Protect a Drafting Table

Video Transcript

"MATT CAIL: Hello. I'm Matt Cail and on behalf of Expert Village, I'm going to show you today how to organize and set up and tame your own art studio. The next thing to consider is protecting your drafting table. Drafting tables are not cheap, although, I highly recommend picking up some second hand. Usually, they're very well treated and you'll get them for anywhere from fifty percent to twenty-five percent what you'll pay for them through like an art store. So, definitely, consider getting a second hand drafting table. But regardless of whether or not it's brand new, second hand, third hand or eighteenth hand, you want to make sure that you're taking care of your property, and drafting tables can take a pounding. That's because a lot of times people do not protect the surface of the drafting table which can result in a whole lot of problems. Let me demonstrate. You're deep into your latest abstract masterpiece. Here's your piece of paper, the yellow, and this is your table, the white. You're just so into it, everything is just free flowing and then, ohhh, whoopity! Oh, that's too bad. If this actually hadn't had this white piece of paper down on here, you would have just marred your table. Now, to avoid mistakes like that, there are a couple of very easy things for you to do. First off, you can go out and you can get like a really super expensive little thin film that you can then--will probably perfectly fit the model of your table, they literally manufacture them down to the table model and then there you go. You're covered. That'll probably last you several for years. Those are also very expensive. You can go out instead and get a very thin layer of plastic, which you can put over. Personally, I prefer paper. I go out and get a couple of good pieces of big scrap paper. I get some tape. I tape it down. This will last me anywhere from three to six months depending on how busy my commission schedule is on drawings I'm doing for customers. And it's nice and thick so, even if you have like pens that really have a lot of ink that are going to soak through, this type of paper stock is definitely going to keep from marring your drafting table."