Part 2
When this is done, measure the hole in the center of the upper belt wheel, where the shaft went through. It will probably be one half inch in diameter. Then get a piece of gas pipe twelve inches long and of the same diameter, outside measurement, as the hole, so that the wheel may be put on it with a “drive fit.” This simply means that the wheel fits so tightly that it must be driven on and, once on, it will not turn. It should be driven on far enough so that when the groove for the belt is in line with the groove on the lower belt wheel, the pipe will project the half inch beyond the solid end of the bed.
Now you must make two supports, or “head blocks” for this. Cut from two-inch-thick hard wood two pieces like Fig. 2. The square hole is for the gas pipe to go through and must have a bearing fitted into it. Of course it would be easier to cut just a round hole slightly larger than the pipe for it to turn in, but this bearing, with much turning, would wear loose. So a one-inch square hole is cut; the gas pipe, with a piece of newspaper wrapped around it, is held in the exact center of the hole, the head block standing upright; and melted Babbitt metal is poured down through the hole in the top of the block. To do this pieces of cardboard should be fitted over the pipe and tacked to either side of the block, so that the space inside is like a mold. The metal which remains in the top hole forms a key to hold it. The Babbitt metal may be bought at a hardware store in small bars and melted in a kettle in the fire. It hardens quickly and when hard, the pipe may be removed, the paper taken off and you will have a permanent, durable bearing.
Slip one of these head blocks on the pipe from each end, with an iron washer on each side of each block. The right hand block should be “flush” with the end of the bed, the pipe projecting a half inch beyond it. The other block should be spaced two inches back from the ends of the slot in the bed. The blocks are fastened to the bed with long wood screws which come up through the bed from underneath, and they are held in position on the gas pipe by making “prick punch” holes through the pipe close to the washers and using either “cotter pins” or bent wire through these. Then the end of the pipe, which projects over the slot should be filed so that it has four points, or teeth. This completes the head of the lathe, and is much the most complicated part.
The rest of the lathe consists of a “tail block” and a tool rest, both of which are adjustable to any position desired. Fig. 3 shows the tail block. Like the head blocks, it is made of two-inch thick stock. The bottom of it is cut to slide back and forth in the slot. Just underneath it, on the under side of the bed, is a piece of wood four inches by two inches and one-inch thick which is fastened to the tail block by a screw through the center and which clamps the block in position at any required distance. At the point marked “P” a “lag” screw, which is simply a wood screw with a sharp point and a large flat head, is screwed through the block. The piece of wood to be turned is held in place by this lag screw and the filed teeth on the gas pipe.
The pieces of the tool rest are shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5. Fig. 6 shows it as it looks when it is put together in place on the bed of the lathe.
Fig. 4 shows the tool rest itself--that is, the part upon which the chisel or gouge is steadied for cutting. This is fastened upright upon the end of Fig. 5, which is a standard which extends across the bed and is clamped in place, as the tail block is, to a block underneath, except that, instead of being screwed, it is fastened with a three-eighth inch bolt and nut.
Fig. 7 shows the whole lathe “assembled,” or put together with each part marked according to its figure numbers so that you can see just how it goes.
All the material it has required has been:
One old sewing machine. About fifty cents’ worth of hard wood. One three-inch lag screw. One three-eighths-inch bolt five inches long, with nut and washer. Four iron washers for gas pipe. One foot of gas pipe. Seven three-inch wood screws. A few cents’ worth of Babbitt metal.
The result is a good practical lathe on which anything up to eight inches in diameter and twenty-one inches long may be turned; and I think you’ll all agree that it was well worth the making.
HOW TO MAKE A TOY TRAIN
Clear the track there! Push the crib over in the corner. Pick up those blocks. Shove the doll’s house and blackboard out of the way. Hurry and put the old red candy lantern out of sight. We don’t want any danger signals here. The Twentieth Century Limited--the Fast Special of the play room--is coming.
The construction of the Twentieth Century Limited follows close upon _the making of whittling tools_. A little train it is, just an engine, coal car, baggage car, and one passenger coach, but of course there may be any number of additional cars coupled on, provided the train proves popular and the nursery traffic is heavy. The train is made from cigar boxes. The floor of the engine is made from a flat piece of wood, two inches wide by four and one-half inches long, cut perfectly true and then pointed at one end (Fig. 1). Then the cab is made. Fig. 2 shows the front of it--a piece of wood measuring two inches by one and three-quarters, and having two little holes three-eighths of an inch square cut for windows. The side pieces are an inch and a quarter by two inches, cut in the shape of Fig. 3, and each has one little window. The roof is an oblong piece two inches by one and a half. When the whole cab has been nailed together, it is placed in position on the floor of the engine, about a quarter of an inch from the rear end, and nailed there. For the boiler you can use one of mother’s basting thread spools. Chip off the ends, making them even with the part where the thread was wound, and then nail it to the floor from underneath. A spot on the upper side of the boiler is smoothed off, and a tiny spool is glued on for a smoke stack. The forward wheels are made from circular pieces an inch in diameter, and the “drivers” from pieces an inch and a half in diameter. Then there are bearings for the wheels, like Fig. 4, those for the smaller wheels being an inch long, and those for the larger wheels three-quarters of an inch in length. They are glued to each side of the floor piece and the axles, made from lollypop sticks, are slipped through. These are cut three inches long, which allows plenty of room for the wheels to turn, and for a little nail to be put through like a cotter pin, to hold them on.
The coal car floor measures two inches square, the sides two inches by one, and the ends one and three-quarters by one. These are nailed together to form a little box, and four wheels and bearings like the forward ones on the engine are made. The couplings are made from little round brass hooks, the one on the forward end of each car being horizontal, and the one in the rear end perpendicular.
The baggage car is a triumph of whittling, for it has a door that will slide back and forth just like a real one. The bottom and top of the car are oblong pieces of wood two inches by four and a half, and the end pieces measure two by two and a quarter inches. The sides are made like Fig. 5, with an opening an inch and a quarter square for a doorway. On the inside of the side pieces, extending to within a half inch of each end, and starting about an eighth of an inch from the top a groove is cut, the depth of the groove being about a quarter of an inch. The door itself is one and thirteen-sixteenths inches high by two inches wide, and has two very small, flat-headed, wood screws, screwed in near the top at an angle, so that the heads rest in this groove, and slide back and forth. Above the door is a strip of wood an eighth of an inch wide, and outside of this another strip a quarter of an inch wide, both of which are nailed in position, and keep the door from slipping out of the groove. Another screw forms a handle for the door, and when the car is put together it is not at all apparent how the door slides. Fig. 6 is a section cut through the side, above the doorway, and shows the groove and how the strips are put on.
For the passenger car the floor is made first--like Fig. 7--the car floor itself measuring two inches by four and one-half, with a projection one inch by five-eighths at each end for a platform. The sides of the car (Fig. 8), are two inches by four and a half, with three holes one inch wide by three-quarters high for Pullman windows. The ends of the car are like Fig. 9. They are slipped over the platforms, the space one and one quarter inch by a half inch forming a doorway and the lower ends extending below the platform to form the side of the steps. The end of the platform is a piece measuring one inch by two inches, and is nailed in position so that the lower edge of it is even with the lower edge of the side pieces, the remainder of it extending above the platform for a railing. There are two steps on each side at each end--eight steps in all. The bottom ones measure a quarter of an inch wide and three-quarters of an inch long, while the upper ones are the same width, but only a half inch long, for they have to fit in between the ends of the car, and the ends of the platform. The roof of the car is like Fig. 10--a piece two inches by six and one-half inches with rounded ends, extending well over the platforms. Both the passenger and baggage cars have wheels exactly like the coal car. When these are done the train is coupled, and away she speeds. “Clear the track there! The Twentieth Century Limited is just pulling into Chicago, and she has made the trip from New York in eighteen hours.”
OUT-DOOR TOYS
This set of whittled outdoor toys ought to please almost any boy. With kite and fish line time coming soon and the wind blowing a gale for your weather vane, and the other fellows out ready to play “cat”--well, let’s see how to make all these toys.
The kite stick in Fig. 1 is made from a piece of pine wood eight inches long, and, roughly cut out, about three-quarters of an inch square. This is smoothed down to five-eighths of an inch, and then you start in to make it round. First the four corners of the square are trimmed off evenly for the full length, making it an eight-sided stick, and then these corners are again trimmed, until finally the stick is round enough to be sandpapered smooth. It is better to draw a five-eighth inch circle on each end of the stick before you trim it down, so that you can see whether you are making a true round. When the line for the bevel is marked around one-eighth of an inch from the ends, the bevel is cut, the notch is cut around the middle, and the stick is ready to tie your kite string to.
For the reel in Fig. 2 and also the weather vane in Fig. 7, it is better to select a piece of wood which is already “dressed”--that is, finished smooth to the thickness you require, because it is hard to make a broad surface true with a jack knife. Cigar boxes are three-sixteenths of an inch thick, and a piece of one will make a good, stout reel. In making all of these toys, the pattern should be drawn on the wood as far as possible with pencil, scale, and straight edge, before any cutting is done. The reel should be cut first into an oblong, two and a quarter inches by four and a quarter, then the corners are rounded so that the line will not catch on them, and lastly the “recessed edge” where the line is to be wound is made, cutting from each end of the opening toward the center, and gradually working it down even.
There are not many boys who don’t know how to play “cat.” It requires a good deal of skill, and if you don’t break anybody’s window or put out anybody’s eye, it’s a lot of fun. It requires two boys to play this game. You lay the cat down flat--as in Fig. 3--and, with the stick (Fig. 4), held by the octagonal end, hit the cat sharply on one end, and as it flies up bat it forward. It is up to the other fellow to catch it, and if he does, it counts you out, and gives him a turn. But if he doesn’t catch it, you measure with the stick, end over end from where you stand to where the cat has fallen, and that counts so many points for you. Then the other fellow has another chance to count you out by throwing the cat from where it fell and trying to hit your stick. If it falls short or goes beyond, you again measure the distance with your stick, and that too counts in your favor.
The cat is made from a piece of pine four inches long and an inch square. The center section is marked off and then a line is drawn exactly across the middle of each end--not diagonally, but straight up and down. The sides are slanted down to this line, like a wedge, and then the other two sides are slanted to the middle point at each end. The wood for the stick is twelve inches long and five-eighths of an inch square, and is worked down just as the kite stick was, except that the handle is left eight sided, while the rest is made round. The octagon and circle which are shown with parallel diagonal lines on them are “cross sections” and show what the stick would look like if it were cut straight through at that point.
The weather vane is the hardest toy to make. Fig. 5 shows three views of one piece of the wheel--a top view, a front view, and an end view,--just as though you looked at the piece in front and then squarely at the top, and then turned it around and looked at the end. A piece of wood three-quarters of an inch square by five inches long is used for this, and two of them are made and fitted together--making a wheel with four arms. It is better to cut the section for the joint first, for the wood is less apt to split before it has been weakened by any other cutting. This is a similar cutting to that in the reel, except that the grain lies in the opposite direction, and the cutting should be done from the center of the opening toward each end. Then opposite corners are slanted down so that the ends of the arms are thin and aslant to catch the wind, as the end view shows. The dotted lines are the edges which are not visible. After the two pieces are fitted together a two-inch nail is driven through both and into the end of Fig. 6, which is not beveled. It should be turned around until it works loosely and will turn easily in the wind.
The stick in Fig. 6 is seven and three-eighths inches long by a half inch square. After the section three-quarters of an inch long, where the nail hole is shown, and which remains square, is marked off, the rest of the stick is made eight sided. Then the eight-inch bevel shown on the end is cut, and, for a distance of two and a half inches from that end, a V-shaped groove is cut on two opposite sides. This end of the stick is to slide into the opening in the end of the wing (Fig. 7). Another two-inch nail joins this piece to the upright stick (Fig. 8) and forms a pivot for it to swing around on. The wing is a flat piece six and a half inches long by two and a half wide. The curves are laid out with a compass (R. in the measurements denotes radius) and the 2-1/2″-opening is made as shown in one end. The little cross-section shows how it is cut to a pointed edge which slides into the groove in Fig. 6.
The upright stick is nine inches long by three-quarters of an inch square, and is worked down similarly to the other sticks, except that the end which is round is tapered from three-quarters to one-half inch. The “break” in the drawing simply means that it is longer than is actually shown. When the windmill is fitted together and put out where it will catch the wind, a boy will find that it was well worth making.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN DESK SET
A desk set is a great addition to a boy’s desk. If he has a pen tray he knows where his pencils and pens are to be found without rummaging through a tangled mess of top strings and marble bags and nails. If he puts away on the bill file that _I Owe You_ that Billy Smith gave him for a pair of rabbits, it won’t be all crumpled up and beyond identification when Billy gets his next month’s allowance. When you come to think of it, a desk set has a great many advantages--and then, there’s the fun of making it.
The desk set which is shown in the picture comprises five pieces--an ink well stand, a bill file, a pen tray, an envelope opener, and a book rack. It is all, with the exception of the envelope opener, made of one-eighth-inch basswood.
For the ink well stand (Fig. 1) use a piece of wood, four inches square. The two-and-a-half-inch opening--which is the size of the average glass ink well--should be cut first, before the corners are weakened by cutting out the half-inch rounds. After this is done, cut the corners, and last, the eight-inch bevel. Fig. 2 shows one of the feet of the ink well. It is shown, by dotted lines, in position in Fig. 1. The four feet are glued to the bottom of Fig. 1 and the inside corners project inside the opening, making four half-inch squares on which the ink well may rest. The feet are made from pieces of wood one and seven-eighths inches square, cut in the shape shown, and ornamented with a little design in “chip” carving. This chip carving is ordinarily done with what is called a skew chisel--that is, a chisel which is not square at the end, but which has one point an eighth of an inch or more longer than the other, so that when it is put into the wood, one end of the cut will be deep while the other is barely cut out at all. However, it may be done with a jack knife, if you are very careful. In the “motif” shown in Fig. 2, the points where the three lines from adjoining corners meet are where the deepest part of the cuts should be. This is done with the knife held point down and the thumb on the end of the handle. Then, with the knife still in the same position in the hand, you chip out the wood with a sliding cut toward you, slanting it down to the depth of the cut. It is a little difficult to describe this without seeing it done, but if you look at the patterns and the photographs, and experiment a little on a piece of wood, you will find it easy.
Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 show the bill file. Fig. 3 is made from a three and a quarter-inch square, cut similarly to the foot of the ink well, and with the same motif carved on each corner. It should be remembered in cutting the recessed edges that the sides running _with_ the grain must be cut _from_ each end, and the cross-cut sides cut _toward_ each end. Fig. 4 is cut like Fig. 1, except that there is no opening in it. It is then glued to the top of Fig. 3, and a three-inch nail is driven up through the center.
Fig. 5 shows one side of the pen tray. It is made from a piece of wood nine inches long at the bottom, tapered to seven and three-eighths inches at the top, and one and seven-eighth inches wide. The motif for the carving is made by putting together two of the squares shown in Fig. 2 and then repeating this again and again. It makes a very pretty and effective decoration. Fig. 6 is one of the end pieces, and is decorated in the same way. Fig. 7 is a cross-section showing the construction of the pen tray. For this you should first make two oblongs, seven and three-eighth inches long, one of them being one and three-eighths, and the other, one and one-half inches wide. These are fastened together at right angles, the long one topping over the shorter, with tiny nails. Then a piece measuring two inches by one and one-quarter is nailed to each end, to hold the tray firm. Next, the top edge all around is beveled--the side edges, so that the sides (Fig. 5) may be fitted on straight up and down, and the ends, at such an angle that they will not interfere in putting on the end pieces (Fig. 6). Then the sides and ends are glued in position, and the tray is finished.
For the envelope opener in Fig. 8, a piece of gumwood five and a half inches long by a half inch square is used. For two and a half inches from the end it is reduced to an octagonal shape. Then the notches are cut, and the end of the handle--four sides only, not the entire eight--beveled. Then the blade is cut, curving down from the handle, and reducing the blade to an even thickness of an eighth of an inch. When this is quite even the end is pointed, and the entire outside edge of the blade is beveled down from both sides, to a cutting edge.
The base of the book rack (Figs. 9 and 10), is made from two pieces of wood measuring four inches by nine, which are cut as shown, to fit and slide within each other. It measures thirteen inches, closed, and sixteen inches, open. A good way to fasten the pieces together so that they will slide easily and yet be firm, is with strips of thin sheet brass, which can be bought very cheaply. A strip three-quarters of an inch wide is passed around the rack at D with both pieces in position, lapped and fastened to D. Another similar piece is passed around at C and fastened to C. Then the ends (Fig. 11) are made. This requires two pieces four inches wide by four and a half long, with the grain running up and down. The top is made a little prettier by a semi-circular curve and a reverse quarter circle at each side of it. The deep carving is a trifle more elaborate than on the other things, and must be done carefully where the cuts all meet at the bottom.
After measuring and finding the position of the points “a” and “b” you should use these as centers from which to make the curves which determine the outline of your design. The cutting is done exactly as you did before. When these are finished they should be fastened on top of the base, at either end, with little brass hinges on the inside. A strip of wood four inches long by three-quarters of an inch wide is placed at the lower edge of the end pieces, on the outside, for added strength, and the screws fastening the hinges will hold it in place.
This completes the actual making of the desk set. It may be sandpapered, or it may be varnished, or, if you are fortunate enough to have a mission desk, it may be stained to match. In any case it is worth having.
WILD ANIMALS YOU CAN MAKE
With a circus folder or animal book for a copy, a few old cigar boxes, and a jack knife, a very lively and life-like menagerie can be made.
Cut the cigar boxes apart, and sandpaper the pieces very smooth. Then take a pencil and sketch as well as you can the animals in the pictures--at least the bodies of them, for the legs are to be attached afterward, so that they can stand and “do things.”
The cutting must be done very, very carefully, for the outlines make so many different angles with the grain of the wood. It is not in the least like straight cutting with the grain, or even straight cross-cutting, and the wood has an irritating habit of splitting off some vital part of the animal’s anatomy.
It is impossible to make the tails out of wood, so they are made of heavy string, glued in place. For the monkey, you can make a tail of wire, so that he can swing by it.