STAEDTLER 661 A3 Mars Drawing Board for Technical Drawing - DIN A3 (52 x 37.8 x 23cm)

This review is for the "STAEDTLER 661 A3 Mars Drawing Board for Technical Drawing - DIN A3 (52 x 37.8 x 23cm)", for which I paid £76.34.I love this! It works perfectly, and stores away nicely when not in use. Excellent quality with smooth operation and accuracy. I bought the STAEDTLER LR 661 13 storage bag. The box the board came in fits in the bag and the board in the box. So it is portable and protected. I also bought the add-on STAEDTLER 660 20 Mars Drafting Head which also works well when needed, but I mostly just use a triangle instead.

as others have said, if you use A3 size paper you will loose drawing area where it is clamped; I find it better to cut a larger paper size to allow for margins if I actually want a full A3 size drawing - the board is big enough to allow for this although you will tend to go off the vertical scale, so a calibrated set square is advisablewell pleased and I agree with previous reviewer who said not to bother with the optional head - I use said fixed set square together with an adjustable one, much easier for me, anyway( and if you are careful you could try taping A3 with magic tape [not sellotape] rather than use the clamps)

It's fairly sturdy for the size and the price, but you will always have to lock down the ruler if you really want to get a straight line, otherwise it has some play. The locking down mechanism for the paper is ok but it it has a bit of slope as it comes to the bottom and to the left (where the locks are), so if you want to do some lines there (for example the bounding border for an A3 draft) you will need to hold the pen really perpendicular to the board. Another annoying thing is that when you lock the paper you don't really know how much paper you have under the left lock. If you lock and A3 at the 43cm mark on the right side you won't know exactly how much paper you have under the lock, it could use some transparent plastic or something like that.Don't bother to buy the Staedtler Mars 660 20 Drafting Head, it's just way to inaccurate and clumsy and it eats up half of your board.

Fab quality, but it was not cheap so should have been for the price. Good finish and iv used many times for my course drawing

Solid piece of kit, does the job well. You may or may not find the marking origins to your liking (they're based on the full page, not the part visible outside the clamps).Note that you can turn the ruler vertically and run it in the bottom tracks reasonably well.

Having never used a drawing board before, this was my first purchase. My initial concern was how the ruler lapped over the edge (as shown in the picture) however upon receipt I found the ruler lifted off and you could use it on both edges of the board - landscape or portrait. Happy days! It was great for detail and alignment. My drawings have turned out very well and I'm extremely happy with my purchase. I highly recommend.

If you want a small on the go drawing board and you want accuracy spend the money on this and save hours of disappointment and frustration you get from cheaper products

A good, uncomplicated drawing board. The ruler sits solidly, but needs to be lifted out with fingers at both ends, as the top rib is moulded in such a way that it is difficult to hold. Care is needed also in settling the ruler in - right side first, then the left: do it the other way round, and the right side might not be in the groove when you try to lock the ruler, with the risk of damage. If you have both A4 and A3 boards, the ruler from the A4 can be used on the A3 for vertical lines, obviously, after the long ruler has been lifted off.