Carpentry and Woodwork. Edwin W. Foster
it in their haste. The swords, or foils, were made of two pieces of soft iron wire.
Ralph insisted on filing these out flat near the ends to make them look realistic, and they were fastened by drilling a hole in each hand, passing the wire through and clinching it with a pair of pliers. It was much safer to drill these holes, as a brad awl sometimes splits wood that is very thin. This combination worked to perfection, and while they were trying it Harry caught a glimpse of its shadow on the table. The silhouette in black looked even more realistic than the toy itself, and it gave the boys an idea. (Fig. 40.)
These toys could be used for moving shadow pictures, and immediately their imagination began to conjure up the programme of a show.
"Our first selection, ladies and gentlemen, will be a shadow picture, entitled 'Before the Coming of the White Men'," exclaimed Harry, moving the Indian paddlers.
Fig. 40. The fencers. Pieces assembled
"And our next will be entitled 'The Duel'," said Ralph.
"Not a very good historical show," said Harry. "We ought to have the 'Landing of the Mayflower'."
"Not a bad idea, either," said Ralph. "I think we could rig up a ship in a storm. Let's try that next."
VI
MOVING TOYS
The problem of making a ship roll proved somewhat of a strain on the engineering corner of Ralph's brain, and after awhile Harry grew restless.
"Can't you give me something to do while you are designing that ocean?" he said.
Ralph, pausing a moment, replied, "Yes, try two men sawing a log."
Harry began to draw, but found that he knew very little about saws, so had to go out and look at one, measured it, and after awhile produced the sketch shown in Fig. 41. Ralph criticised it rather severely, suggesting the addition of a log and saw buck, and advised that the arms of the men and saw be cut out of one piece. The drawing shows the separated pieces, two bodies, four legs, a saw and arms in one piece, two straight pieces for the saw buck, the log, and a little triangular piece to go between log and saw buck. The object of this triangle is to leave a space between the log and saw buck for the passage of the saw back and forth, as shown in the sectional view.
The two pieces forming the buck were halved together, and the log, triangle, and buck are fastened with glue and two brads.
Fig. 41. The sawyers
After all the pieces had been cut out, the men were first put together by fastening both legs to the body with one 3⁄8-inch brad.
The feet were next fastened to the straight piece, 10 inches long, representing the ground, by one brad through each foot, the bodies standing upright, and the feet two inches apart. The arms came next, with one brad through each man's shoulder, and lastly, the saw buck, with the log already fastened rigidly to it, was nailed on the back of the ground piece with the log in front of the saw. To make this toy stand up, two standards were fastened to the ends of the ground piece, the same size as those attached to the fencers in Fig. 40.
It took Harry two hours to make this figure in wood, after he had the drawing finished. In the meantime Ralph had worked out a scheme for giving a boat a rolling motion.
"We'll be mechanical engineers by the time we finish this," he told Harry. "This piece of mechanism calls for a crank, a shaft, two bearings, and a cam, not to mention a ship, an ocean, and a few miscellaneous articles too trivial to mention."
Fig. 42. Boat in storm
The various parts of "the ship in a heavy sea" are shown in Fig. 42. At a is the cam, at b the crank and handle, and at c the shaft. The boat was sketched free hand and cut out with the coping saw in one piece by sawing exactly on the lines. The ocean was represented by two pieces corresponding to the ground piece in the sawyers, and the wavy outline was not made until everything had been cut out and the combination was ready for assembling.
The most difficult part—the shaft—was made first, and entirely with the knife: A piece of basswood was cut exactly a quarter of an inch square, a section was marked in the centre of this 3⁄16 inch wide, and notches were made on each corner. The two ends were then whittled to an octagonal shape and rounded. The square section in the centre was reduced to 1⁄8 inch wide and the rounded ends sand-papered smooth.
Next, the cam was cut out, and the square hole made. This was accomplished, after spoiling one, by drilling a quarter of an inch hole in the square and cutting the opening square with the point of the knife.
The object of the square opening was to prevent the cam from slipping when in operation. The cam was then placed over the round part of the shaft and glued to the square section, over which it fitted snugly. Next came the crank. This was made the same shape as the cam, but the 1⁄4 inch hole drilled in one end was left round, while the other was cut square as in the cam. The shaft fitted into the round hole and was glued in after the assembling. For the handle on the crank, a piece 1⁄4 inch square was fitted into the square hole, and the rest of it whittled round and sand-papered.
Two cleats, 2 inch × 1⁄4 × 3⁄16 inch, were cut out with the saw and everything was ready for assembling. The two sides of the ocean were held together and the 1⁄4-inch hole at d drilled through both pieces at once.
The two notches at e were cut after the assembling was finished. After the holes were drilled, the wavy line was sawed, and the two ends of the shaft inserted in the holes with the cam inside.
The two cleats were inserted in the ends of the ocean and fastened with brads and glue.
Next, the boat was slipped in between the two sides, with the sloping stern just touching the cam, and a 3⁄8-inch brad was driven through the three thicknesses, sides and boat.
The crank was next slipped over the shaft and glued in position. The crank handle was inserted into the square hole and fastened with glue, and lastly a light rubber band was slipped over the notch on the stern of the boat and the two corresponding notches on the bottom of the ocean. This was to hold the boat against the cam, which gives the motion.
To make this toy more realistic, the boys got out a box of water colors, painted the body of the boat black, the ocean green, and left the basswood sails their natural color—white.
Fig. 43. Turkey and executioner
"There," said Ralph when it was finished, "the youngsters can raise a storm at any time they like by simply turning the crank. This toy ought to be very serviceable, as it can't very well get out of order and is almost unbreakable."
The subject of moving toys is almost endless, being limited only by the imagination of the designer. Thanksgiving suggested the turkey