Wood-working for Beginners: A Manual for Amateurs. Charles G. Wheeler
undershot wheel, turned by the water passing beneath (Fig. 165), can be easily made. It can be of any desired size, and of any wood readily worked.
Before beginning work read carefully Marking, Rule, Square, Saw, and look up any other references.
Fig. 165.
Fig. 166.
Fig. 167.
One like Fig. 166 can be made by simply nailing a set of small boards or paddles in a radial arrangement between two disks of wood. A dowel or broomstick will do for the shaft and should be fitted tightly in the hole bored through the wheel (see Boring), but should turn freely in the bearings at the side. It will make a rather neater job to shape the paddles as in Fig. 167, so that when put together the wheel will look like Fig. 166, but this is not at all necessary, and it will work just as well to make plain rectangular paddles and simply nail the disks on the outside edges (see Nailing). If you have no saw with which to get out the disks you can have them sawed at the mill, or you can work them out by describing the required circles and sawing a hexagon outside of the line with a common saw, when the circle can be finished with shave, hatchet, chisel, or knife (see Paring). Divide the circumference of each disk into as many parts as there are paddles and draw lines on the side to the centre, by which to nail the paddles in the right position. Start the nails on these lines and drive them nearly through before placing the paddles in position. Then nail one disk to the paddles, turn the wheel over and nail on the other disk. It is essential to a neat job that the paddles should all be of the same width. First make one edge straight. From this edge gauge the desired width on all the pieces (see Gauge) and saw or plane or trim, with knife, chisel, or shave, exactly to the line. If you make the paddles as shown in the cut, first square lines across at equal distances from one end (Fig. 167), and with a gauge set at a point equal to the thickness of the disks make lines parallel to each edge, and with the saw or saw and chisel, or even a knife, remove the pieces marked (see Paring).
Fig. 168.
Fig. 169.
The overshot wheel (Fig. 168) is harder to make, but is a livelier wheel. It is put together upon the same principle as the wheel just shown, except that the paddles, which do not project beyond the circumference of the disks, are not placed radially, but so that, with the addition of another set inserted to connect them, they form buckets.
Fig. 170.
To lay off the lines for the buckets, divide the circumference of each disk as before, and from the centre describe a small circle, as shown in Fig. 169. From the points on the circumference draw lines tangent to the small circle. These lines will give the positions for the bottoms of the buckets. To complete the buckets mark from the circumference equal distances on these lines, and from these last points draw lines as ab to the next points on the circumference. First, nail together with only the bottoms of the buckets (on the lines ca). Then fit in the other pieces, to complete the buckets, on the lines ab. The ends of these last pieces should properly be bevelled (see Bevelling) to make a fairly tight joint. The rest of the work is the same as for the undershot wheel. A larger form (but harder to make) is suggested in Fig. 170. See note under Windmills, above.
Totlet Town.
Play Village.—It is capital fun for several young people to design and build a miniature village, and it is certainly an instructive and quite inexpensive pastime. Such a village, planned and made recently by a family group of half a dozen youngsters, and facetiously named "Totlet Town," was constructed entirely of old boxes and packing-cases of all sizes up to three feet long, waste pieces of board, shingles, etc.; but when painted and arranged in a corner of the lawn, with dirt roads, and paths, small evergreen shade trees and hedges, well-sweeps, miniature fences, and other accessories, it made so pretty a picture as to be the admiration of all who saw it. If you have as good a time in making such a village as these young people did, the experiment will be a success. You can easily think up many additions to the suggestions here given.
Fig. 171.
The buildings were made by selecting boxes of the desired proportions, sawing out spaces for the doors, adding the roofs and any other alterations. The chimneys were made of blocks painted red. The doors were made of pieces of board and hinged with leather. Bay-windows and the like were made of blocks of the required shape nailed to the boxes. The windows and blinds were represented by painting. Some of the roofs were shingled with pieces of shingles. A suggestion for a light-house is shown in Fig. 171.
Considerable care in the use of the tools is called for to make these buildings neatly. Much of the effect depends, also, upon the care with which the painting is done (see Painting), and the taste used in the selection of the colours. Brighter colours are suitable for a little village of this sort than would be in good taste for real houses. White with green blinds is good, of course; or yellow can be used. The roofs should be painted. Red roofs are very effective.
Before beginning work, read carefully Marking, Rule, Square, Saw, Plane, Nailing, Withdrawing Nails, etc.
Fig. 172.
Dolls' House.—The house shown in Fig. 172 is quite easily made, and a shallow affair like this has the advantage of being more convenient than a deep one about arranging the contents.
Before beginning work read carefully Marking, Rule, Square, Saw, Plane, and look up any other references.
Pine and whitewood are suitable, or any wood can be used that is not hard to work.
It can be made of any desired size. Three or four feet wide and a little higher in the middle will probably be suitable for ordinary cases, and twelve or fifteen inches will be a good depth (from front to back).
The construction is plain. The roof and sides are to be cut from dressed stock of uniform width, and from ½" to 7/8" in thickness.
Carefully true one edge, if it is not already true, and get out the bottom board, then the upright sides, and then the roof. The bevels at the highest point of the roof and where the roof joins the sides you must mark with the bevel (taking the slant from your drawing), or you can find it by arranging two strips to cross at the desired angle and marking the bevel by them (see Bevelling). To saw these bevels requires much care. Draw lines by the square on both sides, as well as the angle on the edge, and putting each board in the vise saw carefully and steadily.
The three floors should be narrower than the outside of the house by just the thickness of the stock to be used for the back, and rectangular openings must be sawed from one of the back corners at the head of the stairs to allow the dolls to pass from one story to another. If the sides of the house are 14" wide, make these floors 13½" wide, and use ½" or 3/8" stock for the back. Also mark and saw out the windows. To do this, first bore a series of holes inside of the line (see Boring) and cut out whatever wood may be necessary until you make a slot in which to start the saw.