Preciva A3 Drawing Board, A3Drawing Table, Multi-function Technical Drafting Tables Metric System 51 * 36.5cm with Parallel Motion Accessories, Adjustable Angle

Having been a kitchen designer in a previous life I had a similar board and found it very useful. I'm a tradesman now and occasionally need to draw plans and needed a board to do so.I found this is to be quite different from my previous (and presumably more expensive) one but most of the differences are actually good ones.The board is stiff enough so that it doesn't bend excessively if you are drawing on your lap as most of my drawing tends to be.The grips for the paper hold the complete edge of the paper which is something my old one did not do and this helps prevent the paper catching and rucking up as you are sliding rulers etc across it. The other great feature of the grips is that you press in one point in the corner and this raises both clips so that you can just slide your paper in.You do have to be careful where you place the paper within the grips though. If you place it in too far you will not be able to work on the edge or draw a border without turning the paper around. I normally draw a 10mm border. Also placing the paper too far in does feel like there is a paper stop but it will not square the paper off for you. You are much better just to 'nip' the paper and take a few seconds to make sure it is square before starting work.Like my old one, this has a little movement in the main slide arm if too much pressure is applied while locked and you also need to make sure the slide arm is square when you lock it at both ends. This is more to do with the type of technology (Plastic clips) used in this price range board as my old one was exactly the same.Unlike my old board, this has a top corner lock if you are using A3 sheets and this is a great feature but you do have to work around it a little when drawing your border.The board comes with an adjustable right angle ruler which slots onto the main arm and also a protractor/square which also clips onto the arm. I found the Protractor much more useful as it seems much more accurate then trying to set the angle on the fly plus you can draw right down to the main arm which you can't do with the adjustable one due to it's shape.You also get a couple of feet that you can clip onto the board to raise it a little when working at a desk. They seem to be nice and stable but I rarely (never) use them as I mostly draw while sitting watching TV etc.On my wish list for this would be a carry pouch/case but for the time being I just put it back in the box when not in use or to carry to a clients house.

When I was a little boy I used to love drawing plans for houses and looked in envy at the proper drawing board my older brother had which looked like it would make things so much easier. So when I spotted that my daughter seems to have got in to drawing house plans like I did, I thought I'd treat her to one of these!First impressions were very good - well packaged - see pics - with everything in its place.The board itself is flat and feels reasonably sturdy. The best bit - which is the main thing - is the sliding straight edge which moves smoothly and seems to lock pretty well. The clamping mechanism for the paper itself is a bit fiddly, but does the job well enough.The weak point is the rotating protractor. I tested it out drawing an equilateral triangle, and also checked for square against the sliding set-square - and unfortunately it is just not quite accurate. As you may be able to see from the photos. It looks to me like the indicator is just slightly off line for the rotation of the arms of the square. You can 'eyeball' it to accurate for 90 degrees, but I suspect it will be hard to get real professional level accuracy with this. It may just have been my one, but I suspect it may be to do with manufacturing tolerances.Does this stop us using it? No. And for recreational use and what we're doing with it, it works fine. But if you were doing some proper technical drawing that it might not quite meet the grade.That being said, it has lots of neat features. I liked the feet which can angle the board at two different angles (once I worked out that they had to attach at a particular point). As I mentioned the sliding straight edge and also set square were smooth and worked well. So a solid 4 stars.(And a quick plug for the excellent Rotring Ticky - https://amzn.to/3HAnerL - which is just super for this kind of work)