Wood-working for Beginners: A Manual for Amateurs. Charles G. Wheeler
alt=""/>
Fig. 90.
If you can get hold of an old bureau or chest of drawers you can arrange a serviceable and compact little "parlour shop" for small work. If you cannot fasten permanent attachments to the bureau, you can fit a removable board (Fig. 87), and you will be equipped for such work as can be suitably done under such circumstances—and that includes quite a long list of small things. The drawers can be fitted with compartments and trays, according to what you have to keep in them and your own ingenuity, but make the arrangement simple. Figs. 89 and 90 are merely suggestions.
The best way to arrange your tools and supplies depends somewhat upon the circumstances, but the main point is to have the most convenient place for each thing and always to keep it in that place when not in use. The first part of this proposition is almost as important as the last. It is nearly as bad as being disorderly to keep the glue-pot in one corner of the shop, the glue in another corner, the glue-brush in the third corner, and the water in the fourth—which is no exaggeration of the way some very orderly people stow away things, and is about equal to the arrangement of the person, of whom you may have heard, who always kept everything in its place and that place the floor! The workshop interior shown in the frontispiece and in Figs. 91 and 92, and the various other illustrations, furnish suggestions which may help you in the arrangement of your shop.
Fig. 91.
Have everything where you can lay your hand on it in the least possible time, the tools used the most the nearest to you, tools that go together, as bit-brace and bits, kept near together. Have all the common tools right within reach, and not put away in chests and out-of-the-way drawers, just because you have seen somebody pack away his tools in a highly polished chest, inlaid with forty kinds of wood, and containing ninety-three separate compartments and trays and seven secret drawers, the whole cornered and strapped and decorated with shining nickel plate! Do not be dazzled by that sort of thing, which is not an evidence of true system and orderliness, but merely shows poor taste and a great lack of appreciation of the value and importance of time. Time may not be exactly money in your case, but it may be even more valuable, and can be spent much better than in running around after tools and supplies, and making ingenious tool-chests. To be practical, five minutes a day saved by having things convenient and in place means about twenty-five hours in a year—which means a boat, a sled, or a lot of Christmas presents. So study out the best arrangement for your particular shop and then keep things in order. When working keep only the tools in actual use lying around on the bench. As soon as you are done with a tool for the operations actually in hand, put it back in place, and so avoid the confused litter seen in so many shops.
Fig. 92.
Hang saws against the wall on pegs, or nails, or at the end of the bench. Hang all tools which you put on the wall well above the bench, to be out of the way.
Lay planes on their sides or ends, for obvious reasons, or arrange a little block to raise one end of the plane slightly from the surface of the bench or shelf. The last way is usually more convenient than to lay the plane on its side or end. Keep planes either at the back of the bench or against the wall, or on a shelf under the front of the bench.
Fig. 93.
Such tools as squares, bit-braces, and the like are usually most accessible on the wall, in some such arrangement as shown in the frontispiece. A convenient way to arrange such tools as chisels, gouges, and the like, is to keep them in racks either against the wall or fastened to the back edge of the bench, according to circumstances. Keep each tool in a particular place in the rack and you will soon learn to reach for it instinctively without any waste of time.
Fig. 94.
Bits can be kept in a drawer or box, care being taken to arrange them in racks or between partitions, or they can be stuck on end in the racks at the back of the bench. A good way is to stick each bit point downwards in a hole bored by itself. Various forms of tool-racks, which you can easily arrange for yourself, are suggested in Fig. 93.
Fig. 95.
Fig. 96.
Fig. 94 shows a rack to fit on the back of the bench, an excellent way, in common use with movable benches. Get a board, say 3" or 4" wide and the length of the bench, a strip from ¼" to ½" thick, perhaps 1" wide, and the length of the bench, and a strip ½" thick, perhaps 1" wide, and perhaps two thirds of the length of the bench. Saw from this last strip a number of blocks from 1" to 2" long. Arrange these along the top edge of the board, according to the kinds and sizes of the tools, as shown in Fig. 95. Then lay the long strip on them (Fig. 96) and nail it through each block with wire nails long enough to reach perhaps two thirds through the large strip. You can put this rack together by first nailing at each end. Then all the intermediate blocks can easily be fitted in place and nailed one at a time. The whole can then be screwed to the back of the bench so that the tools will be at the back (Fig. 94). You can make part of this rack solid and bore small holes of various sizes for bits, gimlets, nail-sets, and such tools, which would drop through the larger spaces. Good metal tool-racks and-holders can be bought, but the home-made ones answer every purpose.
Fig. 97.
Fig. 98.
The large steel square can be hung very well with nails or small blocks of wood bevelled toward the wall (Fig. 97). For the try-square nail a rectangular block against the wall (Fig. 98). A smaller block nailed in front will hold another smaller square. Slanting saw-kerfs in another block will hold scrapers (Fig. 99). Always keep your oil-stones in shallow boxes for protection from dirt. You can easily make one, or cut a depression in a block to fit the stone, with another for a cover. Fasten one end of your strop to a strip of thin board (Fig. 100) with a hole by which to hang it. You can then use the strop lying flat on the board or loose in your hand for curved edges.
Fig. 99.
Fig. 100.
Do not keep nails and screws after the usual domestic fashion—all sizes, shapes, and kinds mixed up promiscuously with a lot of metal rubbish and carpet tacks in some old box or pail. You will waste twice as much time trying to find what you want as it takes to keep them in separate boxes, or trays with divisions. A good way is to use either small open boxes or flat open boxes with divisions, so that they can be reached as conveniently as possible. Tin boxes or canisters or pails (of various sizes), such as cocoa, coffee, lard, and such substances come in, are good. Put labels on them and arrange them neatly in some accessible place, as on a shelf over or at the end of your bench, or in a cupboard or a drawer.
Keep scrap boxes for old pieces of metal (iron, brass, etc., in separate boxes), so that you will know just where to look for what you want. Keep a brush for cleaning off the bench and the work, a broom for the floor, and a box for shavings, sawdust, and chips.
Any workman is liable to cut or pound his fingers, so have a small box in a handy place with some neatly rolled bandages of cloth, some surgeon's plaster, and a bottle of witch-hazel