Every boy his own mechanic

Preface

In this book I have tried to tell boys how to do some of the things I have found them always eager to attempt. I have explained and illustrated for them the everyday tools of the worker in wood and metals, and shown how to use them. I have described a variety of handiwork and useful jobs about the house, and have introduced my readers to a number of mechanical hobbies, such as model electric lighting, wood and metal turning, model locomotive and railway work, fretwork, boat building, toy making, telephone construction and erection, etc., etc. I may say that in almost every chapter I have sought not only to present some interesting work or hobby, but to show my boy readers how to make themselves useful in their homes.

Much of the information in this book is " technical," but at the same time it is simple. In other words, I have sought to explain in straightforward sentences the " why and wherefore " of the methods and processes described, believing that the need of the future is for boys and men who understand what they are doing, and why they do it. I have done my best to make every statement easy of comprehension, and to use simple language devoid of unexplained scientific or technical terms.

vii

Preface

It is a pleasure to make a few acknowledgments of help freely rendered me by personal friends. Mr. Henry Greenly, the well-known model engineer, has contributed two chapters on his own subject. Mr. A. Mill ward, a highly skilled amateur mechanic, has explained how to do simple turning in wood and metal. Mr. B. Clements- Henry, electrician, craftsman, author (and ever so many other things besides), has been good enough to go to the trouble of designing an especially simple form of house telephone, and of describing it in the very closest detail. Then there are Mr. R. S, Bowers, who has drawn a number of the best illustrations in the book, and Mr. J. G. Ross — a technical chemist — who has kindly revised the chapter on silvering glass. And I certainly must not forget to thank my boy friend Ronald Gaze, and my son, Lewis R. Jones, both of whom took pains in posing for a number of the photographic plates. Still further acknowledgments are made in certain of the chapters.

May my young readers find delight in putting into practice the information which I give them in the pages of this book.

B. E. J.

Contents

Making and Using Various Cements

The Hektograph Copier : How To Make and Use It

Inserting a Window Pane

Index

PAGE

. 245

. 250

. 255

Garments 268

. 270

. 281

. 285

. 289

. 298

Boat . 307

. 319

. 328

. 330

. 340

. 343

. 367

LIST OF PLATES

Using the Hack Saw rCHES

Rip-sawing

Tool Sharpening

Planing ....

Using Screwdrivers .

Wiring Electric Lamps and S\v:

Picture Framing

Filing at the Vice

Soldering ....

Easy Toy Making

Bicycle Cleaning and Adjusting

Model Locomotive, Station and Signals

Dovetailing .....

Model Railways ....

Building Model Aeroplanes

Frontispiece^

FACING PAGE

8^*

16*^

80^ 104«^ 128*^ 144»^

The Bench. — The average boy mechanic is in my mind as I write. He will be interested in a variety of mechanical work, of which wood-working will be just one branch, and possibly he may have no convenience for a bench of his own, in which case perhaps he can use another's or can adapt a strong table to his purpose. Table benches are useful for light work, particularly so if there are side and cross rails near the floor, as

Fig.

1. — Kitchen Table fitted up as Woodworking Bench these add tremendously to the rigidity of the construction. The average kitchen table is not rigid enough to withstand the stresses set up by planing, but if it is used in the corner of a room or against a wall, and the planing is always done towards the wall, the table may be made to serve very well.

B I

41HSiaB]

Fig. 2.— Iron Bench Screw

Its chief lack will very quickly be discovered. There is no vice in which to hold pieces of wood for chiselling, tenon-sawing, etc., and the worker will not long be satisfied

without one. Fortunately, a vice can be added to a kitchen table at small expense {see Fig. 1).

Nearly every tool catalogue shows both wood and iron bench screws, both of them fairly cheap, and the iron ones {see Fig. 2) can be rapidly converted into efficient vices. Should the table-top overlap the side rail, as it almost certainly will, first screw on a piece of wood as wide as the table rail, of any suitable length, say from 6 in. to 12 in., and of such a thickness that its outer face comes flush with the edge of the table-top. If one piece of wood is not thick enough, use two or three, and screw all together. For the cheek of the vice you will need a piece of good hard stuff of any convenient width, say, 6 in. wide and roughly 18 in. long. The iron screw will vary in diameter, about eight sizes between ye ^^• and If in. inclusive being obtainable.

You will need a centrebit that will cut a hole through which the screw will easily pass.

With this bit cut a ^^^- ^--^^"'^^ ""''' "'^ ^^^^^'° "^'"^ hole in the vice cheek, and right through the thickened rail of the table. On the screw is a nut which must be removed and screwed on the back of the rail in such a position that the bench screw engages with it freely. There is also a collar which in the simplest form of construction is split {see Fig. 2). In attaching the screw to the vice cheek, it is pushed in as far as it will go, the split collar placed in position so as to engage in a recess cut in the screw, and the collar attached to the cheek with half a dozen small screws. On turning the screw by means of the lever handle, the vice cheek is moved to and fro, but owing to its length it will not move perfectly parallel with the table unless a "runner" is fitted to it. Now, B in Fig. 1 shows such a runner, and a is the vice cheek, and Fig. 3 is another view of it. The runner may be of 1 in. stuff by 1| in. deep, or any size similar, and 1 foot or more in length, tenoned into the end of the vice cheek, as shown in Fig. 4, it being Fig. 4.-Run^cnoned into made a tight fit, and screwed ^**'® Check

from the front as indicated in the other views. A long, narrow box in which the runner slides easily is next made, but it is not fitted into position until careful testing has shown what its exact position should be. The presence of the runner, which should fit its box well, but not tightly, will ensure that the vice cheek is kept parallel with the side of the table when the screw handle is worked. Full details of the arrangement, which you can easily follow, are given in Fig. 5.

Two details of the illustrations need a word of comment. In Fig. 3 is shown a planing board which protects the surface of the table, and in which two little mortises have been cut. Two pieces of wood (shown suspended over the holes) fit the holes tightly and can be slightly raised when required to form stops against which the work will be held for planing. The other detail is the little L-iron pieces screwed to the feet of the table legs in Fig. 1, and

OWUlDs

BiaiiOtPACKiyiG-PllCL TOEHABLLBCDCTOttFDOD

/ OF X\6lL-TOP[AUT-a ^.-^

- FU/JH WITH FACl a TABLL-UG J t s

[A^AT4 if jlf

TOP EDGE MUST EL ^ fLUfHWnHTi9P0fTABLL

UG a TAfcEL

Fig. 5.— Constructional Details of Kitchen -Table Bench also to the floor to render the table immovable when doing heavy work such as planing.

Of course, if you can afford to buy just the bench you want, there are many excellent designs available. Those with drawers or cupboards {see Fig. 6) are first-rate, and full details of construction are shown on the opposite page. The great advantage of a strongly-built "portable" bench is that the whole construction is held rigidly by means of

4'6"-

1'6'.

iV

I

L^ 2isq

Top of Leg

Dovetailed

to Rail

Front and End Elevations of Bench

Sketch of Complete Bench as in use

BENCH TOP SCREW

Section showing how Vice is fitted

Arrangement of Drawer Runners, etc.

Fig. 6. — Sketch and Working Drawings of Bench with Shelf and Tool Drawers wedges which can be easily knocked out when it is required to take the bench to pieces for removal. The pinboard on the front of some benches is for the purpose of supporting long boards, one end of which will be held in the vice and the other supported on a wooden peg pushed into one of the holes at a suitable height.

Tools. — Sawing, planing and chiselling make up the bulk of woodworking, and I advise you to buy just the few tools that are essential and not to bother your head or empty your pocket by obtaining a fitted tool chest. Most of the tool boxes I have seen contain a number of tools that are seldom required, and only the best of these fitted boxes contain tools of really high quality. You can do a lot of things with just a few simple tools of average size and of good quality, kept in thorough order, and used with as much care and skill as you can muster. I am not going to bother you with a long list of the tools required (I show two groups of them in Figs. 7 and 7a), except to say that you will need a saw, a plane, two or three chisels, and the everyday tools that most households possess, such as a hammer, bradawl, gimlet, screwdriver, 2-ft. rule, etc. One or two other tools that would be extremely useful will be referred to as the occasion for their employment arises. The number of tools required depends so much upon what you want to make and upon the size and condition of the wood which you can get for the purpose. For example, if you can obtain at a local sawmill or carpenter's shop wood of any convenient length, width, and thickness accurately cut and properly planed, there is no need to buy a hand saw or a jack plane, extremely useful though those tools are, and you

Haad Saw

Tenon Saw

Wooden Spokeshave

Brace

Fig. 7. — A group of fourteen of the Woodworker's chief Tools and Appliances can keep the money by you until you take in hand an ambitious job where the tools mentioned cannot easily be dispensed with. Under such conditions as I have named a good tenon saw would answer most purposes, but don't get a cheap one, and don't buy one at a *' clearance sale " unless you get with it a guarantee that it is by a good maker.

The hand saw is used for severing a board, and may be used either with or across the grain, for which reason it consists of a single piece of fine steel slightly tapered in thickness towards the back so that it works sweetly in the cut or kerf. The tenon saw is used chiefly in shaping work in the making of joints and for other accurate cutting of a finer and slighter nature than that which is generally accomplished with the hand saw. It has a thinner blade than the last mentioned, and very much finer teeth, and to prevent its twisting or buckling when in use it is strengthened with a back of brass or iron, as shown in Fig. 7. Some tenon saws have a hinged back, which can be pushed out of the way to allow of the saw being used as a hand saw, but I have not yet seen a tool of fine quality made in this way. A small brass-backed dovetail saw will be found useful. Saws for cutting small curves are the turn saw, compass saw, and keyhole saw.

How to Use a Saw. — Let our first attempt at woodworking be the sawing of a piece of board accurately to a line. The saw is to be started and maintained at work so as to make a neat cut at right angles to the face of the timber. Plenty of boys wonder why they cannot saw off a piece of wood with a perfectly straight and square edge. They get an edge which alters in its angle at every half inch, and in trying to correct it they produce another edge just as bad and run the risk of making the work too short for the purpose intended. The reason is that they c:3i

Marking Awl and Knife

Twist Bit

Centrebit

Sliding Bevel

Twist Gimlet

Fig. 7A. — Another group of fourteen of the Woodworker's chief Tools and Appliances

do not adopt the proper position. One of the photographic plates in this book shows the position for ensuring that the saw is cutting square to the face of the work.

Look at it closely, and you will discover the secret of accurate cutting. You will note that the saw, the forearm, and the right eye are in one vertical plane, and if you accustom yourself to working in this position you will soon get into the habit of square cutting. Every now and then you can test the accuracy by means of a

try-square (Fig. 8).

The saw must be held as illustrated in the photograph from the very first cut to the last. At starting it is guided to the spot required by the thumb-nail of the left hand (Fig. 9), and the first stroke is a short upstroke which just abrades the edge of the work and makes an easy path for the down stroke, which is the real cutting stroke.

On the return upstroke take all pressure off the saw, as the teeth are so shaped that each one removes a little scraping when the saw is thrust forward, but has only a slight bruising action when drawn backwards in the cut. The carpenter who presses the saw into the work on the back stroke soon dulls his tool. Even on the downstroke do not press too heavily, and do not grip the

ID

Fig. 8.

-Testing Accuracy of Sawing by means of Try-square handle too tightly or the vibration will soon cramp the fingers and tire the muscles of the arm.

To keep the saw to the line, the handle is very slightly lowered occasionally, the eye observing that it is following the path intended. But in taking pains to keep to the line do not " lay " the saw too much, as you will then be in effect increasing the thickness of the stuff and making the job a harder one. But, as I have said, unless you lay the saw to some extent, you cannot be sure of following the line.

In rip-sawing — cutting with the grain — you will need to support the work at both ends, whilst for cutting across the grain, it is usual for part of the plank to overhang the box or sawing stool. In both kinds of sawing the parts requiring the most care are at the beginning and the end of the

cut, the first because accuracy and neatness depend upon it, and the second because without careful work it is easy to break off the partly-severed piece and leave an ugly splinter. Thus you need to go slowly and gently when approaching the end of the cut, and you or a helper must support the work until the saw has completed the cut. The method of starting the cut is the same