T T cmsmsm=D cmmsmm:M^^!^=i..am.msm^^ tm f im0ff / $0m »0i m it WM*i tt iMun «<^ PREVOCATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL ARTS By HARRY E. WOOD Director of Manual Training Indianapolis Public Schools And JAMES H. SMITH Supervisor of the Principal's Course Whitewater State Normal School Whitewater, Wisconsin (Formerly Teacher of Mathematics and Manual Training School of Education, University of Chicago) With Illustrations by HARRY E. WOOD 1919 CHICAGO ATKINSON, MENTZER & COMPANY COPYRIGHT 1919 BY ATKINSOX. MEXTZER & COMPANY ALI, BIGHTS HESEKVED Uhk 22 i9i9 ICI.A5I 1971 PREFACE Changing industrial and social conditions demand changes along educational lines. In the early period of our national devel- opment manufacturing was done in the home and a child had a chance to observe the work of his parents or his older brothers or sisters, and thus absorb the means and methods of work. In the present stage of production on a large scale, everything is so highly specialized that the young employed worker does not even have the opportunity of seeing what is taking place in other parts of the plant in which he works. The school there- fore faces the problem of giving as broad a knowledge of indus- tries and occupations as is possible with the facilities and equip- ment available, thus supplying what was formerly obtained from the home and small shop. The mere acquiring of the so-called fundamentals is not sufificient to equip the children of today so that they can intelli- gently choose their life work. They should have a taste of industrial work in a prevocational way in order that they may, with some degree of intelligence, choose occupations for which they are fitted. It is not presumed that the brief courses in our public schools will make them proficient in any craft or occupa- tion, but leaders in education realize that personal dislikes, mental and physical deficiencies and lack of dexterity can early be discovered through prevocational industrial courses. These courses result in the development of a keen interest on the part of many pupils in perhaps one or two lines together with a limited degree of skill in manipulating the tools of these trades or occupations as well as a discernment of their content. With these thoughts in mind, the authors of this book have endeavored to present various lines of work in such a fashion that pupils of the grammar grades or prevocational period may understand and make use of them ; that high school or vocational school pupils may profitabl}^ use them for informational or manipulative suggestions and that individuals, who are hot in school, but who are seeking help in the details of the crafts covered in this volume, can find the guidance which they need. It is impossible to cover all of the details of each craft in thg brief space allotted to each subject in this volume, but sufificient details have been given to enable the reader to do effective work in the subjects under consideration. No courses of study are suggested in this book. A variety of projects have l^een suggested, some of wliich will appeal to jHipils in a city or village and some of which will appeal more particularly to pupils in a rural community, but it is left to the instructor or individual to evolve his senuence of work. By means of this breadth of selected projects and the group arrange- ment of the book, it is made easily adjustable to the needs of any local situation. At the same time information on work outside of the particular community is brought before the pupils. It is the idea of the authors that the projects given in this text be used as suggestive material and redesigned or developed to suit the individual needs of the pupil. The mere fact that one subject is presented in this book before another, does not necessarily mean that it should be studied in that order ; in fact, it may not be possible or advisable to undertake all of the lines of work suggested because of inadequate equipment or lack of interest in some subjects in certain communities. It is hoped that in this text a real need in the school will be met. It has been developed by the authors at the suggestion of educators who have felt the need of a book which would set forth the informational side of manual arts in connection with a variety of subjects and projects of an industrial character. In this way content is emphasized as well as skill. THE AUTHORS. CONTENTS PREFACE 1 SHOP EQUIPMENT 3 WOODWORKING TOOLS 3 MATERIALS AND PROCESSES— Grinding and Whetting Tools 30 Wood and Lumber 35 Wood Fasteners 42 Sand Paper 52 Wood Finishes 53 Glass and Window Glazing 58 Chair Seating 62 MECHANICAL DRAWING 72 COMMON JOINTS AND CONSTRUCTIONS 90 WOODWORKING— Operations 92 Projects 97 JIGS AND TRICKS 154 FACTORY ORGANIZATION 158 SCHOOL-HOME PROJECTS— Gardening 160 Canning Vegetables 167 Seed Corn 169 Raising Poultry 172 Raising Hogs 182 CONCRETE 188 METAL WORK AND FORGING 212 PAPER AND PRINTING— Paper 226 Printing 231 SHOE REPAIRING 241 ELECTRIC WIRING AND CONSTRUCTION— Bell Wiring 252 Telegraph Circuits 259 Motors 262 Generators 264 Light AViring 265 INDEX 267 WOODWORKING TOOLS SHOP EQUIPMENT To do good work, one must have good tools. Only standard brands should be purchased. Not a great variety of tools is necessary for all kinds of work. One can make many useful articles with just those tools double starred in the list below, but it is better to have also those which are single starred. A good work bench is also essential. It can be purchased complete or can be made and a vise added. 1 he bench should be fastened securely to the floor. One should not attempt to work in a poorly lighted room, since so much depends upon accuracy. A damp room should also be avoided because the tools will rust in such a place. A rack for holding the tools should be built on or near the bench and a place for each tool established. Each tool should be kept in the place made for it when not in use. Tools should occasionally be greased with lubricating oil or vaseline to keep them from rusting. CLASSIFICATION OF WOODWORKING TOOLS ** Cross cut * Rip * Back SAW'S Mitre Key hole * Turning Coping * Jack .* Smoothing Jointer PLANES Block ** Spoke shave CUTTING . _Router TOOLS » Firmer • * Framing CHISELS ■< Mortise * Gouge Veining rSloyd KNIVES ** - Pocket Id raw CHOPPING TOOLS ** " rAxe Hatchet lAdze • * Pvule * Try S >quare LAYING OUT ** , Fram ing square TOOLS ** Mark ing gauge ** Divid era * iTee t evel BORING TOOLS HOLDERS BITS HOLDING TOOLS DRIVING TOOLS SCRAPING TOOLS Brace Hand drill rOimlet Dowel Auger Twist drill Expansive Forstner Countersink 'Saw horse Vise Bench hook Bench stop Hand screw Carriage clamp Cabinet clamp .Mitre box Hammer Mallet Screw driver Nail set Wrench f Scrapers ( Files WOODWORKING TOOLS Rf 1 51 SAWS The tool first used in getting out stock is the saw. There are several varieties adapted to various uses, but they are all grouped in two general classes, i. e., crosscut and rip. As the name indicates, cross cut saws are designed to cut across the grain and rip saws are designed to rip boards apart in the direc- tion of the grain. Wood can be separated easily in the direction of the grain, but the fibers of which it is composed are tough and hard to separate across the grain, in fact they must be cut. A simple experiment proving this theory can be made by splitting a board with a knife or hatchet, as at Fig. 1. A reasonable amount of pressure on the tool will split the board its full length. If the same experiment is tried in the edge of the board. A- Fig. 2, it will be found that the tool will penetrate only to a slight depth and that it will make no impression on the wood beyond the edge of the tool. The only way the board can be cut in two across the grain is to cut into the edge at two points and force the wood between to crack out, B- Fig. 2. A cross cut saw acts on a board something like a series of knives operated in pairs. The teeth are shape:! as at A-Fig. 3. One tooth is beveled on one side, the next tooth on the opposite side. This makes an extreme point on each tooth, but one is on one side of the saw bl.ade and the next is on the opposite side. A saw with teeth shaped like this, when drawn over a board, does in one operation exactly what a knife might be made to do in several, i. e.. scores the wood in two places and chips out the particles between, C-D and E-Fig. 2. A saw constructed in this way would not, however, penetrate far into the wood until the blade would begin to bind. To overcome this the points of the teeth are bent outward, first one to one SAWS CROSSCUT SAW Sect/on view A- A <^53^S^^:^i5^^S^^ r.g.3 side, then the next to the opposite side. A saw with the teeth so bent is said to possess "set." Fig. 3 shows several views of a cross cut saw, with and without set, also its action on wood. The cut or crack made in the wood by the saw is called the kerf. A cross cut saw can also be made to cut in the direction of the grain but when used for this purpose its action is slow and un- satisfactory. The teeth of a rip saw are somewhat like chisels. They are not sharpened to a bevel on the edge and they are not pointed. As has been stated, the fibers in wood separate easily in the direction of the grain and are easily removed once they are cut. Cutting with the grain requires no scoring. A chisel pushed into the wood as at A-Fig. 5, only cuts across a group of fibers but the piece in front of it is easily forced out. If another chisel were pushed into the wood a short distance behind the first and in line with it, the result would be another piece of wood forced out. The rip saw works on this principle, each tooth being similar to a chisel. Like the cross cut saw, it would bind unless "set" to give clearance. Fig. 4, shows several views of a rip saw with and without set. Fig. 6 shows its action on wood. A rip saw will not cut across the grain because there are no scoring points. B-Fig. 5 shows how a chisel acts when pushed into the wood with the grain. Instead of removing a particle of the wood, it causes the wood to split in the direction of the grain and, in a similar manner, a saw tooth shaped like a chisel forced into the wood hard enough would finally split it but the kerf would be rough and uneven. The coarseness of a saw is determined by the number of points to the inch and is indicated by the number stamped on the butt of the saw. There is always one more point per inch WOODWORKING TOOLS V vV \\ ^1 rig.5 \1/ ^ Fig. -6 Y 6 fio/nti [^ . 'I ..-7 7ee«-,,| ■%. I Ai 3 ■* 5 "4^j7 i 8 J Inch — Rip Saw tlg-7 — /^ Points-, A ,-//Teet/,.^ T'o- 4 5 6 7 6 > 10. |l le ///jc/i — -— Crosscut Saw Hg.O than there are teeth, Figs. 7 and 8. The size of the saw is de- termined by the length of the blade in inches. Fig. 9 shows a hand saw with the shapes and names of the various parts indicated. It can be toothed as a cross cut or as a rip saw. Its blade is taper ground, that is, the thickness is not the same in all parts of the blade. The butt and the blade along the entire length of the tooth edge are of equal thickness, but from the teeth to the back and from the butt to the toe, the gauge or thickness decreases gradually. Hand saws are used for cutting wood to size and for general purposes. A back saw, Fig. 10, is finer toothed and the blade is made of thinner metal of uniform thickness, consequently it is admirably suited to fine work. The metal back reinforces the blade and keeps it from buckling or bending when in use. Coping, turning and compass saws are used for sawing curves. In using the hand saw the wood should be held firmly over a saw horse with the knee against or on the wood. Fig. 11 shows the starting position with the left hand holding the board and at the same time guiding the saw. The first movement Fig? 3Qck ' nib (for Ornament on/y) 21 Gouge" - . _ 20 Couge- ^7oe £>reCl^tladt.- (/'/o'Sc Iran) Knob- Fig. 21 10 WOODWORKING TOOLS surfaces. A jack plane is of the same shape and construction but slightly larger and the cutting blade is sharpened differently. Because of this, work can be speedily roughed out with it. It is never used for smoothing work unless the blade is sharpened as in a smoothing plane. A jointer plane is like smoothing and jack planes except that it is very much longer. The cutting blade is sharpened like that of a smoothing plane. Because of the extreme length of the plane bottom it is possible to make a very true edge which can be jointed to another board, hence the name jointer. Because of its size it is never used on broad sur- face work. Fig. 23 shows the comparative sizes of these planes. Block planes, Fig. 25, are used for planing end grain only. The angle of the cutting blade is lower than that in the other planes because of the dift'erent nature of the work required of it. A spoke shave, Fig. 25, is a kind of plane having handles on the sides. The shortness of the bottom makes possible its use in smoothing curved surfaces. Rabbet planes, plow planes and router planes are used respectively for cutting rabbets, plowing grooves and routing out dadoes. There are three styles of planes used in smoothing flat sur- faces, wooden, wooden bottom and iron. Fig. 26. In the wooden plane the cutting iron is held in place by a wedge of wood. In PLANES 11 the wooden and iron bottom planes an adjusting nut and lever regulate the depth and squareness of the cut. The cutting iron in a smoothing plane is always sharpened straight and square to the sides while the cutting edge of the jack plane iron is slightly curved, Fig. 24. See section on "Grinding and Whetting Tools" for correct shape and bevel of cutting irons. The distance the cutting iron projects below the bottom of the plane is con- trolled by the adjusting nut. To adjust the plane, the plane iron and plane iron cap should be assembled as in A-Fig. 21 and placed in position in the bed of the plane and the lever cap clamped down. The plane should then be held bottom side up, the toe toward the workman and the heel toward the window or light. Fig. 27 . Sighting along the bottom, one can see the plane iron projecting. By manipulating the adjusting nut and lever, the proper adjustment can be made. The plane iron cap, some- times called the breaker cap because it breaks the angle of the shavings when they are cut ofif the board, causing them to curl upward and out of the plane, should be screwed securely to the plane iron. In assembling the plane iron and cap the lower edge of the latter should be set back of the cutting edge about one- eighth of an inch. If set closer than this the throat of the plane will become clogged with shavings : if farther away it will not make the shavings roll out. 12 WOODWORKING TOOLS In planing one should start at the near end of the board, A- Fig. 28. A maximum amount of pressure should be applied to the knob and toe at the beginning of the stroke and as the plane is pushed along the board an equal amount of pressure is ap- plied to all parts of the plane. As the plane nears the end of the board, greater pressure is applied to the handle and heel, B- Fig. 30. The plane can be pushed along the board more easily if turned at a slight angle, but never to such an extent that the entire bottom of the plane does not rest on the board. When planing edges the thumb and first finger are held on the plane while the other fingers act as a guide. After a little experience in planing one can tell by the feeling of the fingers whether or not the edge is being planed square to the broad face. Fig. 31 shows the manner of holding the plane when planing a broad face. Fig. 2)2 illustrates the way of holding the spokeshave when smoothing a curved edge. When cutting a chamfer across the grain it is necessary to hold the plane at a slant as at A-Fig. 33, in order to prevent the far edge of the board from splitting, while in cutting a cham- fer with the grain, the plane is held as at B-Fig. 2>Z. CHISELS 13 Tang Firmer Chisel ft bocket Framing Chisel Leather Handle tip bocktt Fig. 54 Veining Tool Tang GcugQ Socket Gouge tc^r Qrindinfl beve/ ~~ Cutting edgeJ' 5hapei <^ gouges TIat iweep fledium iwetp Regular Tntide i>eveU Outiide bevel TiEJi CHISELS. There are two general classes of chisels known as firmer and framing, Fig. 34. They are very similar in construction and each has a straight cutting edge. Their chief difference is that one is heavier and stronger than the other. Either of these chisels can be secured in the tang or socket style. In the tang chisel the metal part extends up into the wooden handle. In the socket chisel the wooden handle fits into a socket in the metal part. The blades of each can be secured either plain or with the side edges beveled. Light firmer chisels are called paring chisels. Extremely thick bladed but narrow framing chisels are called mortise chisels. Both kinds of chisels come in varying widths from Vs" to 2". Gouges are, in reality, chisels having a curved cutting edge. They can be secured in either the tang or socket style. They also come in widths varying from y^" to 2" and in different sweeps or curves. The bevel of a gouge is sometimes on the outside and sometimes on the inside. The gouge is used for cutting out depressions where the inner edge of the depression is to be round. Of the two kinds the outside ground gouge is the more useful for general pur- poses. However, it is necessary to have an inside ground gouge 14 WOODWORKING TOOLS if straight sided holes of any great depth are to be made. The gouge is held in ways similar to those described for chiseling. Veining tools are extremely small, outside beveled gouges. They are used for gouging out or veiniyg outlines around a de- sign on wood. They can be secured either V shape or U shape. Extreme care must be taken to cut exactly with the line when "veining" around a design. The straight edge of the try square or framing square can be used to advantage in con- trolling straight line cuts, it being held so that the straight edge follows the linie and the veining tool operated against it. In using a chisel the iirst essential thing is to see that it is sharp. (See section on "Grinding and Whetting Tools.") If used properly it will retain its edge for a long time but if it is abused it will be necessary to resharpen it continually. In using either the chisel or gouge the blade back of the cutting edge is held with the left hand, thus guiding and controlling the cutting edge, while the power is applied with the right hand. When the pres- sure is applied to the handle, forcing the blade through the wood, the blade should be given a slight sidewise, paring stroke. This will produce a smoother cut and less pressure will be required for operating the tool. For heavy work the blade is grasped with the entire hand while for light work the blade is held only be- tween the first two fingers and thumb. If a considerable amount of wood is to be removed with the chisel, large cuts may be taken at first but as the limit of the depression is neared, very thm cuts, in fact shavings should be made to insure a smooth, true surface. The chisel blade acts on the wood precisely as does the plane bit. In the plane the bottom keeps the cutting edge from going too deeply into the wood, while with the chisel the left hand must regulate the cut. Fig. 35 shows the method KNIVES 15 of holding the chisel while making a verticle cut and Fig. 36 illustrates the method of paring and rounding a corner. In case of very heavy work or extremely hard wood, the mallet may be used to give additional power to the stroke, the left hand being used as before mentioned, in controlling or guid- ing the direction of the cut. Care should be taken not to muti- late the end of the chisel or gouge handle when pounding it. If any great amount of heavy chiseling is to be undertaken a handle having a leather tip or an iron ferrule is better than the plain wood handle. A mallet should never be used if enough power can be supplied with the hand by pushing, even if the chips removed are much smaller. In chiseling mortises (see page on joints) the bulk of the wood may be removed to the proper depth with an auger bit and then the sides and ends pared up with the paring chisel. In making a tenon the chisel is held bevel side up as at Fig. Z7 and the wood removed down to the gauge line. In cutting dadoes, Fig. 38, or tenons, the chisel should never be pushed all the jvay across the board, because it will split out as when planing across grain. The cutting should be done from each edge toward the center, to a point slightly beyond the center. KNIVES. The knife differs from a chisel in that its cutting edge is along the side of the blade instead of the end. The sloyd knife and the pocket knife are sharpened with both sides of the blade sloping to the cutting edge instead of being beveled on one side as on the chisel, but the blade of a draw knife is beveled on one side and flat on the other. Fig. 39. While sloyd or pocket knives are primarily used for whittling wood, they are indispensible ir, WOODWORKING TOOLS ^D/ade Pocket Knife Fig. 39 bhingliriQ Hatchet ^ Adze. Fig.4Q tools in laying out work, the points being used to score lines. The blade of the sloyd knife is stationary and it is thicker and more pointed than the blade of a pocket knife. The draw knife is composed of a long blade with a handle on each end. It is a valuable tool for removing waste wood when there is hardly enough to remove with the saw but too much to plane away. Its cutting edge acts like the cutting edge of a plane but it is pulled through the wood instead of being pushed. It is a dangerous tool to manipulate and unusual pre- cautions should be taken in using it. It also has a tendency to split the wood rather than to cut it. CHOPPING TOOLS There are three kinds of chopping tools, Fig. 40, the axe, the hatchet and the adze. While the shape of the axe is slightly different from that of the hatchet, the cutting edges are alike, being beveled from both sides like the knife. An axe is heavier than a hatchet and has a long handle so shaped and curved as to secure ease in holding it and to make possible the delivery of a more powerful stroke when the tool is used. There is great variety of design in both axes and hatchets. There are two kinds of hatchets known as shingling hatchets and half hatchets. Each has a nick in one side of the bit for pulling nails. Each also has a head for driving nails. The axe is used for felling trees, splitting fire wood, and for heavy chop- ping and the hatchet for light chopping. The adze is about the size of an axe but its cutting edge is at right angles to the handle instead of in the same direction, like the axe. The adze is used chiefly to square up timbers. LAYING OUT TOOLS 17 3 11 ^Tisfing, edge Handle a- beam I Sefsftw Try 5qmr^ y,^.,,,,. '' ,-^^ , ^""::"e ■ Fig. 51 WOOD BORING TOOLS Round holes can be made in wood in several ways ; with a brad awl, a gimlet bit, a twist drill, an auger bit, an expansive bit or a Forstner bit, Fig. 51, or by sawing with a coping saw, turning saw or keyhole saw. See section on "Saws." The range of sizes of holes which can be made by these tools is given in the accompanying chart. Alinimum Kind of Tool Size Brad Awls to, Gimlet Bits 3^" to, Twist Drills No. 80 to. Auger Bits h" to, 1" to. Expansive Bits %" to Forstner Bits Ya" to Coping Saws ^4" to Turning Saws 1" to Keyhole Saws 1 ^" to Maximum Size Graduations . . .y^" by 32nds. .No. 1 by wire gauge numbers. . . . y^" by 32nds. . . . 1" by 32nds. ... 2" by 16ths. ... 5" by adjustable screws and cutters of different sizes. ..IK'" by 16ths. . . .any size up to 8". . ..any size inside the limit of the wood, with- in range of the saw frame. . ..limited only by the size of the wood being sawed. The brad awl is shaped much like a nail and acts on wood in a similar way. It only separates but does not cut the fibers. It can be used only in soft wood and unless handled carefully will split the wood. The hole is made by twisting the awl back and forth and at the same time pushing the point into the wood. Fig. 52. All bits with square shanks are held in a brace. Fig. 54. and turned clockwise in boring a hole. Much care should be taken in WOOD BORING TOOLS 21 Fig. 52 Oean Rg.53 Jawi placing a bit in the brace to see that the shank is held rigidly in the jaws of the chuck. Otherwise the bit will not bore straight. A bit is inserted by gripping the chuck firmly with the left hand and turning the handle backward. This will open the jaws of the chuck and permit the bit to be inserted. Reversing these processes fastens the bit in the chuck. Small twist drill bits have round shanks and are held in a hand drill, Fig. 53. They are twisted in or out of the wood much faster than is possible with a brace, due to the fact that the bevel gears multiply the speed, one revolution of the handle turning the bit four or five times. Hand drills will hold twist drill bits from Ya" in size down to those as small as a needle, but one sel- dom uses in wood such small bits as the latter. The drill bits are placed in the chuck of the hand drill in the same manner as the larger bits are placed in the brace. The gimlet bit makes only a fairly smooth sided hole. The shape of the point helps to pull it into the wood. The cutting edge cuts the wood fiber and the channel removes the shavings. The twist drill requires the application of more pressure when boring because its point does not aid in pulling it into the wood. The auger bit is especially designed for cutting a smooth sided hole ; the point centers the bit and pulls it into the wood, the spurs score the wood, or in other words, cut the shape of the hole, the lips cut the wood loose and force it up the hollow in the twisted channel. If the hole is bored only part way through a board, the bottom of the hole retains the shape of the bit, as at A-Fig. 55. The expansive bit works in the same manner as the auger bit but it may be adjusted in such a way as to make it possible to bore holes of dififerent sizes with the same bit. A Forstner bit cuts a clean, straight sided hole with a flat bottom 22 WOODWORKING TOOLS Fig. 55 ^ i=^ He.56 i ^■^ — ^ ^= — i A B as at B-Fig. 55. The Forstner bit requires the application of much greater pressure than bits having a threaded centering point. The countersink is not designed to cut holes all the way through the wood. Its purpose is to ream out a hole made by a gimlet bit or twist drill, so that the head of a flat head screw will sink even with the face of the board. Fig. 56 shows the method of countersinking and testing the hole for size. When wood is being bored it should be held rigidly in a vise and the angle of the bit in relation to the wood carefully deter- mined and kept while the hole is being made. The wood may be so placed that the brace is held vertical as in Fig. 57, or horizon- tal as in Fig. 58. It is sometimes necessary, for the sake of ac- curacy, to have one person operating the brace and bit and an- other person- sighting to see that the brace is being held at the proper angle. It is impossible to tell exactly when to stop boring in order to make a hole of a certain depth. Experience and practice will aid one in judging the amount of pressure and the number of turns necessary to produce certain results but it will be neces- sary to remove the bit occasionally and test, with a small stick, the depth of the hole. When more than one hole of a certain Fig. 56 HOLDING TOOLS 23 Fig. 59 Saw fiorsz Tool we// Too/ racA Tailvkz Frame Work Bench Fig.eo size is to be bored to the same depth, time is saved in testing by keeping an accurate count in the first hole of the number of turns the brace makes after the bit begins to cut. Succeeding holes can be made without testing by counting the same number of turns provided an equal amount of pressure is applied in each case. See section on "Jigs and Tricks" for devices for gauging and regulating holes made with a bit. HOLDING TOOLS Tools and devices for holding materials while working on them are just as important as the tools with which the actual work is done. The saw horse is a device for holding wood when laying out or sawing it. Fig. 59 shows a convenient saw horse having an open top. This style is well suited for use when rip- ping small boards or for cutting off stock. The brackets on the sides form a convenient place for keeping a- cross cut saw and a rip saw within easy reach. A saw horse can be made any size to suit one's needs. The work bench should have a vise on it for holding the wood when working upon it. Some benches are equipped with two vises, one on the front edge called the front vise, the other at the right end called the tail vise. One can get along very well with one vise provided it is near'the left end on the front edge of bench A //oo/r Fig. 61 Bench 6top ^^^^H!^f''^^'''V^'' Thumb Hand Jaws Carriag(d 5crew pjg. qz Clamp 24 WOODWORKING TOOLS Fig. 63 Cabinet Clamp Corner — 4/7g/e p/ate^ Mitre Fig. 64 the bench. There are many styles and designs of vises but they can be grouped under two general types, one known as the con- tinuous screw and the other as rapid acting. In the continuous screw, the only way to open or close the vise is to screw or un- screw it with the handle while in the rapid acting vise the front jaw may be opened or closed most of the way by simply sliding it. A bench hook, A-Fig. 61, is a very convenient tool and it can be made in the shop. Small pieces of wood are held against it when being sawed or chiseled. It may be hooked over the edge of the bench or the lower block may be fastened in the vise. Fig. 10 in the section on "Mechanical Drawing" gives the work- ing details of a good bench hook. The block on one side is shown placed to the right, on the other side to the left, so that it can be used for either a right or left handed workman. Bench hooks are usually put together with dowel rods and glue so that if the saw or chisel cuts into the block, the edge will not be dulled. In the absence of dowel rods the bench hook may be nailed or screwed together. There are two kinds of bench stops, B and C-Fig. 61. One is made with a block which fits in a vise and holds a thin board out over the bench so that wood can be pushed against it when planing. The other is made to fit a square hole in the top ot the bench. A cross peg in this latter kind of stop keeps it from falling all the way through the hole. This kind of stop is used when work is to be clamped between the vise and the stop. Hand screws and carriage clamps.. Fig. 62, are used to hold pieces of wood together when gluing or nailing them. Hand screws are sometimes used for holding wood at an irregular angle in the vise while planing, boring or chiseling it. Fig. 2. HOLDING TOOLS 25 P/a/n eye Fig. 65 D ■Handle Plain EyQ Hammer ^ffcnd/e /'o/z-^^lJ Adzz Eye Hammer Sdlface :msMMiiSMD ^ferrule ^Handle ^crew Driver Nail 5et _ _ ^-Sjjuitmg nut Jawi* Monkey Wrench Screw Driver 3it page 157. 1 he jaws of the hand screw should always be kept as near parallel as possible because otherwise a strain is produced on the screws, which will break them. It is always best to begin the tightening with the middle screw and then complete it with the end screw. Cabinet clamps, Fig. 63, are used on large work for the same purpose as hand screws, i. e. clamping boards together while the glue sets or while nails or screws are driven in. A mitre box is a device for holding wood while it is being sawed at a determined angle. A simple mitre box for cutting right angles and 45° angles can be made as at Fig. 64. It is very necessary that the saw used in the mitre box have a blade of equal thickness at all points. For this reason a back saw is used. This kind of a saw also produces much more accurate work be- cause the blade is thin and the teeth fine. By properly placing angle irons on the box as shown in the drawing, the metal back of the saw can be made to ride, thus keeping the cutting edge from sawing all the way through and spoiling the box. These angle irons should be separated just far enough to give clearance to the saw blade without side play, if accurate work is to be expected of it. The saw must be slid into the slots or kerf from the side. Forcing it in from the top would dull the teeth of the saw and spring the mitre box. Mitre boxes having an adjust- ment for holding the saw at any angle, can be purchased, but for ordinary purposes the home-made box will be found to be satisfactory. 26 WOODWORKING TOOLS DRIVING TOOLS Driving tools, Fig. 65, group themselves into two classes because of the manner in which they drive. The hammer and mallet belong to that class which produces driving power by in- termittent pounding strokes. The nail set, while it does not produce driving power in this way, transmits power produced by the hammer and therefore belongs to this class. The screw driver and wrench belong to the other class in which the driving power is produced by continuous twisting pressure. This power applied to screws and bolts forces them into the wood if turned clockwise, or out of the wood if the direction is reversed. Hammers designed for pulling as well as driving nails are called claw hammers. There are two kinds, plain eye and adze eye. Of the two the adze eye is the better because the part of the handle which is inside the hammer head is longer. This makes it more secure. The head of the hammer stays on better and the handle is not so apt to break. In the best hammers the head is made of forged steel and the handle of hickory. The shape of each part has been carefully designed to perform easily its portion of the work. The face, that part used for pounding, is sometimes flat and sometimes convexly curved. W'hen curved the hammer is said to be bell faced. The claw, that part used for pulling nails, is tapered, curved, and of the proper pitch and shape to pull nails easily. The handle, while curved, is not ex- actly the same shape at any two places. It is full near the end to furnish an easy grip for the hand. It is smaller near the hammer head. The eye in the head of the hammer is largest near the outside thus allowing that part of the handle extending into the eye to be securely fastened with a wedge driven into the end of it. DRIVING TOOLS 27 When using the hammer for driving or pounding, the handle should be gripped firmly near the end farthest away from the head, Figs. 66 and 67. The hammer face should be placed over the nail or place to be pounded, in order to gauge the distance, and then the hammer head lifted to a point somewhat removed from the object to be struck, with a motion partly of the wrist and partly of the arm. The return blow is struck with a quick, snappy stroke, again largely a wrist movement, never a pushing stroke. The claws are so designed that when they are slipped under the head of a nail as in Fig. 68 and pressure applied to the handle, the leverage forces the nail out of the wood a certain distance. If one tries to force the nail farther than the hammer naturally pulls it, he will only succeed in bending the nail, Fig. 69. On the other hand if, after this first operation, a small block of wood is placed under the head of the hammer, Fig. 70, and pressure again applied to the handle, the pull on the nail is a straight up- ward one and the nail may be easily drawn out. Mallets are made of hard, tough wood and usually have a cylindrical head and flat faces. When the handle is put in, the hand end, which is smaller than the other, is inserted through the tapering eye in the mallet and the full length of the handle drawn through it. Thus the large end remains in the mallet head and forces it to a tight fit when the mallet is being used instead of allowing the head to fly ofT. The mallet is especially useful in producing power for chiseling and gouging because the pounding face is broader than that of the hammer. The wooden handle of a chisel or gouge will not be so badly battered up if pounded with a wooden faced tool like the mallet instead of with a metal faced tool like the hammer. 28 WOODWORKING TOOLS Plain MouUi, Swan NecA Cabinet 5craper^ Veneer 5craper Secttc Fig- 71 Half Round WoodBasp Screw drivers must be made of a tough grade of steel since they are subjected to a severe twisting strain. If the steel is not properly tempered it will chip or twist. Unless a screw driver is properly shaped and made out of such material that it will retain that shape it is useless. The point should be square and the broad faces parallel so that the point will fit into the slot in the head of the screw. It should never be sharpened wedge shape because it would force itself out of the screw slot instead of holding itself in place. The length of a screw driver is de- termined by the number of inches from point to ferrule. The size is indicated by name, Tower's indicating heavy, cabinet medium, and light cabinet or electrician indicating a very slender blade. There are many kinds of wrenches. Some have adjustable jaws while in others the jaws are stationary. A wrench usually gets its name from the use to which it is put, such as bicycle wrench, auto wrench, pipe wrench and pocket wrench. Some- times, however, the name is given on account of the shape, like the S wrench and sometimes from the name of the manufacturer. The wrench perhaps most widely used is known as the Monkey wrench. It derives its name from the designer whose name was Mr. Monkey. SCRAPING TOOLS There are two distinct kinds of scraping tools. Fig. 71, those which have one cutting edge and those having many cutting edges. While the name would indicate that these tools scrape, in reality they cut, but the particles removed are so minute as to give the impression that the surface upon which they are used, has been merely smoothed down or scraped. SCRAPING TOOLS The cabinet scraper is nothing more than a square edged piece of properly tempered steel of the correct contour, some- times straight and sometimes curved, to fit special needs. A straight edged scraper is sometimes held in a bed, like the bed of a plane and sometimes in a handle. If held in a bed it is known as a veneer scraper. The successful cutting of a scraper depends upon a burr or wire edge rather than upon a keenly sharp edge, in fact the edge is not sharp. The wire edge scrapes or cuts the surface of the wood when the scraping edge is dragged over it, Fig. 72. This is exactly opposite to the way in which a plane acts, since it cuts when its cutting edge is pushed ahead. The type of scraper having many cutting surfaces is known as a file or rasp. Its surface is covered with teeth similar to the wire edge of a scraper. When the file is pushed across the wood these numerous cutting edges scrape or smooth the surface. However, cutting down a surface with a file or scraper is slow work and these tools should never be made to do the work which could be done so much better with a plane. There are several hundred varieties of files suited to as many different purposes. Their shapes are usually designated by such terms as flat, round, half round, taper, knife, etc. The more teeth to a given area, the finer the file, and the smoother will be the surface made by it. When a file is coarse toothed it is called a rasp. A file or rasp should always be pushed and never pulled across the work. Fig. 7X 30 GRINDING AND WHETTING TOOLS Edge tools should be kept extremely sharp if they are to produce good work. They are grouped into two general classes, those having one side beveled and the other side flat, such as chisels and plane irons, and those having both sides tapered to an edge, such as knives or hatchets. Edge tools are sharpened on stones or wheels composed of a substance which is harder than tempered steel. This substance is known as an abrasive. The particles composing it must be sharp edged so that they will cut. They must also be tough enough to stand the wear to which they are subjected, and they must be so cemented or held together that the surface of the abrasive keeps its shape. There are two distinct classes of abrasives used in sharpening edge tools, one a natural product, the other a manufactured article. Whether the sharpening tool be a natural or manufactured product, its action on the edge tool is the same. Both kinds can be secured in coarse, medium or fine grit. Sharpening stones and grinding wheels to meet the demands of all kinds of work can be secured in either. It is true, however, that the demand for the manufactured article is increas- ing while the sales of the natural product are decreasing. A hard variety of sandstone is the most widely known of the natural abrasives. The grindstones, scythestones and whetstones of a few years ago were all made out of this natural product and are still produced in limited quantities. The pro- duction of these articles is simple. The stone is merely cut out of the quarries and sawed into the desired shapes, just as build- ing stone is quarried and shaped. Washita and Arkansas are other forms of natural stones similar to sandstone and different degrees of hardness and coarseness can be secured in either. The hard Arkansas is considered the best natural whetstone for fine edge tools, while the Washita is the best of the natural stones for wood working tools. Corundum is a natural product but it has to be worked into shape before it can be used as an abrasive. It has a crystal like formation. The crystals must be crushed, graded to size and bound together into the desired shape of the stone or wheel with a suitable kind of cement. Particles of corundum are much harder and sharper edged than sandstone, in fact they are almost as hard as a diamond and the diamond is the hardest known substance, therefore stones made of corundum will cut metals which it is hard to cut with sandstone. Emery is a crude form of corundum. GRINDING 31 The discovery of the manner ot producing artificial abrasives is thought to have been an accident, but whether it was or not it is interesting to note that in the manufactured abrasives called Alundum or Aloxite the substance composing the stones is about the same as at composing corundum. In other words, these manufactured abrasives are almost identical with the natural products. Alundum and Aloxite are made by fusing in an electric fur- nace certain kinds of clay containing a large per cent of alumi- num oxide. The processes necessary to make these abrasives are as follows: the clay is taken from the mines, washed, dried, ground, calcined (brought to a red heat) and fused by being fed into an open electric arc similar to the carbons in a street electric light. These carbons, each approximately 4 inches by 12 inches in cross section, are placed near the top of fire proof crucibles and as the clay is melted it drops into the crucible below the carbons. It takes this mass of melted clay, now called Alundum or Aloxite, several days to cool enough that it can be broken, crushed and graded. The grading is accomplished by the use of sieves of dififerent mesh. This crushed material is then made up into abrasive paper or cloth, grinding wheels and whetstones of all shapes and sizes, depending on the use to which they are to be put. Carborundum and Crystolon are also products of an electric furnace, but the chief substance in their composition is carbon instead of aluminum as in the case of Alundum and Aloxite. Coke and sand are mixed together in the right proportion and placed in huge electric furnaces and melted. The result is a beautiful bluish crystal formation, extremely sharp edged and just as hard as Alundum but not quite so tough. Grinding and whetting stones are made from it in the same manner as those made from Alundum. They cut more quickly but owing to the brittleness of the crystals they do not keep their shapes as well as those made of other material. Sharpening edge tools is performed in two distinct kinds of operations, i.e., grinding and whetting. Grinding consists of roughly removing the bulk of waste material and giving the tool the proper shape. This is accomplished by holding the tool against a revolving grinding wheel or grindstone made from medium or coarse grit. Whetting consists in putting a keen cutting edge on the tool. It is accomplished on a flat whet- stone procurable in varying degrees of coarseness, the selection being made according to the kind and quality of tool being sharpened and also the use to which the tool is to be put. Some whetstones are made with a fine surface on one side and a coarser surface on the other. This makes it possible to roughly Z2 GRINDING AND WHETTING TOOLS cut away the tool on one side and finish the wlietting to a keen edge on the other. It is very essential that the cutting edge of the tool be of the proper shape. Beveled edge tools should have the proper pitch or angle and this same pitch or angle should be retained at all times. This can best be accomplished if the beveled edge is somewhat hollow ground. For this reason round grindstones are used, Fig. 1, the diameter of the stone regulating the acute- ness of the arc, thus making the hollow more or less pronounced. The grinding surface of the grinder should revolve toward the tool, not away from it, A-Fig. 1. Examination through a microscope of a surface of steel which has been ground will reveal the fact that, while the cutting stone really cuts away some of the particles, others are combed out and laid parallel to each other. It will also be noticed that while steel is thought of as a brittle substance, the minute particles of which it is composed are very flexible and bend easily. If the grindstone is made to revolve away from the edge of the tool as at B-Fig. 1 a feather or wire edge will be produced which will prevent the edge from becoming sharp, while if the stone is turned in the opposite direction, toward the tool, this wire edge is turned under and cut off. While a wire edge can be removed during the whetting process, it takes much time and it is a much more difficult task than to remove it when grinding. Some abrasives cut more rapidly than others, due to the fact that the cutting particles of some kinds are sharper than others. The friction caused by the rubbing of the grindstone against the tool generates heat. The sharper the cutting edges of the particles which make up the stone, the less heat is gen- erated. Usually water or oil must be poured over the surface of a grindstone when the tool is being ground. This water or oil serves two purposes : it washes away the small particles of steel cut ofif the tool, and it cools the tool and stone. If the particles of steel were not washed away they would fill up the WHETTING 33 Fig. 4 Toot flat against itone Direction of Stroke Fig. 5 pores in the surface of the stone, reducing its cutting power, and it would also cause so much frictional heat that the temper would be drawn out of the tool ; in other words, the cutting edge of the tool would be so burnt that it would not hold a sharp edge. (See page 220 on "Tempering Tools.") If the grind- stone is quite coarse, the revolving stone will throw out the particles of steel and, while water or oil are not needed on such a stone, their absence necessitates the tool being held very lightly against the stone or the edge will be burned. Whetting, as has been stated, is done on a flat stone, the tool being rubbed over the stone instead of the stone being revolved against the tool. The finer the stone the keener the edge produced on the tool. The whetting should be done in precisely the same way as grinding, the tool always being moved over the stone toward the cutting edge. Oil should be used to float away the particles of steel ground ofT of the tool. Care must be taken at each stroke of the whetting to keep the tool in the same position in relation to the stone so that no unneces- sary bevels or rounded edges will be formed. Fig. 3 shows the position of the tool and of the hands when whetting a tool. A-Fig. 2 shows the whetting angle at the time of the first whetting after the tool has been ground, B, the second whetting and C a still later whetting. D shows a tool which has the proper bevel for cutting, while E and F show why improperly beveled tools cannot cut. Chisels and the cutting irons for planes need to be ground to different angles for different kinds of wood. The harder the wood, the shorter the grinding bevel required. The reason for this lies in the fact that the longer the bevel, the thinner the edge. A thin edge will break easily in hard wood. A-Fig. 2 shows a short grinding bevel suitable for hard wood like oak, yellow pine, hard maple, etc., and D-Fig. 2 shows a long bevel suitable for basswood, sugar pine, chestnut, etc. When sharpening bevel edge tools, even though the tool is 34 GRINDING AND WHETTING TOOLS Fig. 7 / / / / ^,'' ^\ .-^^^A y \ / -c/^'^ L i^^^\/ f pushed in the proper direction, a shght feather edge will appear. This should be removed by turning the tool flat side down and giving it a few strokes over the whetstone, Fig. 4. Unless the tool is held perfectly flat during this operation a bevel will be formed on the side which must necessarily remain flat. When grinding an edge tool on a stone having a face nar- rower than the width of the tool, it is necessary to slide the tool from side to side so that the entire edge of the tool is ground, Fig. 5, but the angle of the tool in relation to the stone must not be changed. Fig. 6 shows a type of grinder having an auto- matic rest for the tool so that once it is properly set, any number of tools of the same kind may be ground in it and the angle on all will be the same. In whetting a knife, the utmost care should be taken to prevent any bevel appearing on the edge. The knife should be held as in Fig. 7 and drawn across the stone with as much of the blade as possible held against the stone, Fig. 7. When the end of the stroke is reached, the knife is turned over and the blade is pushed away, with the blade again held tightly against the surface of the whetstone. A faulty practice engaged in by some persons is to give the tool a rotary, scouring motion. This should never be done. A few strokes, well directed, with the tool held properly, will accomplish much better results than those obtained by the revolving method. When an especially keen edge is desired, the tool is stropped, that is, it is rubbed over a leather strop in much the same way aG it was over the stone, excepting that the tool is pushed away from the cutting edge instead of toward it. The surface of the leather might otherwise be cut or marred. 35 WOOD AND LUMBER The lumber used in constructive work is obtained from the trunk of the tree. The tree is cut down, the trunk is sawed into logs which are then taken to the mill where they are sawed into lumber. The lumber is allowed to dry out or season, partly by being stacked in the open with sticks between each layer so that air can circulate around each board, afterward by placing these boards in a steam heated roomxalled a kiln where the drying process is completed. The sticks used for air-drying lumber are usually about l^'xl^" and of sufficient length to extend across the entire stack of lumber and they are usually placed about three to five feet apart. If the boards are dried too quickly they become brittle and less durable. If the moisture does not leave the board on all sides at the same time it will shrink unevenly. It will dry more on one side than on the other, resulting in the cupping or curling of the board toward the side which has dried the more quickly. This cupping of the surface of a board is called warping. If the board dries unevenly and twists, it is said to be "in wind." A board has a tendency to warp or cup more on the side which grew nearest the bark, as that side contains a greater amount of moisture. When this moisture is driven off, that side of the board shrinks more than the one nearer the center of the tree. After it is thoroughly dried, lumber for rough work, like framing and scaffolding, is ready for use. For most work, however, the surface of the lumber must be smoothed. This is called surfacing. Lumber which has been surfaced is known as dressed lumber. Some wood is adapted to one kind of work and some to another. Some woods are strong, others weak ; some tough, others brittle ; some split easily but are hard to break across the grain ; some are nicely marked by the grain while in others the markings are uninteresting. It is therefore possible to pick out a kind of wood suited to the kind of project to be made. For example, an axe handle or the spokes in a wheel should be tough and hard to break. Hickory is well suited for this purpose. The frame work of a house should be strong but it does not necessarily have to possess a beautiful grain. Pine is suitable for such uses. Furniture should have beautiful grain. Oak and walnut possess this quality, while chestnut, even though the appearance of the grain is much like oak, is too soft to stand the hard usage given furniture. The accompany- ing chart gives the general characteristics and adaptability of the most commonly used woods. See page 40. 36 WOOD AND LUMBER TiQA Center or Pith ■Sop wood OrownQ part of wood 'Growmo paft of barK Fig. 2 The growth of a tree takes place jtist under the bark. Food stuff is taken out of the soil under the tree by the roots and carried by the sapwood, the outer rows of cells just under the bark, to the crown of the tree, where the leaves digest the food and send it down the trunk, part to form new wood on the outside of that already made and part to make new bark on the inside of that already formed, Figs. 1 and 2. In this way the tree trunk increases in diameter. The tree grows more rapidly during certain seasons than during others. This difference in growth is very pronounced for the cells carrying the food stuff at the rapid growing season, spring, are stretched to their utmost capacity, resulting in their walls being thin and the openings large. In the slow growing season, summer, the openings in the cells are very small and the walls thick. When a tree is cut down and the log or stump examined. Fig. 3, these rows of growth are very noticeable and it is easy to detect one year's growth from another. These markings are called annual rings and it is the lines produced by them which give the pattern called grain to lumber when it is cut out of a log. There are also rows of cells radiating from the center of the log to the bark, called medulary rays. These cells are hard and compact and usually form themselves in nearly straight lines. Their purpose is to hold the annual rings together, therefore a tree having very pronounced medulary rays is much stronger than a tree in which they are less pro- nounced. While the diameter of the tree is being increased by these annual rings of growth, the height is also continually increased, for each year's growth extends beyond that of the former year. It should be borne in mind, however, that each year's growth is fixed, that only by the next year building on top of it and SAWING Z7 Heart wood. Meditlary fays Fig. 3 ^0/?eyearj Qfowth ray^ 'Spring 5ummsr Winter (/To Qrovjfft) rig.4 around it does the tree develop in height and diameter. Fig. 8 shows an exaggerated drawing of this growth, A representing a section of a nine year old tree split through the center from top to bottom, B a cross section near the base, showing the number of annual rings intersected and C a cross section near the top. The wood nearest the bark usually contains more sap than the center part of the trunk because it is nearer the growing part. It is called the sapwood, while the center part of the trunk is called the heartwood. Sapwood can usually be distinguished from the heartwood because it is lighter in color. As the tree increases in size it must have more bark to protect it from the weather, consequently the bark increases in thickness. Since the bark grows on the inside, it stretches the outside until it cracks or divides in clefts. Fig. 3 is a drawing of the end of a log of oak and Fig. 4 shows a highly magnified section of the end of the same log, showing the decided difference between spring and summer growth. When a slab is sawed from a log, Fig. 5, it leaves a flat surface exposed. This flat surface cuts through many of the annual rings. If this cut is in exactly the same direction as the fibers or cells, straight lined grain is the result, but if the cut is at a slight angle or if the tree trunk in growing was slightly bent, an irregular marking is the result. A board or slab taken off the top of this log, A-Fig. 6, will have a similar marking to the one taken off the side, but if the log is cut in quarters through the center (see dotted line. Fig. 6) and a board, B, sawed off of either of these new faces, a kind of grain entirely different in appearance is exposed. This is caused by the fact that the annual rings are much closer together at the points interpected by the saw in this board than they are at similar 38 WOOD AND LUMB1:R points in the slab and that the saw has cut in the direction of the medulary rays, exposing them on the broad faces of the board. The medulary ray is very hard. When its broad sur- faces are exposed by the saw cut, pleasing patterns are produced. Boards sawed near the outer edge of the log cut across the medulary rays, consequently they show but little. Fig. 7 show- ing these marked differences, represent boards A and B, Fig. 6, after they have been removed from the log. When a board is sawed from the log near the quartering line, exposing the broad surfaces of the medulary rays, it is said to be quarter sawed lumber. When it is sawed near the outer edges of the log it is said to be plain sawed. The medulary rays bind the annual rings together and make a strong wood, which is less susceptible to warping than wood without pronounced medulary rays. Knots in wood are cross sections of the base of limbs. Fig. 9 shows a section through the trunk of a seven year old tree, having a limb which lived only four years. A board sawed thorugh this log at a point indicated by line A — A, Fig. 9, would have a sound knot in it where it cuts through the limb. A board taken out of the log at B — B would have a loose or dead knot. When this tree has become several years older the bark will have completely sealed over the trunk and from all outward appear- Qrain markings made by cuWnQ through ^ annual r/ngs Endi of medularv royi ' Center of tree 3oard 5 'Erxis o} medulary rays " Fig. 7 Fig, a n LUMBER SIZES 39 Fig. 9 5ect/on A -A 1 I Section C-C r H" drc; -sed to %" \ H" " Vz" J Va" " H" PLANKS BOARDS 1 1 " " H" 1 \%" " IKs" {VA" " IM" TIMBER ances one could not tell that a knot existed underneath. A board taken through this outer part of the log, C — C, would possess crooked grain but it could not be called a knot. Lumber is sawed into standard lengths of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 feet. It is also sawed and dressed to standard thick- nesses as follows : LUMBER SIZES f 2" dressed to l7/s" J 3" " " 27/8" 14" " " 37/8" 15" " " 47/8" Thin strips are called boards, heavy boards are called planks and very heavy boards, timbers. Lumber is measured and sold by board or face measure, 1" thick, 12" wade and 12" long indicating one foot, face or board measure. Anything less than 1" thick is counted face measure. Anything more than 1" thick is multiplied by the thickness as expressed in inches or fractions of an inch. The general rule for measuring lumber is to multiply the length of the board in feet, by the width and thickness in inches and divide by twelve, for example, r'x9"X 14'0"-^ 12^=1 0><, the number of board feet in the board. Lumber is separated into grades. Each kind of wood is graded differently but in general the grades are as follows : firsts, seconds, common, saps, selects, etc. Lumber is always graded by the appearance of the best side. Prices on lumber are usually quoted per M, meaning that the price given is for one thousand feet board measure. (B. M.) In making out a bill of material the dimensions are always given in the following order: thickness, width, length, regardless of which dimension is the longest ; in other words, length always means with the grain. This is done to simplify the lumberman's work. See section on "Mechanical Drawing" for a complete mill bill. 40 QUALITIES OF WOOD Hardness strength Elasticity Grain Medulary ray Weight Clevibility Kind of Wood •o a a 1 1 "S s .2 •3 1 g r I •a 8 1 g 1 s o o >-• Si S3 o •a 1 ! 1 o a_ 3 S si 2 5 p- D. 3 ii H •5 3 a 1 Ash X X X X X X X 2 Basswood X X X X X X X 3 Beech X X X X X X X 4 Birch X X X X X X X 5 Cedar X X X X X X X G Chestnut X X X X X X X 7 Cypress X X X X X X X 8 Gum X X X X ! X X X 9 Hickory X X X X X X X 10 Mahogany X X X X X X X 11 Maple (hard) X X X X X X X 12 Maple (soft) X X X X X |x X 13 Oak X X X X X X X 14 Pine (hard) X X X X X X X 15 Pine (soft) X X X X X X X 16 Poplar X X X X X 1 X X 17 Spruce X X X X X X X 18 Sycamore X X X X X X X 19 Walnut X X X X X X _J X USES OF WOOD 41 USES 1 Interior finish, cabinet work, barrel hoops, tool handles, oars, agricul- rural implements, boats, saddle trees, wheel hubs. 2 Paper pulp, wooden ware, picture moulding, cigar boxes, toys, wagon beds. 3 Tool handles, baskets, shoe lasts, levelers, chairs, fuel, shoe heels. 4 Interior trim, spools, shoe lasts, button molds, furniture, dowel pins, wooden ware, paper pulp, shoe heels. 5 Chests, cooperage, shingles, electric light poles, pencils, railroad ties, pails, street paving blocks, cigar boxes. 6 Railroad ties, electric light poles, interior finish, cores for veneers, fence posts. 7 Shingles, posts, cooperage, railroad ties, construction work. 8 Veneering, wheel hubs, construction work. 9 Tool handles, wheel spokes, agricultural implements, chair seat splits, barrel hoops, single and double trees, fuel. 10 Cabinet making, veneers, interior finish, pattern making. 11 Flooring, furniture, wooden type, shoe lasts, piano actions, ship keels, tool handles, dowel pins. 12 Wooden ware, furniture, flooring, oars, fuel. 13 Cabinet work, interior trim, cooperage, agricultural implements, posts, construction work. 14 Heavy building timbers, construction work, interior finish, railroad ties, flooring. 15 Doors, window sash, matches, patterns, telephone poles. 16 Wooden pumps, furniture, construction work, boats, carriage and wagon bodies, toys, coffin boxes. 17 Paper pulp, sounding boards in miisical instruments, ladders, cooperage. 18 Butcher's blocks, furniture, inside frame work, tobacco boxes. 19 Gun stocks, cabinet making, veneers, picture frames. 42 WOOD FASTENERS Figl AN Common VJirz Noil o ^ ^ Wire Brad riooring NaiL Fig2 Vlire Gauge WOOD FASTENERS There are many devices and materials used in fastening wood together, such as nails, screws, bolts, glue, dowels, plates, hinges, etc. Since each is so different from the other they should be discussed separately. NAILS Nails at one time were cut out of sheet metal, but now most nails are made out of wire. Wire of the proper size is fed from large coils into a machine which cuts it to the proper length, points it at one end and gives it the proper shaped head at the other. The kind of nails used depends somewhat on the project being made. The size is also determined by the size and char- acter of the material used. Some kinds of wood split easily, therefore the nails must be small in diameter but long enough to hold the pieces together. If the wood is hard and compact, a nail small in diameter will, in all probability, bend before it penetrates the wood to the proper depth. In such a case a hole slightly smaller than the nail should be drilled in the wood before the nail is driven into it. Some articles require a nail with a large head while on some the large head is unnecessary and is a disfiguration. The shape of the nail indicates the kind of a fastener it is. Fig. 1, for instance, the one with the large but flat head is gen- erally known as a common wire nail. The one with a head NAILS 43 ■ Wire Nail Sizes UKiTH INCHE5 W 1 RC NuMBE-KS 1 1 6 7 6 9 10 II \z 13 14 15* 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 14 X X X X 5/ft X X X X X y? X X X X X X X X X % X X X X X X X X X X X % X X X X X X X X X X X X % X >. X X X X X X X X X X X 1 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X iXft X X X X X X X X X X X X X Wa X X X X X X X X X X X X X X \y?. X X X X X X X X X X X X X s'A X X X X X X X X X X X X X 2 X X X X X X X X X X X X X 2i^ X X X X X X X X X X X X X zy? X X X X X X X X X X X X X 2 54 X X X X X X X 3 X X X X X X X 3J4 X X X X X X X ^yz. X X X X X X X 4 X X X X X X smaller in diameter but thicker, is known as the brad or finishing nail while the one with the tapering head is the flooring nail. The size of a nail is usually indicated by the term "penny," as twopenny, fourpenny, etc., written 2d, 4d, etc. This orig- inally indicated that one thousand nails would weigh the number of pounds indicated by the figure. The size of nails is some- times indicated by measure as, 1 — 17. The first figure indicates the length in inches and the last figure the size of the wire out of which the nail is made, Fig. 2. The larger the wire number the smaller the wire. Not all lengths of nails are made in all sizes of wire. The accompanying chart shows the range of sizes of wire brads up to four inches. The sizes of brads and floor nails are indicated by measure only. Special nails are designed for special purposes such as trunk nails, roofing nails, clout nails, clinch nails, etc. When two pieces of wood are to be nailed together, they should be placed in position and the kind and size of nails which best fill the need selected. Nails driven into the wood at a slant, A-Fig. 3, will have much greater holding power than nails driven in straight as in B-Fig. 3, especially if slanted in opposite directions. The location of the nail points should be well selected. Proper placing will insure greater strength. Pleasing patterns may also be made by the arrangement of the nail heads. A nail placed too close to the end of the wood, C-Fig. 3, forces it to break out a piece of the wood. If placed too close to the 44 WOOD FASTENERS Fig. 4 Screws .-^ ^ CO 1 i /7ot hi^ad Round htad Filliittr head Oval head Fig. 5 Screw Oause ng.6 edge, the wood will split, or if slanted too much the point of the nail will project and mar the surface. If the nails are to go through cross grained wood only, D-Fig. 3, shorter lengths can be used than when the nail is driven partly into end grain as in E-Fig. 3. Edge or side grain pinches the nail much tighter than end grain, therefore, the holding power is greater. Nails should be driven with the hammer until the head is almost even with the surface of the wood. They should never be driven far enough to dent the wood with the hammer. Nails rust when exposed to moisture. If the article being nailed is to be exposed to the weather, the nails should be driven in until their heads are below the surface of the wood. A nail set is used for this purpose, Fig. 1 in section on "Driving Tools." The hole left over the nail after it is "set" should be filled with putty. WOOD SCREWS Where two or more pieces of wood which may be subjected to any great strain are to be fastened together, or where metal is to be held against wood, screws are used as fasteners. There are several kinds of screws, the difference being either in the shape of the heads or in the kind of material out of which they are made. The different shaped heads are flat, round, fillister and oval. Fig. 4. Any of these styles can be secured in iron, finished bright or blue, or in brass. Screws copper or nickel plated are made but are used only in connection with special cabinet fittings which are copper or nickel plated. The size of a screw is designated with two numbers, for example, 1% — 8. The first number indicates the length in inches and the second number the size or gauge of the un- threaded part of the screw. Fig. 5 illustrates the method of gauging the length and size of a screw with a screw gauge. In flat head screws the length number indicates the measurement WOOD SCREWS 45 Iron and Brass Screw Sizes UNCTH IMCMU Gauge, of ScRtw Shank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 s 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 la 2.0 Z7 24 26 28 30 '/4 X K X X X V6 X. K X X X X X X X X Vz X X X X X X X X X \ X X f'8 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 'A X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X Ve. X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 1 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X ^ X X 1^ X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X \yz X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X \% X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X z X X X X X X X X X X X X X K X X X z'A X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X Z'/z X < X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 1% X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 5 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X iVz X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 4 X X A X X X X X X X X X X X X X X A'A X X X X X X X X X X K X X 5 X X X X X X X X X X X X X 6 X X X X X X X X X X X X X over all; in round or fillister head screws, that from the screw point to the shoulder under the head ; in the oval head, that from the screw point to the center of the head. Not all lengths of screws can be obtained in all sizes. The accompanying chart gives the range of sizes for all wood screws. Flat head bright screws are made of iron and polished. Blue screws are made in the same way but after being polished they are heated in large pans over a furnace and while hot, plunged into oil. This gives the metal a bluish color. Brass screws are made entirely of brass. They are used instead of bright or blue screws in places where moisture exists, since they will not rust. They are much softer than either bright or blue screws and are easily twisted in two. Their heads are easily marred if the screwdriver is not carefully used. Screws are sold by the gross, being packed a gross in a box. Where two or more pieces of wood are to be fastened together, or where metal is to be fastened to wood, holes of sufficient size to give clearance to the screws should be bored in the piece or pieces through which the screw is to pass. If the wood into which the screw is to be anchored is very hard a hole slightly smaller in diameter than the screw, should be bored to the depth to which the screw is to enter. Since the action of the screw point is to separate the fibers, the wood will sometimes split if such a hole is not made or in case the wood is extremely hard the screw will be twisted in two if there is no hole for it to enter. In forcing screws into soft wood they are placed through the hole in the first board, that 46 WOOD FASTENERS board is placed in position on the second board and the screw given a Hght tap with a hammer or mallet. This engages the point. A screw driver is then inserted in the slot in the screw head and turned clockwise until the screw draws the pieces of wood or wood and metal together. In case flat head screws are used the wood should be reamed out with a countersink to a suflicient depth to take the screw head. See countersink in section on "Boring Tools." One should grip the handle of the screw driver firmly when driving the screw. At the end of each turn the grip on the handle is released, the hand slid backwards around the handle, a new grip taken and the screw given another turn. The screw driver point should always remain in the slot in the screw until the operation is completed. Otherwise the screw head is scratched or twisted out of shape. When sufficient strength cannot be obtained with the screw driver to force the screw into the wood, a screw driver may be inserted in the bit brace. This will allow sufficient pressure and the sweep of the brace will give greater twisting power. The point of the bit will have a tendency to jump out of the slot, marring the screw head. This can be avoided if the rachet in the brace is adjusted, the brace given a half turn, then, with a reverse niotion brought back to the starting position and the process repeated. To remove a screw with the brace and bit, the rachet should be turned in the opposite direction. Screws should never be driven into the wood with a ham- mer, beyond the starting point, as the threads tear down the fiber structure of the wood and destroy the holding power. Fig. 6. If it is hard to turn the screws in the wood, the resistance can be cut down by rubbing soap into the threads before start- mg the screw into the wood. LAG SCREWS For very heavy work, lag screws are better and, in some cases, necessary. Instead of the head being slotted to hold the screw driver, it is made scjuare so that it may be turned with a wrench. 1 — j4 is the smallest size of lag screw obtainable and the largest is 12 — 1. The first figure indicates the length in inches from the screw point to the shoulder under the head, the second the diameter in inches of the unthreaded part of the screw. They are made of iron and are sold in bulk or in boxes containing 100 screws. BOLTS 47 Fig. 7 ^ ® ^ W CD cx^ cxn c:x:i Ro'ind heaa Lag Carnage Stove Screw " -3o/t&-'- fiQt head Stova Machine BOLTS There are several kinds of bolts, those generally used being carriage, stove and machine bolts, Fig. 7. The sizes are indi- cated in the same manner as those of lag screws. Their con- struction is different in that instead of a tapering screw, the diameter of their threaded part, which does not taper, is just as large as the unthreaded part. Instead of them holding them- selves in place in the wood, they are inserted through holes in the wood sufficiently large to allow the bolt to pass easily, and a nut screwed on the exposed, threaded end. This clamps the pieces of wood together firmly. The nuts are made square, hexagonal and octagonal. Carriage bolts are made only of iron while stove and machine bolts are also made in steel and brass. Carriage bolts are round headed and square shanked. The square shank keeps the bolt from turning while the nut is screwed on, it is therefore very necessary that the hole through which the bolt is to be inserted, be small enough to engage the corners of this part of the bolt to keep it from turning. The heads of stove and machine bolts are slotted the same as screws so that they can be kept from turning with the screw driver while the nut is screwed on. They can be secured with either round or flat heads. GLUE Screws, bolts, etc., are mechanical wood fasteners. Glue works on a different principle. It cements the two parts to- gether. All wood is more or less porous and when glue is applied it spreads over the surface into the pores. If held rigidly in one position until the glue hardens, it is almost im- possible to break it apart. There are two kinds of glue, animal and vegetable. Animal glue is made from the hoofs, horns or hides of animals or from the skins of fish. These substances are boiled in lime water to 48 WOOD FASTENERS remove foreign matter and are then thoroughly washed, strained and allowed to dry. When almost dry they are sometimes shaved into small flakes. This is known as flake glue. After glue has been allowed to harden it is sometimes broken into chips and sometimes ground into small particles. The former kind is known as chip glue and the latter as ground glue. Vegetable glue is made from plants containing viscous matter. It is manufactured by a secret process. In substance it resembles animal glue and it acts in about the same way except that it requires the application of greater pressure to the parts being glued until it is thoroughly dry. It is especially well suited to gluing up veneers. To prepare glue for use, the flakes, chips, or ground particles are allowed to soak in cold water until the substance becomes jelly like. This requires several hours. It is then heated slowly, preferably in a double boiler, until it becomes hot and easy flowing. An improvised double boiler may be made by setting an old baking powder or tomato can containing the glue in a somewhat larger vessel of boiling water. Because glue of this kind must be applied hot it is referred to as hot glue. Liquid glue, sometimes called cold glue, is a glue which is kept in solution by the addition of acetic acid. It remains in solution until applied to a surface in a thin layer, when it be- comes dry and acts in a similar manner to the hot glue. The can should be kept tightly closed when not in use or the entire mass will harden. Glue should always be applied sparingly, but every part of each of the surfaces to be glued together must be covered. Glue is applied with a brush or flat stick. If only a small amount of gluing is to be done, it is better to use a stick. While it is more difficult to spread the glue evenly with a stick, cleaning the brush of all glue after it is used takes so long and wastes so much material that it is hardly justifiable if only a little gluing is to be done. To clean a glue brush, wash and rinse it thor- oughly in hot water before the glue has been allowed to become hard or dry in it. DOWELS Ordinarily a glued joint will hold as well as any other part of the board, but if the surfaces joined together are short and the pieces are subjected to much strain, they are reinforced with dowels. Dowels are short, round rods or pins of hard wood varying in diameter from 3/16" to 1". They usually come in rods 36" long and may be cut to any length which suits the need. They are inserted in auger bit holes as shown HINGES 49 in Fig. 8. If the dowel pin fits too snugly the edges of the hole will scrape all of the glue off of the dowel pin when it is inserted. If too loose it will not give the added strength to the joint. If the pin fits tightly its sides should be grooved, as at Fig. 8, with a marking gauge. The glue then, instead of being scraped off, is forced into the channels cut by the gauge and forms a suffi- cient adhesive to hold it firmly against the sides of the hole. HINGES Hinges are a kind of flexible wood fastener. They fasten it rigidly in one direction and allow it to move in another. There are several forms of hinges, known as butt, strap, T, table or back flap, chest, screen and invisible, Fig. 9. The most generally used hinge is the butt. There are two kinds ; common, those in which the pin on which they turn is riveted over at both ends, and loose pin, those from which the pin may be removed and the hinge taken apart. The butt hinge is used for hinging boxes and doors or any place where the leaves can be set between the two parts to be hinged. The advantage of loose pin butts is that a door hung with them can be taken off without taking off the hinges. Both loose pin and common butt, when set in place, show only the knuckles and acorns, while all of the parts of the strap and T hinges are visible. Butt hinges must be set into the wood to the depth of the thickness of the leaves of the hinge. Strap hinges and T hinges fasten onto the exposed faces of the parts to be hinged together. Box hinges with fancy leaves are a form of strap hinge. Back flap or table hinges are different in construction from either of the above mentioned in that the knuckles project an equal distance on both sides of the leaves while, in the butt, strap and T hinges, the backs are flat, Fig. 10. Back flap hinges require a great deal of fitting, both in setting the hinge and 50 VVUUD i'ASTENERS shaping the two pieces of wood so that they fit together when closed. Chest hinges are shaped to fit around the corner of the lid of a chest and the screw holes in the leaves are separated far enough in the bent leaf so that the screws do not interfere with each other. However, care should be exercised in the selection of the screws to see that they are of the proper length. Screen hinges, allow the parts hinged together to open either way. In the illustration. Fig. 10, the two parts have revolved on the knuckles, A-A. When the parts are opened so that the two edges touch each other, the knuckles, B-B, are also in line with each other, and if the faces, C-C, of the wood were brought together as D-D have been in the illustration, the parts would \)e hinging on the knuckles, B-B. Hinges of this kind are used on folding screens and on doors which must open two ways. Invisible hinges are used where it is desired to have a blind hinged joint. When the two parts are closed it is impossible to tell that a hinge exists. LOCKS AND CATCHES The principal kinds of locks are door locks, drawer locks, chest locks and padlocks. Wardrobe locks and night latches are forms of the door lock. Each kind of lock may be made in various types of construction, the two principal ones being com- mon and cylinder. Each type of construction requires a differ- ent kind of key. Some of the locks are mortised into the wood and others are merely fastened onto it. The padlock is an ex- ception, it being hooked through a staple, over a hasp. Fig. 11 shows various kinds and styles of locks and keys. If it is not necessary to open a door from both sides, it may be held shut with a catch. Some catches open by turning a knob, others by sliding a bar and others by lifting a catch. Fig. 12 shows various styles of catches. PLATES 51 Fig 13 © @ © @ riat P/Qtz © ® -on © © © © Corner Ang/e It Staple Tig. 14 fr^ f9. fscutcheon Pin Corrugated Fastener PLATES Pieces of wood are sometimes fastened together with metal plates. There are three kinds in general use, i.e., flat plates, corner irons and angle irons. Often there are special plates made to fit special places. Plates as a rule are used to reinforce joints which have been fastened together with some other kind of wood fasteners. STAPLES, ESCUTCHEON PINS, CORRUGATED EASTENERS Staples are pieces of wire bent U-shape and both ends pointed. They come in various lengths and sizes of wire. They are used for fastening wire or wire netting to wood. They are driven into the wood with a hammer. Large staples are some- times used for fastening a door hasp to a door when the door is thin enough to allow the points of the staple to project through it so that they can be bent over, thus riveting the hasp in place. Escutcheon pins are round headed nails usually made of brass. Their real purpose is for fastening escutcheons, the pro- tecting plate around the keyhole of a lock, bat they are often used for fastening on light box hinges where the projecting ends can be bent over on the inside of the box. Corrugated fasteners are used to reinforce or to give added strength to two pieces of wood joined together edgewise. They should not be used unless the edges have first been glued or nailed together. The fastener, sharp edge down, is placed half over each piece of wood and driven in with a hammer. Since the pounding sometimes breaks apart the nailed or glued joint, it is well to clamp the pieces together while driving in the fastener. Corrugated fasteners come in lengths ranging from -yii" to 1" and in widths from 1 to 4 corrugations inclusive. 52 SAND PAPER F/at Sanc/paptr^ SAND PAPER Articles made of wood must be perfectly smooth before they can be stained, painted or varnished. This is usually done with the plane and scraper but often an additional smoothing is accomplished by the use of sand paper. Sand paper is a tough paper coated on one side with glue and crushed flint or quartz. This crushed flint resembles sand. The particles are sharp edged and of irregular shape and quite hard. They are graded in sizes 000 to 3 by being sifted through screens having openings of different sizes. A thick glue is applied to one side of the paper and the crushed flint sprinkled evenly over it. After this is thoroughly dry a second coat of very thin glue is applied over the sand side to make sure that every particle is fastened to the paper. In sand papering the surface of hard wood, garnet paper is better than flint paper. While the crystals are not quite as sharp, they are much harder and consequently wear better. It is made in the same way as sand paper. Sand' paper and garnet paper are sold in rolls or in sheets. When the sand paper is rubbed over the surface of the wood the sharp edges of the flint or garnet, cut or comb down the libers of the wood. Since the fibers in the wood run in a certain direction, it is very important that the sand papering be done in the same direction, for, if sand papered across the lines of fiber the surface of the wood will be made rough instead of smooth. To give a true surface the sand papering must be done with an even pressure over the entire surface. Otherwise the corners and edges will be rounded. This true surface can be secured by holding a small piece of sand paper around a block shaped as in Fig. 1. The pressure of the fingers against the slanting sides of the block keeps the paper tightly stretched. Sand paper should always be torn, never cut, since the particles of flint would destroy the edge of any knife or pair of shears. In order to tear it straight it should be placed sand side down on a flat surface with a rule or straight edge upon it at WOOD FINISHES 53 the desired place. By holding the rule firmly in this position and pulling upward on the paper at the corner marked X-Fig. 2 the result will be accomplished. To smooth curved surfaces, a piece of sand paper should be wrapped about a round stick as in Fig. 3. Where only a limited supply of sand paper can be kept on hand No. 1 or No. 1^ will be found suitable for practically all purposes. WOOD FINISHES "Wood finish" is a term used to designate various substances which are applied to the surface of wood either to color it or to protect and preserve it from the elements which would tend to destroy its mechanical properties as well as its natural beauty. Wood finishes are divided into several classes, i.e., paint, stain, filler, varnish and wax. The application of stain changes the color of wood but does not hide the grain, because stain is trans- parent. Paint changes the color and also hides the grain ; in other words, it is opaque. Filler, as the name implies, fills up the pores in the wood, making the surface smooth. Stain is sometimes combined with filler so that with one operation the object is filled and stained. Varnish is applied to give a hard, smooth, glossy surface and to keep out moisture. Wax is some- times used instead of varnish, giving the surface a slick but not as glossy a finish as varnish. The use to which an object is to be put and the kind of wood out of which it is to be made determine whether it is better to stain or to paint it. Woods having prominent grain are usually stained because of the transparency of the coloring mat- ter in the stain, but to preserve the wood, stained articles should also be varnished or waxed and sometimes filled. Wood having an uninteresting grain is usually painted. Practically all objects used out of doors are painted because the paint better with- stands exposure. The principal ingredients in paint are white lead, linseed oil, coloring pigment, turpentine and drier. The white lead gives body and covering power to the paint, the pigment colors 54 WOOD FINISHES Fig. 4 5aih on imall itain Brush flat l/arniih. Stain or Paint Brubh Hound Varniifj Brush Fie. 5 it, the linseed oil furnishes the liquid carriage which floats the pigment and lead over the surface and it also acts as a binder to hold them onto the surface. The turpentine thins the mixture so that it can be easily applied with a brush and the drier helps to dry the paint after it has been applied to the surface. Paint may be made by mixing the above mentioned ingredients together or it may be purchased ready mixed. Since the lead is very heavy, it settles to the bottom of the container. The paint should therefore be thoroughly stirred before being used. When it is well mixed it is applied to the surface to be painted with a bristle brush of a size and shape suited to the kind of work. Fig. 4. The surface to be painted should be previously smoothed with sand paper and nail holes or small defects in the wood, filled with putty. (See putty in section on "Glazing.") Knots should be shellaced to prevent the rosin from oozing out. Paint is applied by dipping the fiber end of the brush into the can or bucket, allowing only a portion of the fibers to enter the paint. The brush should never be allowed to go into the paint up to the metal sheath and in no case should the paint be stirred with the brush. Even with only a portion of the fd^ers entering the paint too much of it will enter the brush. It is therefore neces- sary to remove the excess. This should be done by pressing the fibers against the inside of the container as at A-Fig. 5, allowing the extra amount of paint to run back. The brush should never be dragged over the edge of the bucket as illus- trated in B-Fig. 5, for while a large part of the paint will go back into the bucket, it is almost impossible to keep some of it from running down over the outside. Should paint at any time get on the handle or sheath of the brush it should immediately be wiped clean with a cloth or bit of waste. When the brush is charged with the proper amount of paint it is drawn back and forth over the surface until the paint ir. thoroughly worked in and spread evenly over the surface. There STAINS 55 is danger, however, of overbrushing the paint and making it bubble and consequently become rough. Wood, when painted for the first time, will require two or more coats in order to cover it well, but surfaces which have been painted before are not so porous and one coat may suffice. Different formulas are used for the making of stain but they are all alike in that they are all semi-transparent and con- tain coloring matter which changes the appearance or color of wood. The coloring matter is dissolved in an easy flowing liquid which makes possible an even distribution of the color over the surface to which it is applied. This liquid usually evaporates rather quickly. Stain also contains a "binder," a substance which remains after the liquid has evaporated, and holds the color in the wood. In selecting a stain, the material out of which the project is made must be considered. A soft, porous wood will take a stain which penetrates slowly, while a close fibered, hard wood often resists the most penetrating kind of stain. The natural color of wood often changes the appearance of a stain. A stain which appears to be of a light golden color when applied on oak, will be so affected by the greenish color of the wood that it will appear to be a dull, dirty brown when applied to poplar. Stain should never be applied too lavishly. The wood will absorb only a certain amount which should be of such consist- ency that it flows and penetrates easily. In some cases it is necessary to remove the excess from the stained surface with waste or rags after the stain has had sufficient time to soak in but this process should not be delayed until the liquid has fully evaporated because the surface will become gummy. Surfaces to be stained should be smooth and free from finger marks, pencil marks, grease, etc. (see sections on "Planes" and "Sandpaper"). If the surface to be stained has been sand- papered the stain should not be applied until the pores of the wood have had a chance to reopen. If the stain is applied too foon after sandpapering there is danger of the pores being clogged with the sandpaper dust and so closed and crushed that they will not allow the stain to penetrate deeply enough lo be permanent. Most stains settle in the can because some of the materials in them are heavier than others, consequently the container should be shaken or well stirred before the stain is used. A sufficient amount of stain to cover the project should be poured into an open mouthed can or bucket. Waste or cloths should be at hand ready for wiping off the surplus at the proper time. 56 WOOD FINISHES Papers should be spread under the project to be stained unless there is a\aihible a metal covered staining table which can be wiped clean after the staining is dcjne. The brush is charged with stain in exactly the same way as with paint and equal care should be exercised in handling it, especially since stain is much thinner than paint and will run more easily. Stain is applied to the wood by placing the brush saturated with stain at one end of the board and drawing it slowly toward the center in the direction of the grain, Fig. 1. The brush should be pulled over the wood slowly enough to allow the stain to soak in. When the stroke has covered about half the length of the piece c^f wood the brush should be lifted and a second stroke which slightly overlaps the first, made, Fig. 2. When one-half of the surface has been covered in this way the work should be turned around and stained from the other end in a similar manner. The brush should never be rubbed back and forth over the wood or drawn from the center of the wood toward the edge or end because the fibers will spatter the stain as in Fig. 3. The brush should never be laid down with paint, stain or varnish in it nor allowed to stand in any of these materials. The brush should never be laid across the bucket from side to side. A small stick or wire placed across the top of the bucket as in Fig. 6 makes a good rest for the brush for then if the paint, stain or varnish should drip from the brush it will go back into the bucket. After all parts of the project have been painted, stained or varnished the unused material in the bucket should be poured back into the original container which should be tightly closed in order to keep the contents from evaporating. The bucket should then be wiped clean and bright. Brushes should be washed in a solution similar to the licjuid out of which the material is made, i.e., turpentine, for paint, varnish and oil stain, alcohol for spirit stain and water for water stain. Great care should be exercised in disposing of all oily rags, since heat is often generated in them, resulting in fire. There are two kinds of filler, liquid and paste. Liquid filler is composed of shellac gum dissolved in alcohol. Paste filler is made of silex and linseed oil. Silex is a mineral which does not expand or contract under changing atmospheric conditions. When worked into the wood with a brush stroke in the direction of the grain the sharp angled particles of silex anchor in every crevice. The surplus is then wiped ofif and the surface appears even and smooth. Liquid filler is also applied with a brush. It is thinner than paste filler and therefore will fill up smaller VARNISH 57 crevices. It is allowed to become thoroughly hard and the roughness is then rubbed off with fine sandpaper. Fillers are always applied before the wood is varnished and sometimes before the wood is stained. Varnishes are made by melting certain vegetable gums and then cooking them in linseed oil and turpentine. They have to be thoroughly filtered. They must stand many months before they are ready to be used. This is called seasoning. They are applied in a way similar to that in which paint and stain are applied except that they are floated onto the surface with as little brushing as possible. Varnishes are very sticky and slow drying, therefore articles being varnished must be kept in rooms as near dust proof as possible. Varnish dries best in rooms mod- erately heated. Finishing wax is used either over stained surfaces or sur- faces filled with liquid filler. It is made of vegetable wax dis- solved in a liquid which evaporates quickly after it has been applied to wood, leaving a thin scum of the wax on the surface. It is best applied by taking a small portion of the wax out of the can, placing it on a double thickness of cloth and wrapping the cloth around it. Figs. 7 and 8. Holding the loo"se ends of the pieces of cloth between the fingers and rubbing it over the surface to be waxed will force the wax through the cloth a little at a time. When the entire surface has been covered thus the wax should be allowed to dry and then polished with a stiff brush or cloth. Wax may be applied with a brush but it is wasteful of material and it is hard to regulate the amount put on the surface. 58 GLASS AND WINDOW GLAZING Of the many materials used in constructive work, glass does not often attract much attention, nevertheless its place in the world is very important. Without it large builidngs would not be practicable for it is the window glass that permits them to be lighted by day and the glass light bulb, shade or chimney which makes possible their illumination at night. Even the electric current could not be brought into a building if it were not for the glass or porcelain insulators. Science has been greatly advanced by the use of glass, for the success of the microscope, telescope and camera are dependent upon their glass lenses. Many eyes have been saved and many pains re- moved through the use of spectacles. Bottles, dishes, buttons, beads, door knobs, sanitary hospital appliances, mirrors, etc., are in existence because of the discovery of how to transform cer- tain elements into glass. Just when this discovery was made no one knows, but pieces of glass which are over six thousand years old have been found in Egypt. Of the entire amount of glass produced the greater portion is window glass. It varies in kind, quality and use. Very thin glass (single strength) is used in picture frames, heavier glass (double strength) is used in ordinary windows, hot houses, hot beds and cheap show cases, and very heavy glass (plate glass) is used in large windows, in mirrors and in the better grade of show cases. Semi-transparent glass for windows is produced with different surfaces, such as frosted or ribbed and for sky lights and elevator shafts a glass reinforced with a wire webbing is made. While the elements which enter into the making of glass are always about the same, the method of manufacture is entirely different. Ordinary window glass is blown by men or by machines, into cylindrical forms and then flattened into sheets, while plate glass is not blown, but is rolled into sheets or plates. Glass is made by fusing under intense heat, a mixture of soda, lime and sand. It takes from fourteen to twenty hours to prop- erly melt a "batch." For blown glass the ingredients are melted together in vats in huge furnaces. When the molten mass is ready, if it is to be blown by men, a small portion of it is dipped out, through a door in the furnace, on the end of a blow pipe. The workman, to protect his face from the blistering heat and intense light from the open door, carries a mask, A- Fig. 1, which he holds in ])lace with his teeth. The blow pipe is constantly revolved tf) kee]i the ball of molten glass from falling off. This GLASi 59 A^ Fig. 1 B :;^ jbetwee/1 the teeth ■hi ow pipe Molten g/<33>5 mass weighs from twenty to forty pounds and as it begins to solidify it is twisted and turned over an iron mould until it assumes a pear shape, B-Fig. 1. It is then passed on to the glass blower who stands by a deep pit with the blow pipe and glass ball suspended into the pit. Blowing gently at first he swings the pipe back and forth like the pendulum of a clock and at the same time gives it a rotary motion. This gradually changes the shape of the molten mass to a long, hollow cylinder, having walls of even thickness at every point. If the cylinder begins to lengthen too much the blower swings the pipe and glass over his head, still blowing and revolvmg it. When the desired length of cylinder and the proper thick- ness of glass is obtained the far end of the cylinder is reheated and cut ofif. When the glass has become firm enough it is placed on a wooden rack and the blow pipe loosened by touch- ing it with a cold iron. This same end of the cylinder is then cracked off true by passing a heated wire around it and touching the glass with a moistened finger. The cylinder is then opened lengthwise by passing a red hot iron from end to end down the inside. Fig. 2. This open cylinder is next placed in an oven on a flat stone slab. The heat naturally unrolls the glass and it is pressed out fiat with a wooden block on a long rod thrust through the door of the oven. When the glass becomes flat it passes on to the annealing oven where it is gradually cooled. If cooled too quickly it becomes very brittle. From the annealing oven it is inspected, marked and cut to various sizes. Seldom is a cylinder found without flaws, so the cutter cuts around the flaws, first getting out the larger panes, then the smaller ones. The cutting is done either with an instrument having a diamond point or a highly carbonized steel roller. Machine blown glass is produced by the same process except that the machine automatically dips the blow pipe into the molten metal, shapes it and blows it. One man, attending a 60 GLASS AND WINDOW GLAZING glass blowing machine, can produce about three times as much glass as a mouth blower. Machine blown cylinders are about twenty-five feet long and two feet in diameter while mouth blown cylinders at best never reach more than ten or twelve feet in length and eighteen inches in diameter. The surface of blown glass is glossy and smooth. The materials out of which plate glass is made are melted together in large clay crucibles. When the materials are prop- erly melted together, huge traveling cranes pick-up and carry the crucible to the plate glass machine where the contents is poured out on a large metal table. A huge metal roller is tiien passed over it, flattening the mass into a plate two or three times as thick as blown glass. The surface produced in this way is rough and only semi-transparent. This plate of glass is then sent through the annealing oven, after which it is anchored onto a large revolving table with plaster of Paris and the upper surface ground off smooth and true with sand stone. The glass is then reversed and the other side ground. After being ground smooth the surface is polished on revolving tables with revolving buffers and rouge. It is then inspected and cut to standard sizes the same as blown glass. Glass is usually held in place in windows in a wooden frame called a sash, but with the diminishing use of wood and the increasing use of metal it is probable that in a few years nearly all window sashes will be made of metal. Placing the window glass in the sash is called "glazing." If glass of the correct size cannot be obtained it may be cut to fit by placing it on a flat surface and, at the proper place, scoring a line with a glass cutter, Fig. 3, along a straight edge. In doing this, one should be careful that the scored line reaches com- pletely from edge to edge. Enough pressure should be applied to score the line at one operation. To try to score the same line the second time is apt to be disastrous. Once the glass is scored it is held in the hands, scored side up, and cracked apart as in GLAZING 61 Fig. 6 /*&«?/# fift/ihet/ putfif ^ Olozitr point ^.,---'"*^~ ^5* g ^erru/e. /T^ fo^i^^^^^^^i ^E= ^P^^ WoM Fig. 4. If it fails to respond to this treatment, it should be lightly tapped with the handle of the cutter on the under side of the glass near the scored line. If any small part fails to break off at the scored line, that part is broken off with the glass cutter as shown in Fig. 5. To glaze a window the sash is, if possible, removed and placed rabbeted side up, all old putty and glass removed, and the new pane fitted in and fastened with glazier or zinc points. These points are flat triangular-shaped pieces of metal made of zinc so that they will not rust when- exposed to the weather. They come in sizes to 3 inclusive (0 being the larger), 5^-lb. to the paper, or they can be bought in bulk. They are laid in place on the glass and driven about half way into the sash with any kind of flat instrument which can be slid along the glass. A cold chisel is a good tool for driving in these points. A suffi- cient number of points are placed around the sash to hold the glass firmly. The glazier points and edges of the glass are then puttied over as shown in Fig. 6, the putty knife being drawn along the edge, forcing the putty into every crack and crevice. The surface left should be quite smooth. Putty is made by mixing together whiting and boiled linseed oil, to the consistency of dough. The air oxidizes the oil, leaving the whiting almost as hard as stone. Since the air hardens putty it should be kept in an air-tight container until needed for use. If it is too stiff to work well, it may be softened by simply kneading it with the fingers. If this does not soften enough, a drop or two of boiled linseed oil may be added and worked into it. 62 CHAIR SEATING Cane Pa/m | /V/V^-^ f 1 \ i '^ (0^ 3arM- — " Top view -) r ^ . A Section A- A 1 g^ Titit Oval Holftound Round %. 1 Strip oj Shapei of rattan CHAIR SEATING Wooden seated chairs are durable and if properly shaped they are comfortable, but they are heavy and sometimes ugly in appearance. Various other methods are used in seating chairs, among them weaving, upholstering and the application of pre- pared seatings. There are several ways of weaving seats in chairs and many different kinds of materials are used. Any material which is strong, flexible and tough, and which is made or can be secured in shapes convenient for weaving, can be used for seating chairs. The commonly used materials are cane, rush, reed, rope and hickory split. Cane, perhaps, is the most widely used. It is made from the outer covering or bark of a certain specie of palm. This grows in dense forests in India, China, Ceylon and the Indian Islands. The plants sometimes grow very tall and then fall to the ground, trailing" like vines. They frequently reach a length of several hundred feet without a branch and without de- veloping to a diameter of more than one inch. The bark is very thin and its outer surface is quite hard and slick. The woody part grows in a different way, and its appearance is quite differ- ent from that of ordinary wood. In texture it is much softer than wood and is very porous but much tougher than all woods except hickory. The vine like stems of the plant are cut by the natives into lengths of ten to twenty feet, washed, made into bundles and shipped to various European countries and America. The bark is then stripped off and cut into varying widths from ^V" to W" and tied into bundles or hanks of 1,000 lineal feet. The re- maining part is cut into different shapes and sizes, Fig. 1. The strips made from the bark are known as chair cane and the material made from the pith or woody part is called reed or rattan. CANING 63 o i; i fl « « o 1 ° ^ " "^ - o o ,« i Under side. Fig. 3 DIAMOND PATTERN WEAVING There are several ways of weaving the seat of a chair with cane. The most common is the diamond pattern. For this kind of weaving the chair seat must, first of all, be prepared. If on new work, holes fV" ^^^ diameter must be bored around the seat frame j/^" apart and ^i" away from the inner edge. Unless the utmost care is used in locating and boring these holes, an im- perfect pattern will be the result in the finished weaving. If an old chair is to be reseated, all of the old cane must be cut out, the holes thoroughly cleared and the seat frame washed and, if need be, varnished. The woven seat of a chair should be quite tight. This is chiefly accomplished by having the cane wet while weaving it. The moisture expands it and after evaporating causes the cane to stretch very tightly. Fifteen or twenty minutes is a sufficient amount of time for soaking the cane. If allowed to remain in the water too long it will become discolored and also lose its strength. About all the equipment one needs in this work is a knife and an awl. An awl can be made out of a long brad with a piece of wood for a handle. Several round pegs, about Xy^" long and tapering from )/%" to Y^" should be whittled out of wood. Caning a chair can be divided into seven consecutive steps. First step. After soaking the cane as already directed, it should be held glossy side up, and one end put down through a hole at the back of the chair seat, (allowing it to project about three inches below the seat frame), and fastened with a peg. The other end of the cane should be inserted through a hole in the front of the seat which is exactly opposite the starting hole in the back. In case a chair has a round seat, unusual precaution must be taken to see that the holes exactly opposite each other are used in starting or the entire pattern will be a failure. The entire strand of cane should be pulled through the hole, care being taken to avoid getting kinks or twists in it, the cane made 64 CPIAIR SEATING tight and a peg inserted to hold it in place. This stretched strand should be picked with the fingers to test the tightness as the string of a musical instrument is tested. The long end of the strand should then be brought up through the next hole and across the seat, stretched and pegged and then inserted through succeeding pairs of holes until the entire seat is covered with parallel rows of cane from front to back, Fig. 2. After a few pegs have been inserted, the second peg (never the first) and those following it can be removed and used over again. When one strand of cane is used up, the last hole through which the cane passes should be pegged and a new strand started in the hole next to it. The loose ends under the chair are fastened by drawing them under the nearest span on the under side of the seat as shown in Fig. 3. Second step. Proceeding as in step one, parallel strands of cane should be laid across the chair seat from side to side and on top of those in the first step. Fig. 4. CANING 65 —^ ^ - — V^ Fig. 11 Third step. The strands of cane in this step are laid from front to back exactly as in the first operation, the strands from side to side thus Joeing- left between those placed in the first and third steps, Fig. 5. Fourth step. The real weaving now begins from side to side. With one hand below the seat and the other above, the end of the cane, after passing through a hole from the bottom of the seat, is forced between the top and bottom strands of each pair which run from front to back, in every case passing under the strands of the first or bottom layer and over the strands of the third layer of cane. At the same time the weaver must be placed at the nearest side of the strands which lie between the pairs and which run from side to side, Fig. 6. Failure to do this will spoil the pattern. If the holes become clogged with cane so that the ends of the strands will not pass through easily, they may be cleared by inserting the awl, but the awl should only separate and not puncture or tear the cane in the holes or it will weaken the finished seat. After all the strands of the fourth / Webbing^ 5p//ne yedge Hovelled end Fi0.15 66 :hair seating group have been woven in, the entire seat of cane should be moistened and the strands both ways shoved together in pairs. Fifth step. This step is also a weaving step but instead of the weaver passing over one and then under one as in the fourth passes first over two and then under two or vice versa, depends on the little pattern formed where the horizontal and vertical pairs cross. This diagonal weaver should be placed so that it passes over the pair which, when it is pulled tight, will allow it to remain in a straight line sliding in the square formed as in Figs. 7 and 8 and not as in Fig. 9. Once the first diagonal is correctly placed the others follow easily because if the diagonal goes over the strands stretched from front to back, it will go under all strands stretched from side to side or vice versa. All diagonals running in one direction should be woven in before any weaving is done with the cross diagonal. Sixth step. The cross diagonals, which complete the pat- tern, Fig. 10, are woven in exactly the same manner as the first diagonals. If that part of the seat which has been made is too tight to permit the weaver pulling through easily, the entire cane part of the seat should be sponged. Seventh step. To hide the holes and make the edges of the work look neater, a binder of wide cane is laid on as at Fig. 11 and held in place with a piece of cane brought up through a hole on one side of the binder and down through the same hole on the other side of the binder and then into the next hole and into each successive hole until the entire edge is covered. CANE WEBBING Cane webbing is the name applied to cane woven by machin- ery. It can be purchased by the yard in widths from 8" to 18" increasing in units of 2". It can be secured in the diamond or plain pattern, Fig. 12. Chairs caned with webbing do not re- quire holes in the seat frame. Instead a groove %" wide and WEAVING 67 Fig. 18 Fig. 19 Fig. 20 3%" deep is made, Yz" away from the inner edge of the seat frame. The webbing is thoroughly soaked, preferably in hot water, and then cut one-half inch larger all around than the shape formed by the grooves in the seat frame. It is then laid on the seat frame and the strands running parallel to the grooves, but outside of them, are ravelled out. The cane is placed so that the lines of thd pattern parallel the front edge of the chair. With a wedge slightly narrower than the groove and a mallet, the ends of the cane .are forced into the groove, first at the front, then at the back and then at either side and last at the corners. This temporarily holds the webbing in place. Fig. 13. The loose ends of the cane are then cut off with a chisel as in Fig. 14. A heavy coat of glue is next put into the groove and a spline shaped as at Fig. 15 and made either of wood or rattan is driven in. As soon as the glue hardens this kind of seat becomes very secure. RUSH SEATING In this kind of weaving seats made of rope or twisted paper are formed by winding the material around the upper part or frame work of the stool or chair instead of inserting it through holes made in the seat frame. Figs. 16 and 17 show the succes- sive steps in weaving chair seats and stool tops in this way. Stool and chair seats are sometimes made in this way of hemp rope or heavy cord. Rush, corn husks, raffia and paper, if twisted into cords or ropes of sufficient size and length, may also be used. To preserve them and to keep them from untwist- ing, seats made of such materials should be varnished with a pliable varnish after they are finished. BASKET WEAVE Seats made of hickory splits or reed are woven somewhat differently. Splits are long, ribbon like strips of hickory. Reed has already been described under chair caning. Like the rope 68 CHAIR SEATING Fig. 21 3tat box Tront fail- Side rail 3acM rail Section from^ront to bacl< Fig. 22 ' to ¥/ftbinq Sack t^il Miction from front to back or fibre seats, they are bound around the upper part of the frame. Different patterns can be made by changing the order of weav- ing. A plain weave is made by weaving over one and under one. By weaving in series, such as over one and then under three, a different appearing pattern is produced. Diagonal effects are produced by the following method of weaving. Strand No. 1 over one then under two then over two, etc. Strand No. 2 over two then under two then over two, etc. Strand No. 3 under one then over two then under two, etc. Strand No. 4 under two then over two then under two, etc. The weaving is started by tacking one end of the weaver firmly under the edge of the frame and then winding the reed, rush, cane or splits around it close together in parallel rows in one direction, usually the longest one, until the entire seat is covered. Fig. 18. Since it will be necessary for these rows of material to bend over and under the weavers when they are in- serted, they should not be pulled very tight but they should all be of uniform tightness. The cross weavers cannot be laid as close together so after each strand is woven, the round or bar in the seat is given a single wrap with the weaver before the process is continued, B-Fig. 19. Weaving a stool top in this manner produces a double top and the weaving must be watched on the under side as well as on the top. It can be made much more durable if the center is stuffed with corn husks before all of the weaving is completed. If it is difficult to force the end of the weaver through, a blade like stick will separate the strands permitting it to pass easily. If the double top is not desired, a single thickness top taking only a little more than half the amount of material used in the double top can be made, provided there are two rails on each UPHOLSTERING 69 side and end of the stool. Instead of the material being wound around and around it is taken across the top, down on the out- side of the second rail, up between the two rails, over the top one and across to the other side of the stool where the operation is repeated. Fig. 20. Stools or chairs seated with reed appear fuzzy because small threads of the fibre pull loose. The largest ones of these should be clipped off with scissors and the smaller ones singed with a lighted paper or candle. The reed burns and scorches easily, therefore this singeing should be done quickly. UPHOLSTERING Upholstering a seat is an entirely different task. That the materials which can be used are so many and varied, accounts for the fact that the greater part of our furniture today is uphol- stered. The ease and comfort of an upholstered chair may also be in part responsible. The tools needed for simple upholstery work are scissors, knife, tack hammer, awl and stretcher. The materials used are webbing, springs, canvass, cotton, curled hair, tacks (both round and upholstering), staples, gimp, cord and covering materials such as fabrics, leather or imitation leather. The frame work of the chair or stool, if it is to contain springs, should consist of a box deep enough to hold the springs. This may be a part of the chair or it may be a separate box, upholstered and set in the chair frame. If the tops of the legs project into the box, it will be necessary to glue and nail in corner blocks to which the upholstering can be tacked, A-Fig. 2L Springs come in heights from three to sixteen inches. The box should be half as deep as the springs are high. If the box of 70 CHAIR SEATING the chair is deep enough to allow slats of wood to be nailed in it to hold the springs, it makes a more substantial seat, Fig. 21. If there is not enough room for the wooden slats, double strips of webbing are stretched across and nailed to the frame with staples. Staples will hold a group of threads running the long way of the webbing, while tacks will only separate the threads and force all the strain upon the cross threads. Fig. 22 shows the under side of a chair seat with webbing in place ready for the springs. A sufficient number of springs should be selected to hold the seat covering up. The number needed will depend upon the size of the seat box. If possible the springs should be placed at about equal distances in from the edge of the seat box. If wooden slats are used the springs are fastened to them with wire staples. If the bottom is made of webbing, the springs are sewed to it with heavy cord, each spring being fastened in about four places. After the springs are securely fastened to the bot- tom of the seat, the tops of the springs are tied together with strong cord as indicated in Fig. 22). Wherever the cord crosses a spring or another section of the cord, the two are tied together to prevent wear. The ends of the cords are then fastened to the top of the seat frame with staples. Before fastening these cords the springs should be pressed down slightly so that after the cords are fastened the released springs will stretch them tight. Next, a piece of heavy burlap several inches larger than the seat is spread over the springs and tacked to the top edge of the box with four ounce tacks. This burlap should be stretched smooth but not so tight as to further compress the springs. As all of the pull should come on the cord it will be easier to get PREPARED SEATINGS 71 this burlap smooth if it is stretched over the springs and tacked as at A-Fig. 24 and then folded back, B-Fig. 24 and again tacked. This will also make a stronger fastening for the burlap. The stuffing, either tow, dried sea moss, hair, shredded husks or other similar material, which can be arranged to form a bulky, springy mass, is next separated sufficiently to make it flufify and placed in a layer over the entire top. In fluffing this material it should be kept in one large mass and in no case used in small balls or wads. This layer of stuffing should be of uni- form thickness and it should extend slightly over the edge of the seat box. A light weight burlap is next spread over the top and "slip tacked" (tacks driven in only part way so that they can easily be pulled out) with a few tacks on each side. The stuffing should be pushed back a little during this operation, but the closer to the edge of the box it comes, the better will be the fin- ished seat. The corners of this piece of burlap will have to be cut away around the corner posts but it must fit as snugly as possible. With the regulator, a long, sharp wire or needle, the stuffing may be shifted from one point to another by inserting the point of the tool down through the burlap and moving the stuffing with a prying motion, Fig. 25. The upholstering material should be carefully cut to size and shape and placed smoothly over the padded seat. If it is a material which ravels easily, the edge should be turned under as it is tacked on. This top covering should be brought down over the edge as at A-Fig. 26. Care must be taken that the tacked edge is straight and parallel to the upper edge of the box. The edge of the upholstering is covered with a gimp binding which harmonizes with it in texture, quality and color. This binding is tacked in place with upholstering tacks which are also of a color and kind in keeping with the covering material. These tacks should be evenly spaced apart. The gimp binding must be carefully folded when it is put around the corner posts and se- curely tacked in place into the corner blocks. PREPARED SEATINGS Prepared seats can be secured in varying shapes and sizes to suit different kinds of chairs. They are made of embossed leather, of imitation leather (made of paper), and of wood ve- neer. They are tacked around the edge of the opening in the seat frame with fancy headed upholstering tacks. The heads of these tacks are made in different shapes and they can be secured in brass, black metal or leather cpvered. 72 MECHANICAL DRAWING Before any object can be constructed in material there must be an idea or plan. First conies the mental picture and after that the picture reproduced on paper. This reproduction on paper can assume many forms. If it is a picture of the object as it will appear when made, it is called a perspective drawing, Fig. 1. It may be a free hand orthographic sketch sh(jwing the dimen- sions, such as Fig. 2; it may be a more carefully made ortho- graphic drawing on cross section paper, Fig. 3, or an ortho- graphic drawing mechanically made, Fig. 4, or an isometric drawing with dimensions as in Fig. 5. The first type, perspective, is of little use to the workman since from it he only gets the picture of the thing to be con- structed, but the other forms of drawing give all the shapes and sizes of all the pieces entering into the construction. There is hardly an occupation which is not touched by the working drawing. Plans for houses, bridges, parks, railways, etc., must be made before construction can begin. Designs for furniture, cabinet work, automobiles, boats, railway coaches, lighting fix- tures, plumbing, electric wiring, etc., are necessary before they can be made or assembled. In fact drawing is a language under- stood by all people, it is easily interpreted and easily used by any one who can devote a little time and study to it. The first step in making a working drawing of an object is the rough sketch. Its aim is to quickly put on paper the idea or mental picture one has of the object. Since, when working in material, only one surface can be worked upon at a time, the easiest kind of a drawing to read is the orthographic drawing. Fig. 6 shows a rough sketch of a stool. If one has had enough experience in constructing furniture to establish good propor- tion and correct sizes for the various parts, this rough sketch is all that is necessary. Figures added to the drawing suggesting the size of each part permanently retain the dimensions decided upon. If, however, one is not sure that the mental picture is of good proportion, rather than spoil the material in experimenting as well as wasting time, a more complete drawing, such as Fig. 7, can be made with a straight edge on cross section paper. In case the object is too large to be drawn full size on the paper it is drawn smaller than the object itself but in exactly the same proportion. If the drawing is half size and the length of the top board is fourteen inches, the drawing of the top board is made only seven inches ; in other words, each inch on the draw- ing represents two inches in the finished object. This is called drawing to scale and in this example it is written — Scale 1"=2". THE LAYOUT 73 c =1 Fig.2 74 MECHANICAL DRAWING Rg.9 - 1 1 1 It is possible in this way to work out the size and proportion of every detail no matter how complicated, how large or how small. To make a mechanical drawing of an object, first the rough sketch is made, such as Fig. 8, with the approximate size of each piece indicated. Next the mechanical layout is made, Fig. 9. Here the exact proportions are worked out. If the original sug- gestions for dimensions are found to be wrong they are changed in this layout. The lines of the layout are lightly drawn in pencil so that in case the proportion is wrong, they can be easily erased, or if they are very lightly drawn they may be left on the paper. These light lines are called construction lines. Once this skeleton of light lines is made and the correct proportion established, the lines representing the visible edges of the object are made heavier. Fig. 10. Next the lines representing edges which are known to be there but which are hidden by some part of the object, are also made heavier. To show the difference between the visible edge and the hidden edge, the hidden edge is made up of a series of dashes with spaces between equal to about one-third the length of the dash. The length of these dashes and the spaces between them is not always the same, but their proportionate length is always the same. In large drawings the dashes are quite long while in small drawings or parts of drawings they are very short. The width of the line representing the hidden edge is always the same and it should be of the same width as the visible edge line. The next step in making the drawing is placing the dimen- sion lines and dimensions. The dimensions should, if possible, be placed half way between views. This will save placing dupli- cated dimensions on the drawing. Dimension lines and figures make a drawing look complicated, therefore they should be added only when necessary. They should always be placed below or to the right of the drawing except when placed between views or in a case where a part is too far removed to be readable if the dimensions were placed below. Since dimen- DRAWING INSTRUMENTS 75 ! ® ie '1 fig. 10 Mi i i i I fig.U Construction line Line rejbrtsent/nq o visible N^e Line representing a hidden edge Dimension line faulty arrow heads sion lines and figures make a drawing look complicated it is essential that they be subordinate to the drawing. Therefore dimension lines should be only slightly heavier than construc- tion lines, the arrow heads on the ends of the lines showing from where the measurements are taken should be small, pointed and not too black, and the figures, while distinct, should be of medium size. In case the dimensions are indicated with frac- tions, the lines separating the numerators and denominators should be aligned with the dimensions lines. Fig. 11 shows the standard lines and their uses. In case the drawing is to be a permanent record, pencil lines are not good as they will smudge with usage. If the drawing is not to be handled too much it may be made perma- nent enough by inking in the parts to be retained and leaving the construction lines in pencil. When a drawing is to receive severe usage a tracing, an ink drawing on transparent paper or cloth, is made from the original drawing and from this tracing blue prints are made. This also makes possible a quick way of producing a number of copies of the drawing". The blue print is different from the original drawing or tracing in that the parts which were black on the original are white on the blue print and the background is blue instead of white. The instruments used in making mechanical drawings. Fig. 12, are the drawing board, the tee square, 45-degree angle, 30 and 60-degree angle, scale, compass, curve and inking pen. A hard pencil is usually used in laying out the drawing and a soft pencil for strengthening the lines. It is very necessary that the pencils be kept pointed and sharp at all times. Figs. ,13 and 14 show the method of sharpening and correctly pointing the pencil. The pencil should always be pointed on the end farthest away from the lettering or grade mark. Thumb tacks are used to hold the paper in place when drawing upon it. As the name indicates, they are tacks designed to be pushed in with the thumb, never pounded. 76 MECHANICAL DRAWING Fig. IE bO-60' Angle . ^^^ r— -_________^^5 Ang/e ^^^^^ Tee 5quare ^^^^^<^^' ^ ~—p^'^^~^.__^^^ Thumb Tack 5ca/e — ~- ^^^^^^ To draw a free hand pencil line the pencil should be held loosely in the hand as in Fig. 15. It should be noted that the pencil lays back in a position similar to that used in writing. In drawing mechanical lines, lines guided by a straight edge, the pencil should be held more nearly erect as in Fig. 16, with the balls of the first and second fingers and the thumb holding the pencil near the point. The weight of the hand is applied to the third and fourth fingers as the hand is drawn along. This makes possible a control of the pressure on the pencil point and regu- lates the strength of the line being drawn. The position of the left hand in holding the straight edge securely while the line is being drawn and the manner of getting the point of the pen- cil against the lower part of the straight edge, should also be noted. Horizontal lines, lines running from left to right on the paper, are drawn along the upper edge of the tee square. It is absolutely necessary that the head of the tee square should always be held firmly against the left edge of the drawing board. Unless this is done lines drawn along its edge will not be parallel. To draw vertical or oblique lines, the triangle neces- sary to give the straight edge or proper angle, is placed against the upper edge of the tee square and both are held in position STRAIGHT LINES 77 as in Fig. 17, while the line is drawn along the edge, Fig. 18. Unless the head of the tee square is held firmly against the end of the drawing board, the lines drawn along the angle will not be in the direction desired. (It is very essential that the paper be fastened to the board with the thumb tacks so that its edge is parallel to the blade of the tee square.) If lines other than 45, 30 or 60 degrees are desired, combinations of two angles over the tee square may be made, Figs. 19 and 20. It is extremely difficult to hold the angles and tee square in these combinations. . To make sure that a line is continuous, or that it will pass through a given dot, the pencil should be placed on the dot or line, the tee square or angle pushed up against it and the line drawn. Figs. 21 and 22 show the two stages in drawing such lines. Mechanical lines are always drawn from left to right. Circular lines are made with a compass. There are two kinds of compasses but each performs the same kind of work. The less expensive kind, A-Fig. 23, is made of steel and nickle plated. It has a stationary steel centering point and an ordi- nary pencil or pen for the drawing point. A better grade of compass, B-Fig. 23, is made of German silver. It is much more durable and is susceptible to finer adjustments, consequently 7^ MECHANICAL DRAWING Fig. 19 1 1 \ » \ *■ '^^^^ better results in drawing can be obtained with it. It has an adjustable centering point, the joint at the junction of the two legs is adjustable and each leg is jointed. The pencilling and inking points are interchangeable, being detached below the knee joint on the drawing leg of the compass. The lead in the pencilling point is contained in a metal holder while, the inking point has two nibs with an ink chamber between instead of one nib with an ink pocket underneath as in the ordinary pen. The points of the compass are set over the scale as in Fig. 24, care being taken that the distance betwen the centering point and the drawing point is exactly one-half the length of the diameter of the circle to be drawn, in other words, the distance between these points is the radius. Care must be taken not to mutilate the markings on the scale in setting the compass. To draw a line with the compass the centering point is placed on the paper where the center of the circle is to be, and the knob of the compass held between the second finger and thumb as in Fig. 25. The knob is then twirled or rolled between that finger and the thumb until it comes between the CURVED LINES 79 first finger and thumb, Fig. 26. The result will be a complete circle, made by the drawing point. Irregular shapes are drawn along the edge of a curve as shown in Fig. 27. That part of the curve is selected which gives the shape which will pass through two or mor.„ points on the drawing and the lines drawn around it as along the straight edge of the angles or tee square. In case no one part of the curve gives the desired shape, the curve may be shifted and difTerent parts of it used. Fig. 28 shows how the curve is shifted three times to produce the desired line. The ruling pen, Fig. 30, is handled in a similar way to the pencil. The pen should be held as near perpendicular as pos- sible. A-Fig. 32 shows the correct side position of the pen in relation to the straight edge. B-Fig. 32 shows an incorrect posi- tion which would produce a blotted line, and C-Fig. 32 an incorrect position which would produce a ragged line. The set screw should be held on the side away from the straight edge. Loosening the set screw allows the nibs to separate ; tightening it closes up the space between the nibs. The wider the space 80 MECHANICAL DRAWING between the nibs, the broader will be the line produced. The nibs should never be brought together tightly because their points may be damaged. If, when inking a drawing, the ink on the line has a tendency to slide over some spots and settle in pools in others, the paper should be dusted lightly with powdered chalk or talcum powder. Lines are always drawn from left to right. The pen is filled with water proof ink to about one-third its capacity by dipping the quill, which is in the cork of the bottle, into the ink and then inserting it between the blades of the pen at the ink chamber. Fig. 31. The inking point of the compass is filled in the same way. It is also necessary to hold the inking point of the compass perpendicular when drawing with it. For this reason a two nibbed inking point can be used only in a compass having jointed legs as at Fig. 33. Inking pens should be kept thoroughly clean. This is best accomplished by always wiping the points with a linen cloth or a bit of chamois skin. Linen and chamois are best because they absorb the ink easily and leave little or no ink on the pen. Ink should never be allowed to dry on the pen. Good lettering is essential to the appearance of a mechanical drawing. Only continued practice will enable one to become LETTERING 81 proficient in lettering. The study of lettering should be ap- proached, first by becoming familiar with letter structure, to see how each letter is designed. The next step is to be able to produce the letter forms and work them into word and sen- tence combinations, and then to acquire speed in making the letters without lowering the standard acquired when making the letters slowly. Simple Roman letters are best suited for all forms of mechanical drawing. The letters are sometimes made slanting and sometimes vertical, depending on the taste of the individual or the practice in the drafting room where the let- tering is done. Figs 34, 35 and 36 show both styles, also the shape and proportion of both capitals and small letters, and. the number of strokes necessary to their completion, and the direction of each. One should make a number of copies of these standard letters in order to familiarize himself with their proper shape, size and spacing, before attempting to form them into words. The letters should at first be made about 5/s" high, then, after the shapes and proportions are learned, the size reduced to ^4" high and finally to ys", Fig. 37. It is best to begin by drawing the capitals first and after skill is acquired in executing them, the small letters should be studied and drawn. The illustrations throughout this book show numer- ous examples of single stroke, free hand lettering. When the slanting style is used, it is very necessary that the slant of all upright lines be the same. It is much easier to learn the structure of the letters by studying them in groups according to structural details rather than in alphabetical sequence. While certain standard propor- tions can be set up, no unalterable rule can be established con- cerning these proportions. The appearance of each letter is influenced by the letter placed next to it. Unless this is taken into account and some letters widened and some narrowed as 82 MECHANICAL DRAWING LETTERING 83 84 MECHANICAL DRAWING in Fig. 38 the line of lettering will appear uninteresting, no matter how well each letter is made. While certain combina- tions of letters can be sighted as examples of lettering, the proportions of which must be modified when u.^ed together, only experience and practice will tell just where and how much of a change should be made. Cross section paper makes the study of letter structure easier but it should be used only until one has become familiar with the structure, as the squares are apt to become a hindrance when it l:)ecomes necessary to modify the proportion of some of the letters. When drawing on plain paper, mechanically made parallel guide lines for the top and bottom of each line of lettering should be very lightly drawn, but all other lines should be made free hand. The complete line of lettering should first be blocked in, Fig. 39, to insure correct distribution and proportion and then the lines to be retained strengthened. Each line should be made with a single stroke. Touching up an error in a line usually makes it wider and consequently more noticeable. Blue prints from tracings are made in a blue print frame. It consists of a frame holding a pane of glass. The back of the frame is detachable and is held in place against the glass with springs. The tracing, whether it be on tracing paper or tracing cloth, is. placed in the frame with the front against the glass. The sensitized side of a piece of blue print paper is placed against the tracing and the back of the frame clamped in place. The frame is placed in the sun long enough to allow the light rays to chemically change the ingredients in the coating on the paper, the amount of time needed depending upon the strength of the light, the age of the paper used and the transparency of the tracing paper or cloth. In order to avoid waste of time and material in determining the amount of time needed to secure the proper tone on the blue BLUE PRINTS 85 Pi g- 3? TTTTf l l^) .''Mi( )FF r^n = TR^;'rT^T)lT)n