CHAPTER I.

THE SHOP AND ITS EQUIPMENT.

"Give ample room and verge enough."--Gray.

It would not be fit nor seemly to lay down any arbitrary rules for the guidance of the painter in the selection or construction of the paint shop. Conditions and circumstances here control. But so far as the painter is able to have authority in the matter it should be directed in favor of large, roomy apartments, high ceilings, and a fine outfit of windows. Light is an indispensable commodity in the paint shop. And room--there is never an excess of it. To do good work at a profit invokes an easy, commodious working space. To this end, therefore, the painter may well direct his best endeavors. Nor should the ventilation be neglected. A ventilator in quite common use, old-time but effective when the construction of the shop permits of its use, consists of the regulation stove pipe, say 12 inches in diameter and extending 18 inches or 2 feet above the roof of the building, furnished at its upper extremity with a revolving hood or cap. The local tinsmith usually has an invention of his own in the way of revolving ventilators which is workable and nicely suited to the needs of the paint shop. Where ceiling ventilators are not practicable, apertures some 8 inches in diameter may be made in the walls well up toward the ceiling, one or two on each side of the room, according to the size and location, and into these apertures insert tin frames, both ends of which are covered with wire gauze, the gauze on the inside or room end of the fixture being fitted to a hinged lid frame. Into this tin and gauze compartment put clean curled hair or moss. Metal caps may be fitted to cover the inside opening of these ventilators, so that if necessary the air can be shut out entirely so far as entrance through these channels is concerned. There are numerous other styles of ventilators, but they do not call for mention, as local and individual needs will suggest the kind most feasible to adopt.

The mixing bench should be located in a light corner of the room. It should be furnished with a slab of marble or stone, preferably marble. A cupboard with tightly fitting doors should be over, or at the side of, the bench with specially prepared boards on which to wipe brushes near at hand. A first-class paint mill should be a fixture in close proximity to the paint bench.

The varnish room (sacred temple of the painter's hopes shall we say?), over which men rarely fail to disagree, needs to be every inch as large as conditions will permit. It should have ventilators, such as above described or similar, in plenty. The gauze and tin funnel ventilators might well be used near the floor and ceiling, thus driving the room impurities up and out. The varnish room cannot well be too large, nor too light, nor too cosy. Nor can it follow too closely the Quaker's code as to furnishings, for "unadorned, adorned the most" strictly applies to this historic apartment. It is agreed that the northeast corner of the shop is the best location for the varnish room. The north light is the most restful and the easiest light to work by, and it is esteemed the best drying light. The room ought not to be placed immediately over the smith shop. It should have plenty of windows, north and east, and made to lower at the top. If possible, have a hardwood floor, and oiled, with ceiling and side walls of matched lumber, good quality and preferably painted white or some very light color, that it will reflect the light. Personally, I am in favor of blue colored shades for north windows and yellow ones for east and west windows. If possible, connect a "set room," provided with abundance of light, with the varnish room, into which the work may be removed the morning after finishing. The varnish room requires a small cupboard for holding varnish, cups, dusters, brushes, chamois skins, sponges, etc., a body trestle or two, a few wooden, low-cut horses for supporting the varnished work, a stove, if the shop be not heated by other means, a sliding door or two, and--that's all.

The colors, pigments, and brushes will be considered in their appropriate order as the chapters proceed. Many shop fixtures will be similarly presented.

The work-handling appliances here furnished have been observed, studied, and many of them used by the writer in his travels up and down the land of paint shops. The revolving wheel jack is an indispensable fixture in the paint shop. Fig. 1 has a plank base, and an axle for a standard. The cut shows how it is made. Many shops use it. Fig. 2 is frequently seen in provincial paint shops. It consists of a hardwood scantling of the size noted in the cut, with a 5/8-inch or 3/4-inch round iron stuck into one end and projecting 7 inches out. A hole to nicely take the iron is bored through the floor into a joist, a floor plate is placed over it, and the upright is ready to revolve. A tapering piece of round iron 3/4 inch at the base is driven through the upper end of the standard, having a projection of 7 or 8 inches. A thick metal washer is then slipped over the arm, thus completing the fixture. Fig. 3 is largely used in factory shops. It is the finest wheel jack extant. Observe the bottom. Almost any foundry will cast one at from $1.25 to $1.50 each. Weight, from 40 to 60 lbs.; diameter, 18 to 20 inches; hole for insertion of arm, 1 inch to 1-1/4 inches. Weld stub axle to the round arm. Have varying sizes of axle stubs, from 3/4, 7/8, and 1 inch to 1-1/4 inches. This is a particularly fine jack for wheel striping purposes. Can be easily transferred to any part of the shop, and runs true.

The Long-Acre body trestle, a London production, is often met with in the paint shop. Fig. 4 shows it in working order, on rollers, and the wheels connected with a wooden pin for a pivot. Fig. 5 is a second body trestle, neat, easy to work, and the cut quite completely explains how it is built. Height, and proportion of parts can be made to suit the individual fancy. Fig. 6 represents a combination body and gear trestle largely used in factory paint shops. Height, 3 ft., 2 in.; length of revolving frame pieces, 27 in., 2×2 in. in size. A 4×4 inch piece 9 in. long supports the frame. Inclined pieces are 25 in. long; size, 2×2 in. The trestle is of hardwood, or should be, bolted together. Fig. 7, a gear frame, fits onto the frame of Fig. 6. It should be 4 ft., 6 in. long and 14 in. wide. It easily takes the shortest gears as well as the longest, and the workman is enabled to always obtain the best possible light. Fig. 8 is a seat frame made to fit the trestle, Fig. 6. Make it of 1-inch stuff. Length, 2 ft.; height at rear, 9 in.; front, 2 in.; width, 13-1/2 in., to fit frame. This holds a carriage seat in capital shape for painting and finishing. Fig. 9 is a frame for holding bodies while varnishing them or while rubbing the varnish. One-inch pine boards 6 in. in width afford good material for the frame. Let it be from 32 to 36 in. high, about the same in length, and 27 in. wide. At top of standards bolt 7×1-inch pieces 6 in. long, containing steel brads to hold the work in place. Fig. 10 is a horse for holding carriage gears during the process of painting and finishing. Gear horses can't all be revolving ones, and this one is strong and handy to work around. Make the legs of 3×1-1/2 pine or ash and the bed piece, to which the iron standards are bolted, of ash 3×3 inches. Bolt the legs to the bed piece and stay them in the middle. The iron standards, 5/16 in. thick and 1-1/2 in. wide, are cranked over at right angles, as shown in cut, bolted firmly to bed piece, and at upper ends are hollowed out to hold the axle arms. Height of horse, 30 to 34 inches; width, wide enough to take a gear from 4 ft. to 5 ft., 4 in. Let the iron standards go 30 inches long, cranked at the middle. A rubbing deck for roughstuff and varnish rubbing, washing up work, etc., is a necessity even in the small shop. Fig. 11 explains an inexpensive one. A A is the shop floor, D the wall, B B the false or double floor inclining to the center, where a shallow metal gutter is let into the floor opening to a waste pipe which conveys all the waste matter outside the shop. The outer edges of the double floor rest upon stoutly-secured blocks of wood. Fig. 12 shows an asphalt or cement rubbing deck in general use in many leading shops. G is the shop wall, F the waste pipe, E the deck. The asphalt deck is not an expensive fixture, neither wears nor rusts out, and, like Fig. 11, is a practical time saver. And along with the rubbing deck the painter should adopt measures for securing a plentiful supply of clean soft water for shop uses, and, if possible, have it piped directly to the rubbing deck. These are days of hard-fought business battles, and any aid that will out-foot one's competitor is an effective aid. A good water supply right at hand helps mightily. Fig. 13 is a deck barrel for holding a ready supply of water for the rubber; also for holding certain styles of carriage and cutter bodies while rubbing. The slit cut at an angle lets a buggy, surrey, or other carriage seat in, and holds it fast while the rubbing proceeds.

The varnish room stove, when one is forced to use such a fixture, gives the painter much concern. In Fig. 14 is to be observed a way of enclosing the stove in sheet-iron, after the fashion of the railroads once upon a time. Cut an opening in the wall separating the varnish room from some one of the other apartments, set the stove just inside the varnish room, inclose it in the sheet-iron cylinder, making the cylinder fit close into the wall opening, and have the opening to the stove, and the stove door, reached from the room adjoining the varnish room. Even when wholly located in the varnish room such a cylinder, enclosing the stove all over, is a practical reducer of stove dirt, etc.

NOTE.--Figs. 3, 5, 6, and 14 of this chapter, and Figs. 1, 2, and 3 of Chapter II. are published by permission of the _Hub_.