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    Carpentry for Beginners
    Carpentry for Beginners
    Carpentry for Beginners
    Ebook344 pages3 hours

    Carpentry for Beginners

    By Read Books Ltd.

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    About this ebook

    This vintage book contains a comprehensive guide to carpentry, with information on tools and equipment, common problems, useful tips, proper techniques, quality control, and many other related aspects. Written in clear, plain language and full of useful hints, this volume is ideal for the novice woodworker, and would make for a great addition to collections of related literature. Contents include: “To The Home Carpenter”, “What to Make”, “Beginning Carpentry”, “Gauging and Marketing”, “Saws and Sawing”, “Planes and Planing”, “Chisels and Chiselling”, “Boring and Boring Hints”, “The Spokehave and Its Use”, “Filing and Glass-Papering”, “The Screw and the Screwdriver”, etc. Many vintage books like this are becoming increasingly hard-to-come-by and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, high-quality addition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on carpentry.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateMay 31, 2013
    ISBN9781473390959
    Carpentry for Beginners

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      Book preview

      Carpentry for Beginners - Read Books Ltd.

      trade.

      TO THE HOME CARPENTER

      TOOLS AND TIMBER AND WHAT TO MAKE WITH THEM

      IT may be taken for granted that the man who wishes to take up Home Carpentry has some definite aim in view. He would like to possess a set of tools, and he would like to know how to use them. But he does not wish the tools simply for the sake of having them, nor is it merely a theoretical knowledge of what a certain tool is capable of doing that he desires. He wishes to use the tools, and he needs to know how they are used because he desires to make something. That is his aim.

      Articles to Make.—It is because we fully understand and sympathise with the real aim of all beginners in home carpentry that this volume is designed on lines different from the usual type of woodwork handbook. It is one thing to wish to make something. It is another thing to know what to make and how to make it. And even the man who has acquired proficiency in the use of tools is frequently in a dilemma when faced with the setting out of even the simplest article for which he has not a design. Thus, to give the volume its greatest value as something of actual use as well as a practical guide, a considerable section is, in the first place, devoted to a series of designs for serviceable household articles. No design given comes under the category of high-class or heavy cabinet-work, although—if so preferred—some of the articles might be worked in a hardwood.

      The Tool Outfit.—The preliminary outfit of a man who wishes to take up carpentry seriously should comprise the following:—Jack plane, smoothing plane, rip saw, tenon saw, 6-in. try square, four chisels—say, 1/4-in., 1/2-in., 3/4-in. and 1-in. brace with 1/8-in. shell bit, hammer, pincers, two-foot rule (or, in Scotland, a three-foot rule), and sundry nails and screws. This is a very modest kit. All may be purchased from any ironmonger, and the buyer cannot go far wrong if the tools are stamped with the name of one or other of the well-known tool manufacturers.

      Other tools that can be added from time to time as the need for them is felt are:—Bow saw (for shaped work), set of twist and centre bits, mallet, rasp and file, spokeshave, and perhaps a Stanley No. 9 1/2 block plane. It is, of course, admitted that a woodworker’s kit is never complete, but with the tools mentioned all the examples shown in this volume—and many more—may be successfully tackled. Hints as to the selection of tools, as well as instructions as to their use, are given in the chapters dealing with each.

      Twist sticks and cork rubbers are usually home-made articles. The latter can be made by glueing a piece of thick cork carpet to a piece of 7/8-in. pine.

      Timber.—The timbers most generally used in light carpentry are:—White deal, red deal, yellow pine, canary wood (often called American whitewood), satin walnut, baywood (a mild mahogany), and sometimes oak and dark walnut. Owing to the ease with which it can be manipulated, yellow pine is the beginner’s favourite.

      Short lengths of timber, varying in width and thickness and known as cuttings, may be purchased at a reasonable price at almost every cabinet-maker’s workshop, and it is principally from this source that the home worker should procure his wood. Cuttings are the odd pieces which are left over after large articles of furniture have been marked out and the parts sawn from the large boards.

      WHAT TO MAKE

      LIST OF DESIGNS FOR LIGHT WOODWORK ARTICLES

      Blotter

      Book Ends

      Bookstand Table

      Boot Polisher

      Boot Polishing Box

      Box for Firewood

      Broom and Brush Rack

      Cabinet, Corner Shaving

      Cabinet, Light

      Child’s Stool

      Cigarette Box

      Cigarette Casket

      Clothes Horse, Kitchen

      Copper Lid

      Hall Rack

      Hat Rack

      Lamp Stand, Electric Reading

      Mallet, How to Make a

      Mantel Board

      Medicine Cabinet

      Mitre Sawing Box

      Plant Container

      Poultry Houses

      Puzzles, Woodwork

      Rabbit Hutches

      Screen, Modern Fire

      Stationery Cabinet

      Stationery Rack

      Stools

      Table, Coffee

      Table, Tea

      Tray Stand

      Try Square

      Umbrella Stand

      Work Box, Lady’s

      Broom and Brush Rack.—Standing in a cupboard or in a corner, brooms are always a source of annoyance because of their tendency to fall out or become entangled with each other when removed. If they are hung on a rack similar to the one illustrated they are easily removed and replaced; they also leave the floor space free for other cleaning gear.

      FIG. 1.—BROOM OR BRUSH RACE—ELEVATION, PLAN AND SIDE VIEW.

      FIG. 2.—ANOTHER TYPE.

      FIG. 3.—SIMPLE FORM OF RACE.

      FIG. 4.—PEG WITH WEDGED TENON.

      Apart from its value as a tool exercise, the rack is an excellent example for a lesson on one of the basic principles of design, i.e., fitness for purpose. The length and shape of the pegs (which are, of course, governed by the average broom head unless the rack is being made for a special broom) will be the first consideration. Room available in the cupboard, together with the space necessary to enable the brushes to be removed without disturbing the broom, will determine the length and width of the back. The thickness of the broom handle will be reflected in the distance between the pegs.

      The type of joint necessary to carry the weight affords a chance to correlate with the mechanics’ class. Fig. 1 is the ordinary mortise and tenon; Fig. 2 the dovetail; whilst Fig. 3 shows a very much simplified arrangement which may be made by beginners. It is quite effective if the width is not skimped. A turnbutton nailed along the front edge in order to prevent the broom from slipping off would be an advantage.

      Some such joint as that shown in Fig. 4 may be suggested by an intelligent boy, and although in this instance such an arrangement is not necessary it would be excellent if considerable weight had to be carried.

      Boot Polisher.—On the lines indicated, a polisher can be made from a couple of odd ends of wood; it is a useful thing to keep in the boot-cleaning box. The construction calls for no explanation if the diagrams are studied, and the sizes (within reasonable limits) can be governed by whatever wood is available.

      For Handicraft teachers the article is a useful model for tool exercises in the earlier stages of the work—a good vertical paring practice. It will also afford an opportunity to give a lesson on screwing. Unless attention is especially drawn to the point, nine out of ten boys (adults, too, for that matter) will make too small a hole in the first piece of wood; it should be emphasised that the screw must be a push-fit through the first piece and that the hole in the second piece must be made with a bradawl, the flat of which is equal to the thickness of the stem of the screw, i.e., the diameter of the screw at the bottom of the threads.

      The pad can be made from an old pair of silk stockings, folded to the right length and tacked with cotton across the ends. The pad so made is bound to the wood with a piece of velvet or other polishing material secured with tinned tacks. The edge is finished off with tape or binding secured with tacks or escutcheon pins.

      SIZES FOR A BOOT POLISHER.

      Boot Polishing Box.—This article of kitchen furniture serves a number of useful purposes. Besides holding all the cleaning gear for boots and brasses, it is a step on which to rest the foot when brushing boots to a final polish. The handhold in the top is to facilitate moving it about when required as a step for the purpose of reaching a high shelf.

      The box can all be cut from 6 ft. by 10 ins. by 5/8 in. prepared deal and a piece of three-ply, 12 ins. by 12 ins., for the back. The job can be housed, but it is quite strong enough if butted, glued and nailed.

      First cut shelves, sides and top to required lengths. From the remainder of board cut fronts for shelves and fillets as required. Set out shape of sides, and if to be jointed set out also the housing for the shelves. Cut joints and shape. If the work is to be butted square across where fillets are to go, then secure them with glue and nails. Rebate back edge of sides for plywood back. Cut shape on bottom of sides to make legs.

      FIG. I.—BOOT POLISHING BOX AND STEP.

      FIG. 2.—ELEVATION AND SECTIONAL END VIEWS OF BOX.

      If jointed, glue and nail shelves into housings, then fit front edges of shelves. These front pieces are shot to length, and secured to front edge of shelf with nails and glue. If the work is butted, fix the front edges to the shelves before fixing the shelves to the sides. See that the shelves bed down well on to the fillets when nailing. Nail through sides into ends of shelf. House the top and push it on to top of sides; or if the work is butted temporarily, secure it with one nail at each end.

      Now balance the box on the finger tips to find point of balance. Mark out hand-hole so that point of lift is opposite the point of balance, then bore and cut. Secure top with glue and nails, then secure back in similar way.

      A Blotter can be made from a few odd ends of hardwood. It is a useful and decorative feature on the desk or writing bureau, and as an article of design affords a wide scope for the taste of the individual worker. Delightful combinations of woods are possible and the piece also lends itself to the use of some of the rarer veneers. It can be treated decoratively with bandings (Fig. 1) either on the top or edges, and the amateur carver will find its surface useful for his less-ambitious work. The smallness of the piece makes it a practical exercise for the school handicraft room.

      Those who are fortunate enough to possess a lathe and have facilities for thread-cutting can turn up a handle in hardwood or erinoid (Fig. 1), but for others the fixings shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 4 are suggested. The round part (R, Fig. 2) may well be of whitewood, birch or beech, with veneered sides, not necessarily of the same wood as the top. If whitewood is used and the handle is of the Fig. 2 type, it would be just as well to make the lower thread in hardwood or erinoid and glue it into piece (R).

      FIG. 1.—DESK BLOTTER WITH INLAID BANDING.

      FIG. 2.—ELEVATION AND PLAN.

      FIG 3.—DOUBLE-POINTED SCREW FOR HANDLE.

      FIG. 4.—SLOT-SCREWED HANDLE.

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