U.S. Office Supply A3 Multi-Functional Drawing Board Set with Assorted Drawing & Drafting Tools - Table with Parallel Motion and Adjustable Angle

It is a great preliminary design, but it needs better design in the plastic tabs that are meant to secure the different objects into place. Also the angle setting on the protractor / square ruler needs to be adjustable in order to zero it to the work...instead of forcing a person to try to zero it to the way the paper is sitting on the board. Also the people that whine about the inaccuracy of the sliding rule....well if you use the stops like you are supposed to...i.e. clamp it securely in place before you make a line using the straight edge, then it would stay relatively still....also of course a person shouldn't be pressing against the ruler hard, but rather make a light line while being sure to keep LIGHT pressure against the edge of the rule to help GUIDE your drafting......a tool is only as accurate as the person makes it. That said there are more expensive / (more/robust and accurate solutions) out there, but this one is....okay for what it is. Still they should look at what they can do to improve the product in the ways that I and others have mentioned which would NOT COST that much more and would result in a product that people love to use and that people advertise to their friends....quality breeds a strong customer base, but only after you have ironed out the worst of the kinks in your design rather than just slapping something together and then pumping out a few million and pulling the stock along as far as it will go in the short term.).....I would recommend it if you want something that is cheap....its that...but it is wrong to put out crappy clips that break before you even use them (as mine did)...Fix it and see if OVER TIME it doesn't pay back dividends many times over the amount of work required to GET IT RIGHT. The little things are the things that help you to beat out your competition over and over again....not whether the over-all design has promise (as in this case).

I am a retired Electrical/Electronics engineer with a minor in Mechanical Engineering, just to give some background, I also worked as a draftsman for Lockheed while I was in college so I have a LOT of experience in engineering drawing and the equipment used for it.Having read some of the negative reviews, I was a bit hesitant about ordering this product because several said it was flimsy and not stable enough to use for drawings. Well, I can tell you either they know nothing about drafting equipment or they received very defective product. I doubt the product was defective. Now, there are virtually no instructions but assembly and use are pretty obvious. The drawing surface is very stable and solid for any design project I can think of using this product for. I still do consulting work and usually use a CAD program and other custom software seats for my design work. However, there are a few times I have wished I had a decent PORTABLE "old school" drawing set which would allow me to use up to 11" x 17" drawing medium for some smaller projects. This set fills that requirement perfectly. As to those who seemed surprised that it was in metric units, the description plainly shows this to be an A3 size board which is ISO paper spec and METRIC. Since I use a separate scale,etc. for measuring the units on the straightedge and other components are no issue at all.Bottom line, I LOVE this product so far and would recommend it to anyone in the engineering or design field for occasional use.

There are quite a few sellers offering this same item; we bought ours from US Office purely because of the price. It comes in a reasonably strong cardboard box that can serve as a carrying case. If you buy this, be careful opening the tabs that hold the end of the box closed, as I tore them on mine, not knowing exactly how to open it. The product is rather thin plastic and a bit flimsy, which is what we expected at this price point. We're OK with the metric scales and the metric size paper (A3). If all you want is to make rough drawings once in a while, then this is perfect. If you want something portable for occasional professional use then this would do...more or less. I used to be a draftsman and can say that if you are a professional and need to do a lot of work on it, then this is not for you, as it is not remotely close to a proper drafting machine. On the other hand, I could not find another, similar product for anywhere near this price point. It does exactly what I want.

Incredible value compared to the better known Koh-I-Noor brand. Especially since the drawing head is included. True, all the measurements are metric and this might cause a student some problems. But you can always use Imperial straight edges if necessary. It is amazingly sturdy and accurate. One consideration is fixing the paper to the board. Yes, there are lockdowns and slots, etc. However, us old school folks still like drafting tape but due to the close tolerances of the locking straightedge, tape doesn't really work. The little round drafting dots used underneath the corners of the paper solve the problem nicely.

This was a gift and I'm told it's really cool and handy cause everything you need is right there and very condensed. One complaint is that it didn't come with any instructions and the slides weren't assembled so she had to figure it out. It's ok if you've used something similar before but otherwise it's confusing

There are no instructions, but after I figured out how the paper hold down and the parallel bar locks worked, it does a pretty good job.

The product feels light and cheaply made. The board itself is fine, but the attachments are made from very cheap plastic.After placing the triangle ruler on the slider I didn't notice there is no friction between them, and no way to lock them. I tilted the board a bit to reach for the pencil beneath it, the triangle slid off the board and a few inches to the floor shattering instantly.I still have the rotating T-square, but it's made from the same material so I know it won't last long.