Wood-working for Beginners: A Manual for Amateurs. Charles G. Wheeler

      Fig. 81.

      You should place your bench so that when you stand at it you will face the light and not have it come from behind you. If it can come from the forward end of the bench and also from behind the bench, as shown in the frontispiece, it will be best, for a cross-light is often very useful, not merely that you may have light enough, but also that when testing your work with the try-square, straight-edge, and the like, any inaccuracy may be detected by the light passing through the crack between the testing tool and the work, and also when sighting by the eye alone. Fasten the bench firmly to the floor (and wall if you can) with screws, cleats, or L irons.[17]

      Avoid chopping on the bench top or whittling it or boring holes or marring it by saw-cuts or chisel-marks. Do not use paint, varnish, or glue at the bench if you can help it. If necessary to do so, clean the bench-top carefully when you get through. Lumps of hardened glue will hinder you and deface your work.

      Filing-Bench.—You cannot do much of such varied wood-work as you will undertake without having to do a good deal of metal work. It is a poor plan to do such work at the vise you use for your wood-work, or even at the same bench. It scars and defaces the wooden vise and the bench, and the particles of metal are bad for your wood-work and for the tools. It is much better to have another bench—if nothing more than a wide shelf or a box—for such work (Fig. 81). You will find suggestions in the illustrations.

      Fig. 82.

      Fig. 83.

      An iron vise is the proper thing for holding metal. There are many different kinds at various prices, but one of the simple patterns will probably answer every purpose. If you have room for only one bench this vise can be put at the back part of one end.

      A small vise can be made of a hand-screw, the hand-screw itself being held in any desired position in the large bench-vise, but metal jaws are better for working on metal. You can make a rough sort of vise for metal-work with a piece of stout board or plank (Fig. 82). Find a couple of pieces of iron with screw holes, as you can probably do in a pile of waste iron junk, and screw them on the board and the bench to form metal jaws. The vise can be tightened or loosened by means of a big screw or bolt; or the board can be loosely fastened in the middle and tightened by wedging below (Fig. 83). A screw with a handle to turn it by and a nut for the thread is better, of course. Another form, such as you will find in use by leather-workers, can be easily made (Fig. 84), and works with the foot, the connection between the jaw and the treadle being made by a strap or rope. You can make a vise in some of these ways that will answer quite well for most of the metal-work you will have to do for some time, although such contrivances are less reliable and less convenient than a regular iron vise.

      Fig. 84.

      An anvil is often useful and is sometimes combined with a vise. It should have a flat steel surface and also a tapering rounded (conical) point. An old flat-iron does quite well. You can easily find some way to keep it in position on the filing-bench. You should have some sort of anvil, even if nothing better than a junk of old iron (which you can of course find somewhere), for you will be continually wanting to straighten nails, bend wire, and pound pieces of metal. Try to find a flat plate of thick sheet iron—¼" thick if you can—to fasten on the top of the filing-bench (Fig. 81). It is very handy for many anvil uses, straightening metal and nails, and for much pounding.

      Finishing-Bench.—Have also a finishing-bench (Fig. 91) if possible—if nothing more than a shelf or box—to keep the regular work-bench neat and clean for its proper uses, for even a skilful workman can hardly avoid making a mess when it comes to using paint and varnish.

      Fig. 85.

      Now, while there are many of you who can afford either singly or by two or three clubbing together to fix up a shop in first-rate style, there are also many who cannot afford even so cheap a bench as that just described. What can you do in such a case? Only one thing—patch up a bench out of whatever old stuff you can find. Patched-up makeshifts are not to be recommended, except in case of necessity, but when it comes to the pinch, and a matter of having a bench made of whatever old materials you can find or having no bench at all, by all means make one of boxes and anything that can be worked in. For of course the boats, skis, squirrel-houses, and so on, must be made!

      Fig. 86.

      But, whatever you patch up, make it solid and strong. Do not try to work at a rickety, shackly apology for a bench that shakes and jumps and sidles all over the room every time you saw or pound or plane. You can probably get all you need in the way of boxes, packing-cases, and such material, at very little or no expense. The illustrations (Figs. 85 and 86) are merely suggestions, for you must use your own ingenuity, according to the materials you can find. Most experienced workmen have often been obliged to work at much worse benches than these, frequently with no bench at all.

      Those of the boxes which you do not use whole you should take apart carefully (see Withdrawing Nails). This will add to your supply of nails. Use nails freely in fastening the boxes and boards together and to the wall or floor wherever allowable. A few screws will add much strength.

      The bench shown in Fig. 86 calls for one good board for the front of the top.

      Fig. 87.

      Fig. 88.

      Some of you live in the crowded parts of the city, in flats or small houses where there is no possible chance for a shop of any kind. Whatever wood-work you can do must be carried on in the kitchen, or some other living-room, where even a small bench may be out of the question. Still you would like to make such small work—model boats, for instance—as can be carried on in such limited quarters. If you are forced to use the kitchen table for a bench, try, for the first thing, to brace or block or screw it to make it steady, for unsteadiness is the greatest hindrance to doing good work at such a bench.

      You can fit a good board to the table-top with cleats, and a stop to hold the work (Fig. 87). If you can now get a common iron vise, you can get along quite well for small work, and the board and attachments can be quickly taken off and put away when the table is needed for domestic purposes. You can easily contrive some way to attach wooden pieces or leather or rubber to the inside of the jaws of the vise, to save marring your wood-work. A fairly good bench can often be made from an old table (as a kitchen table) by screwing a plank on top and a board on the front side, and bracing the legs (Fig. 88). The plank should be screwed on from underneath.

      Fig. 89.

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