Part 1

SOME SPECIAL BOOKS

FOR NEIGHBORHOOD CLUBS.

To meet the growing demand for books for young people which shall be as entertaining as stories, and at the same time educational in influence, we suggest the following:

I. =The Reading Union Library=, a series prepared for the Chautauqua Young Folks’ Reading Union, $1.00 volume, fully illustrated; four volumes now ready, others in preparation: (a) _Magna Charta Stories_, thrilling tales of the world’s great struggles for liberty, edited by Arthur Gilman; (b) _Old Ocean_, the romance and wonders of the sea, by Ernest Ingersoll; (c) _Dooryard Folks_, fascinating natural history, by Miss A. B. Harris, and including the author’s curious experiments with “A Winter Garden”; (d) _The Great Composers_, a condensed, comprehensive story of music and musicians, by H. Butterworth.

II. =Our Business Boys.= The ways to success in business life, the rocks of danger, as described by _eighty-three business men_, in response to inquiries by the author, Rev. F. E. Clark. Price, 60 cents.

III. For reading after or in connection with, the above, there are three volumes about those who have worked and won: (a) _Men of Mark_, (b) _Noble Workers_, (c) _Stories of Success_; to which may well be added (d) _A Noble Life; or, Hints for Living_, by Rev. O. A. Kingsbury; each volume, $1.25.

IV. Charlotte M. Yonge’s =Young Folks’ Histories=, $1.50 a volume:

Young Folks’ History of Germany. Young Folks’ History of Greece. Young Folks’ History of Rome. Young Folks’ History of England. Young Folks’ History of France. Young Folks’ Bible History.

V. =Lothrop’s Library of Entertaining History.= Edited by Arthur Gilman, M. A. Each volume has one hundred illustrations. These histories are designed to furnish in a succinct but interesting form, such descriptions of the lands treated as shall meet the wants of those busy readers who cannot devote themselves to the study of detailed and elaborate works, but who wish to be well-informed in historical matters. $1.50 per volume.

_America_, by Arthur Gilman, M. A.; _India_, by Fannie Roper Feudge; _Egypt_, by Mrs. Clara Erskine Clement; _Spain_, by Prof. James Albert Harrison; _Switzerland_, by Miss Harriet D. S. Mackenzie.

VI. =Popular Biographies=, of great and good men, whose efforts and accomplishments cannot fail of helpful suggestions to young people. Each volume illustrated. Price $1.50.

Abraham Lincoln. Horace Greeley. Henry Wilson. Bayard Taylor. Henry W. Longfellow. Washington. Daniel Webster. Charles Sumner. James A. Garfield. George Peabody. Charles Dickens. William the Silent. Benjamin Franklin. Amos Lawrence. Israel Putnam. John G. Whittier. David Livingstone. Oliver Wendell Holmes.

The above books sent, post-paid on receipt of price. Send for full catalogue of more than a thousand volumes, including many volumes of story, biography, travel and adventure equally desirable with the above for neighborhood clubs and reading circles.

D. LOTHROP & CO., Publishers, Boston.

A BOY’S WORKSHOP

WITH PLANS AND DESIGNS

FOR IN-DOOR AND OUT-DOOR WORK

BY A BOY AND HIS FRIENDS

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

HENRY RANDALL WAITE

BOSTON D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS

Copyright by

D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY

1884

=Press of= =Berwick & Smith,= =Boston.=

CONTENTS.

Chap. Page

I. The Shop Itself 7

II. The Sawhorse and Workbench 13

III. The Sawhorse and Workbench (_Continued_) 21

IV. The use of Tools 30

V. How to make a Tool Cabinet 38

VI. How to make a Tool Cabinet (_Continued_) 47

VII. Hinges and Lock 54

VIII. Curtain Poles 62

IX. Book-rest 71

X. Book-rest (_Continued_) 79

XI. A Bed Table 85

XII. Cabinet 89

XIII. A Boy’s “Catchall” 96

XIV. How to Build a Portable Wooden Tent 107

XV. How to Build a Portable Wooden Tent (_Con._) 117

XVI. How to make a Fernery 127

XVII. A Boy’s Railway and Train 138

XVIII. How to make a good Fly 154

XIX. How to bind Magazines 163

XX. How to Photograph 169

XXI. Archery for Boys 186

XXII. Sir Walter Scott’s Idea 196

XXIII. Knots, Hitches and Splices 204

INTRODUCTION.

THE typical American boy, at some period in his life, has a taste for the mechanic arts. Before he is out of pinafores, he surreptitiously lays hold of edged tools, and with unlimited self-confidence tries to make something. If his success lies chiefly in the direction of making pieces of furniture and bric-à-brac, and the covering of his juvenile apron with gore, followed by a tableau in which a shrieking youngster, an angry sire, and a sympathetic mother are about equally prominent, the effect is merely to determine the amount of the boy’s grit, and to prepare the way, in the battles of the future, for the survival of the fittest. While a certain number of the pinafored experimenters, pensively regarding healed gashes and flattened thumbs, will ever after sedulously avoid contact with chisels and hammers, the plucky boys, who form the majority, will hardly wait for the shedding of belladonna plasters, and the bleaching of gory aprons, before seizing upon the instruments of their discomfiture, with a firm determination (founded on the boyish belief in the intelligence and moral responsibility of inanimate objects) to let those tools know that they know how to handle them without getting hurt. After various efforts for the mastery, the implacable foes of the unskilful juvenile, such as the hatchet, the saw and the hammer, will shake their sides in malignant laughter over the final discomfiture of a second installment of the rising generation, and will own themselves partially subject to the ten and twelve-year-old veterans who have come triumphantly through the struggle, and can use such tools as happen to fall into their hands with a more or less murderous degree of execution. To this large class of boys, intrepid, ambitious, industrious, and full of manly instincts, America looks for its inventors, its engineers, architects, designers, skilled artisans, and most successful business men in every walk in life. They constitute, in fact, what may be termed the “Honorable Guild of Amateur Artisans,” and it is for the benefit of the members of this juvenile guild that “A Boy’s Workshop” is sent forth, with the best wishes of its editors and publishers.

It will bring to thousands of lads just such information in regard to the first steps in the mechanic arts as they most need, and will enable them, with little other direction, if wisely encouraged by their elders, to so develop whatever mechanical ingenuity they may possess, as to make it easy to determine whether they shall ultimately join the ranks of those wholly devoted to the useful arts, or continue to be amateurs, using to good advantage whatever skill they have acquired in connection with other occupations.

But the parents and instructors of boys have no less reason than the boys themselves for awarding to this book a cordial welcome. In neither home nor school is adequate attention now given to the training of the hands to skill in the use of any of the tools employed in the industrial arts. It need hardly be stated that every boy should have at least a little training in this direction, while to thousands, such training is an essential part of their equipment as bread-winners and as useful citizens. “A Boy’s Workshop” is calculated to meet a need in this important respect, and on this account alone, is worthy of a place in the library of every home and school.

The desire to turn the energies of hands and brain upon constructive work, is worthy and honorable. Let it have proper encouragement. We have too little of the industry which follows habits well formed, and too little of the thrift which follows skill. Society, the State, and the nation have need of the boy who has a workshop. May every boy who wants one, have one, and God bless him!

HENRY RANDALL WAITE.

A BOY’S WORKSHOP.

I.—THE SHOP ITSELF.

IF there is anything a boy really likes to have, it is a workshop of his own.

But then it must be really his own; a place where he can pound and hammer, saw and whittle, and make all the litter and noise he wants to, without having to clear up things.

A boy likes a place where he can leave a thing half finished and be sure of finding it again. He wants a key to the door, so that he can lock up his treasures and know he shall find them safe the next spare hour he gets to work at some pet notion.

Housemaids, and sometimes even mothers, don’t see the difference between unfinished work and rubbish, and off into the kindlings goes something that has cost a boy a lot of thought and work. No wonder a fellow who isn’t a saint, but only a human boy, gets out of patience and wishes emphatically, that “folks would just let his things alone!”

So I say, let every boy have his own workshop and a key to it.

Where shall the workshop be?

I don’t think it makes much difference. There must be plenty of light, of course, and the room must not be damp. My first workshop was in the attic, with a skylight. I liked it first-rate; but it was a bother to bring the lumber up-stairs, and then, too, the shavings and chips had to be carried down. I got along with it capitally though for three years; but I like my down-stairs shop better. The noise of pounding and sawing never disturbs any one either, if it is below. One end of the woodshed can be partitioned off for a shop if there is no room in the house.

Now you’ve got your workshop, the next thing is, “what shall go into it?”

There are two ways to fit up a workshop. The easiest and the quickest is also the most expensive: _i. e._ get your father to tell the carpenter to fit it up, and then buy a tool chest. The objections are: the expense and the doubtful quality of the tools in a ready-filled tool chest; then, to my thinking, you lose a lot of fun yourself. It is a good lesson in carpentry to make your own work bench and tool chest, and the money you save that way can go into better tools.

Every boy ought to remember this, a _cheap_ tool is probably a _dear_ tool. The very best is really the cheapest in the end, and you can’t do good work with poor tools.

Of course the boys I am talking to are not in the infant class. A boy who has never fooled round with tools, who has never cared enough about carpentry to try his hand at tinkering up broken chairs and boxes, the boy who hasn’t got past mashing his fingers when he drives a nail, and doesn’t know the difference between cutting with a saw and whittling with a knife, isn’t the boy to care whether he has a workshop or not.

But I should like to help the boys who have had “toy tool chests,” and have used them enough to find out “they are no good,” and are really ambitious to do neat, serviceable work, and to know enough about the right use of good tools to be ready and able to do the hundred little odd jobs that come up in a house and can often be as well done by a boy carpenter as by a regular workman. I know one boy who in one year, doing odd jobs himself, saved the full cost of his outfit.

When I began I couldn’t find anybody to tell me the things I wanted to know. I had to find them out for myself, and that is just what I am going to try and tell you. So we start with this understanding. You are in earnest; you wish to do good, substantial work; you haven’t a great deal of money to spend, and you are willing to let patience and labor make up for the lack of money, knowing, too, that the lessons you will get making your work bench and tool chest will be worth considerable.

If your mother can spare you an old bureau, or an old-fashioned washstand with a lid and a cupboard, it will be handy in one corner of the workshop, not only to hold your tools till the chest is made, but to keep all sorts of odds and ends in by and by.

You ought to have a stout pair of overalls, or a workman’s apron made of ticking, with a good pocket. I have both, and find them handy. If it’s a little job, I slip on the apron; if a long one it pays to get into the overalls. Your clothes keep clean, and there’s nothing to do when the dinner bell rings but to slip off the working uniform and wash your hands. Carpentry is cleaner work than printing. I know, for I have tried both.

Now for the list of essential tools. If it sounds large and expensive, you must remember that once bought they will last for years, and are your capital, your stock in trade. From time to time you will add to them. If you live in Boston or the vicinity, I should advise you to go to Goodnow and Wightman’s, 176, or to Wilkinson’s, 184 Washington street, or some other first-rate establishment, and get what you want. On an order like this there would be quite a discount.

The prices vary from time to time, so those in the list are given simply that you may have a general idea of the cost.

I will say here that it will pay you to have two or three practical lessons in the use of a saw, a plane, and a chisel, from a carpenter. If you are in the city, there are regular classes where you can get such instructions. It will save patience and tools.

Hammer .75 to $1.00 Saw (cross-cut) 16 to 18 inch 1.25 " (splitting) " " 1.35 Chisel 1 inch socket firmer .60 " ½ " " " .25 Bit brace (plain 1.50) ratchet 2.00 Bits ⅜, ½, ⅝ .80 Small bits ¼ and less for screws, the set .50 Screw-driver (at Wilkinson’s ask for a gunmaker’s and machinist’s drop forged ) .40 Hatchet .75 2 ft. rule .25 Try square (9 inch) 1.00 Oil stone (1½ or 2 inches wide) .40 Mallet (large wooden) .35 Small iron Block Plane (Bailey’s) 1.25 Jack or Fore Plane, Stanley’s 20 inch 2.25 Draw Knife 7 inch .70 ______ $15.10

Nails and screws of various sizes can be got at any hardware store. If you send an order through the village store, be sure to send to first-class establishments, and procure the following makes:

Planes, _Bailey’s_ or _Stanley’s_, iron and wood; chisels and gouges, _Buck_ or _Moulson_; braces, _Barber_; saws, _Henry Diston_; rules and squares, _Stanley_; files, _Stubs, Greaves and Sons_.

II.—MY SAWHORSE AND WORKBENCH.

NOW that you have a fair assortment of tools to work with, the next thing is to have a work-bench; for even an accomplished carpenter can’t do much without a good, strong, firm bench. And of course you must have a sawhorse before you _can_ have a bench; but a sawhorse is a simple affair to make, and I will tell you how to set about it right away, for you ought not to buy anything that with a little trouble you can make. Besides it will be good, plain practise with try-square, saw and plane.

The sawhorse for the average boy ought to stand about twenty or twenty-two inches high, so that you can kneel with one knee on it easily.

You must get two pine boards:

_A_, 6 feet long, 6 inches wide, 1½ inches thick. _B_, 12 " " 6 " " 1 " "

Take A, cut off two and one half feet: if not already planed, plane nicely on all sides. (Unplaned boards are cheaper than planed boards.)

Take this two and one half foot board and measure four inches from the end. Lay on try-square and draw a line across the board at dotted line. (_See right end of fig. 1._)

Then measure five and one half inches more from this line: with try-square extend second line across the board. Measure one inch on all these lines from the outer edge of board, and connect by lines _b b_ and _c c_. With cross-cut saw cut carefully through the one inch from _a_ to _b_; then with chisel cut out on line _b b_. Don’t cut quite as deep on the lower edge, for these openings are for the legs, and should slope out a trifle, that the legs may be farther apart on the floor than at the top when nailed on—one eighth of an inch will make difference enough for a good slant. All four leg sockets must be done alike, else your horse will be bow-legged and unsteady.

Now plane the twelve-foot board _B_ (unless it is already planed). Square one end nicely; measure off twenty-two inches. Lay try-square and draw a line across the board. Take the cross-cut saw and saw neatly on the line. Smooth the end with a block-plane, bevelling it slightly, so it will fit firmly on the floor. This is for one leg. Do three more legs in the same way, always trimming the ends with block-plane, to make them stand upon the floor true and even.

One thing, boys, you _must_ remember: In planing _across_ the grain never plane to the end at first, for you will chip the corners and spoil the end. Keep reversing the block; _i. e._ first plane from _A_ to _B_, then from _B_ towards _A_. (_See fig. 2._)

Before fitting the legs into their sockets, plane the legs to fit the five and one half inch spaces made in the first board. The inner upper edge of the legs must come exactly level with the top line of the board. The outer edge will of course be higher on account of the slope of the slot, and must be planed smooth with block-plane after the legs have been firmly nailed into place with three or four eight-penny nails.

To keep the legs from spreading apart at the ends, you must make a sort of brace.

Take a piece of the board left after cutting off the legs, and fit it across the legs under the top board in this way: Hold it close to the board and against the legs, then draw a pencil line, following the outside slant of the legs. (_See fig. 3._) Now with cross-cut saw cut across on this line; trim with block-plane before nailing; put one piece on each end, nailing through to the legs.

One thing more and then your horse is done; ready to stand if not to go.

Find the middle of one end of top board, draw a line three inches long down the board, with try-square. Then _on the end_ measure one inch each side of this centre line. (_See fig. 4._) Draw line from _a_ to _b_, and cut on lines with splitting-saw; this will leave a triangular space which you will find very useful by and by in cutting small pieces of wood.

From board _A_ there ought to be left a piece about three and one half feet long, and from board _B_ a piece about two feet long. These you will put aside for further use.

Now for the Bench (with a capital B, because it is the principal partner in the firm of Carpenter and Co.).

Buy three good two-inch pine planks. Say two planks ten feet long, one foot wide, and one eight feet long, six inches wide. Ready planed, at the sawmills around here, these cost about eight cents a foot; a little less unplaned. Besides these, you want one ten-foot inch board, one foot wide; this should cost about four cents a foot. Before you really start on your Bench, look around your workshop and decide where you will have it stand. There must be a space ten feet long against the wall, with plenty of light. A window at the left is the best.

One thing you must have which I didn’t reckon with the tools; but it is easy to prepare. I mean a _chalk line_. There are fancy ones, but the sort I’m going to describe does just as well.

Get a piece of curtain-cord twelve or fifteen feet long, and make a loop on one end; then provide yourself with a good piece of common chalk; when you want to use it, chalk the line well by passing the line over the chalk as you would wax thread; to use it put the loop over a nail at one end of the line you wish to chalk, hold the other taut, and snap the line smartly in the middle; it will leave a straight chalk line for a guide in cutting.

Now take the shorter of the two-inch planks, the one eight feet long, make a mark in the middle of each end, drive a small nail in the left-hand end exactly in the middle; having chalked your line well, slip the loop over the nail, draw the line taut down the middle of the board to the other or right-hand end, holding the line close to the board; pluck the string sharply in the middle and you will find an even chalk line the whole length of the board.

Put one end of the board over sawhorse, take the splitting-saw and cut carefully down the line, holding the saw a little more vertical than you would a cross-cut saw.

Having divided your board thus, lengthwise, you will have two strips eight feet long, three inches wide, two inches thick.

With large plane smooth the rough sides of these strips as well as you can, resting the boards on the sawhorse. One end of each strip must be good and square: if not so already, take small block-plane and square it as best you can.

From the squared end measure thirty inches; draw a line across the board. Then by aid of try-square make another line one eighth inch beyond. This makes it easy to saw straight across the wood with a cross-cut saw. Take block-plane and square the end nicely.

You have now prepared one leg of your bench Cut another thirty-inch length in the same way from the piece left. Repeat this with the other strip. You now have four legs for your bench just alike with nicely squared ends.

For cross-pieces cut from the pieces that remain two lengths of nineteen inches each; cut and trim as before.

Take one pair of legs (_i. e._ two of the thirty-inch strips), lay them on the floor on the _two-inch_ side, just _nineteen inches_ apart. At one end, between the legs, lay one of the nineteen-inch pieces _also on the two-inch side_, so it will be flush with the squared ends of the legs; hammer the legs on to the ends of the cross pieces with two or three twenty-penny nails. This job ought to be done very neatly and accurately, so that the shape will be exactly like fig. 5. If you are careless and let the legs spread while nailing, your Bench will be hopelessly rickety.

III.—MY SAWHORSE AND WORKBENCH. (_Continued._)

TO give greater firmness to the bench there must be some brace made this way: Take the ten-foot inch board; square one end; measure twenty-three inches with try-square; cut off nicely with cross-cut saw. Now you have a board twenty-three inches long and twelve inches wide. Divide in middle at each end; connect the points with chalk line, then cut down this line with splitting saw.