Veto-Junior drafting machine

Picture on the cardboard case

Rarely I get an opportunity to write about something that's both Old and a Machine.

This Veto-Junior is a light-weight arm drafting machine from around 1949-1956, made and sold in Finland. It was built by Valmet, the Finnish institution that did everything: paper machines, rifles, tractors, trains...

Overview. The screw at the bottom holds the device in place for photography!

Predictably the machine was sold by Wulff exclusively. Later they sold imported drafting machines for architects, engineers and designers.

This kind of drafting machine uses a sort of parallelogram principle to level the drafting ruler unit. The ruler unit is kept "weightless" with either strings or a counterweight, the latter probably more expensive.

On the down side, the arm drafting machines are often less accurate away from the center of the board and the springs can generate some noise.

The ad from Helsingin Sanomat 13.9.1949

I'm timing the device based on a few advertisements in Helsingin Sanomat. The first ad is from 1949 and the second from 1956.

The 1956 ad shows a complementing drafting board. The price of 3400 marks (now ~123€) doesn't seem too prohibitive, but it wasn't exactly an age of plenty. The imported Nestler board from Germany sold for 9350 (339,41€), together they would be a bigger purchase.

This was still the war reparations era, the factories now produced a variety of products for civilian use. The Veto is mentioned in Maanpuolustus 4/2016 as a product category. 

It fits thematically, a low-cost device to educate a new generation of engineers, architects and designers for rebuilding Finland. I'm unsure if these ever went to Soviet Union.

The ad from Helsingin Sanomat 4.9.1956

For some time I wondered if "Junior" implied there would be a non-Junior Veto, given that some texts simply mention "Veto".

Because my Veto-Junior has a VKT (Governmental Rifle Factory) logo, and the ad mentions the Tourula Factory, I acquired the book Kivääritehtaan Tarina ("Story of the Rifle Factory") by Mänttäri, Hyytinen and Niskanen from 2003, on the hope it could say something about the product. 

The book focuses on tractors and weapons, but there is also simple list of the various civilian products made by the factory. Purely by chance there is a low resolution scan of an old Valmet product catalogue. The scan happens to feature both a Veto and Veto-Junior drafting machines. I rotated and adjusted the scan to give the best possible reproduction.

Valmet product catalogue, year unknown. (adjusted from the book Kivääritehtaan Tarina, 2003)

It's possible to see the Veto is larger, has a counterweight for balancing, and the text says the ruler is of beech with "celluloid" edges, as opposed to the metal rulers of Veto-Junior.

The rifle factory book is rather nice, but it has absolutely no index or list of references, so it's a little tricky to start tracing that old product catalog, and perhaps I don't need to as that's all the info there is.

Some repairs were needed to get this working. In fact I bought two machines before I could assemble one working item. I realize these can be considered antiques and this might be a sacrilege. However I ended up only using the springs from the second purchase.

Veto-Junior 1: VKT, No logo on the handle.

The first Veto was loose, dirty but in nice condition. It lacked one spring and the rulers were in a rough condition.

This first Veto came with a wooden board of sorts, not the Nestler obviously, but resembling a Wulff-branded board I already own, which is in better condition mind you. This board had no branding.

The machine was unceremoniously attached to the board with 5 screws. I had to marvel at the quality of these old screws, they are so crisp and heavy.

Veto-Junior 2: The Wulff/Valmet logo

The second one had both springs intact, nice rulers but the metal parts had rusted here and there. The arms still move about well, the ball bearings are not stuck or noisy.

This came with the original cardboard box and the device sports a logo saying Wulff Veto-Junior Valmet. The other doesn't even really have room for a logo.

If there were instructions, they have become lost. The one ad mentions a leaflet which I suppose could have explained how to set up the machine.

This second Veto also had a lacquer finish on the wooden part, but it has mostly worn off.

Interestingly, the first device rulers have a VKT logo which is for Valtion KivääriTehdas. You can see the elongated hexagon logo in some Finnish guns.

Veto-Junior 1: VKT logo

The second one has a sparse "VMT" marking for Valtion MetalliTehtaat. The Valmet branding was very much in place at this point.

My initial hunch was the VKT one (without the Valmet logos) is the older one - although it is in better condition. In my understanding the VKT term was abandoned after the war.

The rulers are of some kind of aluminum mixture, they at least don't rust. They have lasted the long years in reasonable shape but were maybe not that great to begin with.

These rulers have been pressed into shape to make them more firm, but they still bend rather easily. This also means they can be bent back into shape.

Veto-Junior 2: VMT marking

The machine arms are flat metal, with a bulge running through the middle to give them strength. As far as I understand this is sheet metal forming/pressing, a technique used for some firearms. It's quite clever, despite being quite flat the parts don't give in or bend too easily.

The two springs are of different length, and using both from the second machine I could get the arms to "float", although it biases to the right.

I just didn't dare to stretch the spring to a further range. (There are three attachment points at each location). The springs had been probably unused for a long time, but they are in good condition.

Ball bearing, freely visible

Then I found the ball bearings mentioned in the ad. The bearings are freely visible, and are held in place by some sort of ball bearing screw but not exactly. I also noticed one of the arm hinges from Veto-Junior #1 lacks ball bearings, so they might come loose under strain.

I could add them from the second machine, but I decided if I am going to draw more then I'll use my Tecnostyl 604, which is better suited for it anyway. (I'll perhaps blog about that later).

Functionally, Veto has the almost compulsory angle setting, with 15-degree steps. A tightening bolt helps keep the in-between angles more firmly in place. The rulers can be switched around to work in 1:25 proportion and also for fine-tuning the 90-degree angle.

And that's about it. No thumb-press position lock, no "line offset" features.

Some experiences

The lightness is both a good and a bad thing. My point of comparison is the Tecnostyl 604 which has robustness, weight and portability in better proportion.

The contraption at the top has been made to allow the ruler to pass a little higher than it otherwise would. A nice thought. Still, I think the bearings suffer here more than at other places. 

A little test drawing

It's very portable. Surely the Veto-Junior can be easily transported without a table, and even with the small board, carrying wasn't a problem. But the device is already so flimsy it's difficult to take very seriously.

After a little experimentation, I can draw with this but it wasn't quite as "fun" as with the Tecnostyl. The angles deviate quite heavily as I near the edges of the board, the rulers don't fix very firmly, but as the draft image will be consistently warped it shouldn't matter too much(!)

Of course it's unclear if the Veto Junior works as intended, it is likely more than 70 years old.