Wood-working for Beginners: A Manual for Amateurs. Charles G. Wheeler
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Fig. 140.
Fig. 140 shows a good form of cabinet. Make a tight box, perhaps 2' × 3' × 6" to 9", the sides and ends of 7/8" stock, and the top and bottom (i.e., the front and back of the cabinet) of ½" stock. Saw it open carefully on the line a b c about 2" or 3" from the top or face, according to the thickness of the box, first marking the ends or the sides so that you can finally put them together again in the same positions. When nailing the box together omit all nails which could interfere with the sawing. They can easily be put in afterwards. (See Box-making, in Part II.) Carefully smooth the edges after the saw. Reckless and hasty planing will spoil the joint. Fit two strap-hinges, or three of the common kind. Fit up inside as you wish, and fasten with hasp, padlock, or a lock working on the principle of a chest lock.
All these cabinets must be firmly fastened to the wall, for they will be very heavy when filled. Do not trust to a couple of nails or screws, the way amateurs so often put up shelves and cabinets in the house. A ledge of some sort below is a great help (Fig. 140) to relieve the screws or nails of the weight. If the back is not very strong, do not trust wholly to it, but add cleats outside or inside. If in the house, stout screw-eyes of heavy wire in the sides of the cabinet, through which you can screw to the wall, are good (Fig. 140).
Good shelves can be made by arranging empty boxes one on top of another, or by taking a wide, thin (flat) box and fitting shelves across it, like a bookcase, and then fastening the whole to the wall.
Fig. 141.
Fig. 142.
A small drawer can be fixed under a shelf, anywhere in your shop, on the principle often used in sewing-machine tables and the like, by taking a small box of suitable shape, strengthening one corner if necessary (Fig. 141), and pivoting it with a screw at that corner (Fig. 142).
First-class Bench.—You can do all the work you will be equal to for a long time on such a bench as has been shown, but some day you will want a first-class bench, such as Fig. 143. Do not attempt anything of the sort at first, however, though if you can afford it, such a bench is good to begin with. A few details are given in the Appendix.
Fig. 143.
Other Appliances.—A number of other appliances and contrivances will be found, under their respective headings, in Part V.
A FEW ESSENTIALS TO SUCCESSFUL WORK
Do one thing at a time. Finish one job before you start two or three others.
First learn to work well, then ability to work quickly will come of itself.
Plan your work to the end before beginning to use your tools.
Make drawings carefully to scale before beginning any but the simplest work.
Lay out the work carefully on the wood with sharp, accurate lines, according to the drawings, measuring everything with exactness at least twice.
Cut the work accurately with sharp tools to the lines you have laid out.
Keep testing the accuracy of the work with the square, straight-edge, rule, level, or plumb.
Keep your tools sharp and in good order.
Have the most convenient place for each tool and always keep it in that place when not in use.
Do your work thoroughly and strongly. Do not half make it. Do not half fasten it together. The only time you will regret thorough work is when you have to take it apart again.
"The labor is small, the pastime is great."—Goethe.
PART II
CHAPTER VI
ARTICLES TO BE MADE IN THE WORKSHOP
Even if you are able to use tools quite well, you may still not know how to go to work to make some particular thing, so it is quite important to know how to lay out, put together, and finish different kinds of work.
The number of things you can make is legion. The number it is worth while for you to make is much smaller. Amateurs often say that the work they do themselves costs more (even counting their own labour as nothing) than to hire the work done, and it is one aim of this book to prevent that undesirable result, in some cases at least.
The number of things which you can make more cheaply than you can buy grows smaller every year. Many things can now be bought ready-made for less than you would have to pay for the materials. It is foolish to take the time and money to make many of the games and toys, for instance, sold so cheaply nowadays. A wheelbarrow is in itself a good thing to make, but it can be bought so cheaply that it is hardly worth while to make one. It is true that some of these things you can make better, although not cheaper, than you can easily buy (a sled perhaps); but, as a rule, your time can be better spent than upon this class of objects, and you will find but few such given here.
Things like whistles, pea-shooters, and clappers, which are so familiar to every boy and require no more instruction to make than is handed down and around from boy to boy, are not given here, as a rule. A few other things which you might perhaps look for, such as tennis rackets and snow-shoes, are omitted, because they require more special knowledge and skill than most beginners can be expected to have. It is easy enough to see how to make a tennis racket, for instance, so far as the general idea is concerned; but simply bending a loop, fastening it to a stick, and lacing the loop, does not make a tennis racket. The holes for the stringing must be made in a particular way, the stringing must be done properly, and the whole affair must balance or "hang" right, or be of little use. It is better to buy such things.
You boys, and many of your elders, like to try all the new-fangled ideas as fast as they come out, and it is well that you do, but you (as a class) accept them "for keeps" only after they have stood the test of many trials. A large book could be filled with descriptions of the novelties which have appeared within my remembrance, but out of this number I can count on my fingers all that have come to stay. You will find all the novelties you can attend to (and more) in the magazines, etc., so I have been rather conservative in my selection, knowing that you will permanently accept but the best of the new ideas and come back in the end, year after year, to the same old things, with only such additions as have stood the test of actual use.
The objects included embrace a sufficient variety of types to form a basis of experience and practice, in different kinds of work and in various details, from which you can launch out into any of these new plans, or any experiments of your own which you may wish to try, and thus supply for yourselves the information lacking in many of the popular descriptions.
Before you make anything bulky measure your shop door or window to see that you can get it out after you have made it. This may seem a superfluous caution, but there have been many cases where people have spent much time in making things which could not be taken from the room in which they were made without tearing out the door or window casing. Even Robinson Crusoe, you know, built a boat so far from the water that he could not launch her.
Do not be deceived by all the complicated, new-fangled variations