Nearly every boy has had, at one time or another, a desire to make scroll-brackets, fretwork-boxes, and filigree wood-work of various sorts. The art is naturally affiliated with other decorative processes in wood-working, such as wood-turning, carving, and marquetry, or the art of inlaying woods. Both fretwork and wood-turning are very old crafts, and were practised by the ancient Egyptians, specimens of their work being still extant.
A great deal of amusement and pleasure may be had in the possession of a scroll-saw, or “bracket machine,” as it was commonly known among boys some years ago. And first, as to the implements required.
The Tools
To those who can go to the dealer and pay for just what their fancy dictates, there is no trouble to procure all the tools that may be needed for the finest work; but others who cannot afford this luxury may get along nicely with a very small outlay. In fact, in nearly every instance known to the writer where the amateur has really rigged up his own machine, he has become master of the art sooner. A number of years ago the writer, then a school-boy, transformed an old sewing-machine table into a scroll-saw and lathe, and to-day this homely old stand and crudely put together machine does as good work, with as little effort, as the finest and most expensive outfit. This machine, all complete, with the drilling attachment, cost: old machine, one dollar; dozen saws, assorted, twenty-five cents; new material, rivets, etc., sixty-five cents; drills (still in use), fifteen cents; total, two dollars and five cents.
This money was saved from building fires and taking up ashes, and the first time the saw was run—one cold, stormy day in late November—there was cut up material which, when put together and sold (playmates and school-fellows being the customers), amounted to over three dollars in cash, besides a few pocket-knives, bits of rare wood, and the like that were taken in exchange.
Making a fine scroll-saw from a sewing-machine is of itself an easy matter. The balance-wheels should be retained, in order that all back lash can be easily overcome. The two arms holding the saw are to be geared from some wheel in the rear or connected with a belt. If the wrist-pin (the crank, or pitman wrist) gives too long a motion, it can be easily taken up by either drilling another hole nearer the centre or using a bent crank-pin. In any event the cut should not be over one inch.
Another method of shortening the stroke (and a very good one if the means of making the other changes are not at hand) is by changing the bearing of the arm. The nearer the saw the shorter the stroke. The clamp-screws holding the saws should be adjustable, so that either a long or a short saw-blade may be used. Those who break their blades (and there are none who do not) will find great economy in using adjustable clamps, as the short pieces can be used for sawing thin stuff, veneers, and the like. The best kind of clamp is provided with a slit to receive the blade and a set-screw for tightening.
The tools necessary for hand-sawing are very simple and inexpensive, consisting of a wooden saw-frame, one dollar; dozen saw-blades, twenty cents; one clamp-screw, twenty-five cents; drill and stock, fifty cents; total, one dollar and ninety-five cents.
In selecting saw-blades be careful to buy only those with sharp and regular-cut teeth. Saws are graded by number for hand-sawing. Numbers 0 and 1 are the best sizes, unless for very delicate work, when finer ones should be used. The larger blades have coarse teeth, which are liable to catch in the work and tear it. Since, at the best, the motion of the hand-saw is jerky, not nearly so nice work can be done as with the treadle-saw, which has an even, steady gait.
For all open-work it is necessary to have something to punch holes, so that a start may be made on the inside. Many use an ordinary brad-awl, but this is liable to split the wood. Besides, it is not possible to punch a hole so smooth and nice as it can be drilled or bored; hence, a drill is included in the list, and it will be found a very handy tool for either hand or treadle saws. The most serviceable article of this kind is the small German drill-stock, that can be bought with six drill-points, assorted sizes, for fifty cents, or the small hand-drills, with side wheel and handle, and provided with a small chuck to clutch the drill.
From what I have said, it should not be inferred that any objections are made to any of the beautiful little machines now to be bought at moderate cost. By all means, when the expense can be afforded, these should be used. The good ones will do the most delicate work, can be run with great ease, and will cut from eight to twenty pieces at a time, according to the thickness of the wood, leaving the edges of the work perfectly smooth. In using treadle-machines, insert the saw-blades with the teeth pointing downward and towards the front of the machine, and guide the wood easily with the fingers, with the wrists resting firmly on the table, being careful not to feed too fast or crowd against the saw sideways. Otherwise the blades will be heated and broken, and they will wear away the little wooden button set at the centre of the plate to prevent the saw from touching the metal work-table.
The Practice of the Art
Most boys know how to run a scroll-saw, or think they do, yet a few practical hints should not come amiss.
To begin with, the machine should be well oiled, all nuts, screws, and bolts turned up tight, and the belts adjusted at sufficient tension to run at a high rate of speed without slipping. Many machines, even in large mills, are groaning and filing out their journals and bearings simply because the belts are too tight. One of the first principles to be mastered in applied mechanics is that of power transmission, and right here the young workman has the best of opportunities to solve, in a measure, a great mechanical problem—namely, a belt tight enough to drive the machine and do the work, and loose enough to run easy and cause no unnecessary friction or wear on the journals and boxings.
For your first practice take some cigar-box wood (of which a good stock should be kept), and trace upon the dark sides a series of angles and curved lines. Never, under any circumstances, begin sawing without a tracing, or a pattern of some kind, to saw to, for now is the time to cultivate habits of accuracy. With no design or objective-point, nothing but a bit of useless board will result; besides, you will form a habit of working without a guide, a habit that has made more poor artisans than the love of idleness and bad company. Lay the wood on the rest, or plate, and see that it lies solidly. If it shakes, the wood is uneven and should be straightened, for no one can saw a warped board and make accurate work; besides, it is impossible to work in such wood without breaking the saws. The wood being level, hold it down with the left hand, fasten securely a No. 1 blade in the frame, and begin sawing, being careful to keep the motion very high and feeding slowly, sawing out the tracing lines, or keeping close to one side of them. If an ordinary hand-frame is used, work it firmly in one direction, keeping the blade perpendicular, and turning the wood so that the saw may follow the pattern.
After you have thoroughly learned the motion of the machine, the cutting of the saw, feeding, etc., try sawing a straight line, being careful not to push or crowd the blade sideways, as this will not only make the lines crooked, but will heat and ruin the blades, if it does not break them. When you have become an adept in following a straight line, and cutting the lines of a curve accurately, mark out several Vs and squares. To saw a V begin at the upper end and saw down to the point; now back the saw out, and saw from the other end down to the same point. If the line is carefully followed, this will insure a sharp, clean-cut angle. To cut out a square hole, saw down to the angle, then work the blade up and down in one place rapidly until it becomes loose; then turn the wood at right angles and saw carefully along the line to the other corner, when the operation may be repeated. Just as soon as you can saw straight and curved lines true to tracings, it is safe to begin good work with little if any fear of spoiling lumber or breaking an undue number of saws.
The Preparation of the Work
One of the simplest objects for a beginner to try his skill upon is a wall-bracket such as shown in Fig. 1. A piece of cedar—the bottom and lid of a cigar-box will answer the purpose excellently—from seven to eight inches in length by six and a half in width is a convenient size. The shelf is a semicircular piece either plain or scalloped in front, and its support must be of light, open, but strong design to match one-half of the lower design to the wall-plate. Hinges are sometimes placed to all parts in order to make it easy to pack the bracket. But such additions can only be made by the expert craftsman.
The first thing to be done is to trace the design on a thin piece of paper after it has been drawn roughly on a smooth sheet of brown paper. When the tracing is complete, lay it face downward, and cover it with powdered red chalk. The tracing is then imposed on the wood, with the red side downward. With a blunt bodkin or lead-pencil we now draw firmly along the lines, thus reproducing the tracing on the surface of the wood. Having accomplished this, we remove the paper, and with pen and ink make a complete drawing of the outlined design on the wood.
In designing fretwork great care must be taken to get the two sides of the pattern alike and in correct drawing. This can best be done by drawing the design on tracing-paper, and doubling it over when, with a little extra pressure of the pencil, a good design can be obtained on both sides of the paper.
When this has been accomplished pierce the wood at various points with a drill. The holes thus made are to allow the saw to enter. The wood may now be put in the clamp. Then with a moderately strong saw the young beginner can make his first attempt. The frame must be held perfectly straight and the arm worked steadily up and down.
Turning the saw is always a difficult point with amateurs, but in reality there is but little in the operation that cannot be mastered with a few moments’ practice. The secret of turning neatly and without damaging either saw or wood is to work very steadily up and down, but not forward, when the turning-point has been reached. Then by a sharp and active movement of the wrist and wood the saw should be turned, but not jerked, and the new line commenced. Sometimes, however, the delicacy of the pattern makes this impossible. The saw should then be pulled backward and forward gently until a sufficiently large hole has been made.
It is impossible, within the limits of this chapter, to give designs for any considerable number of the articles that can be made in fretwork; but with the descriptions just given, and the few accompanying patterns, a boy who has any idea of drawing and designing can put parts of an ornament together and so work out new and attractive variations.
A Match-safe
Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3.
The design for a match-safe is shown in Fig. 2, the wall-plate measuring two inches and a half in width and seven inches high. One side of the pattern should first be drawn in free-hand, then traced and transferred to the thin wood and the lines gone over with a sharp-pointed, hard pencil, so that it will be an easy matter to see them when sawing.
The front plate of the match-safe is shown at B and one end at C. The front is two and a half inches long and one inch wide, and the ends are made in proportion, or about seven-eighths of an inch wide. These parts are put together with slim steel nails and glue, having first drilled the holes where the nails are to be driven to prevent them from splitting the wood.
Most of the modern scroll-sawing machines have movable beds, so that bevel cuts can be made. This is done by tilting the bed or table slightly, as shown in Fig. 3. As a result the work will have a narrower face than the back, as shown at the right side of the bracket in Fig. 1. However, in making the front, or bracket part, there should not be any bevel-cutting, since it would look one-sided. Keep the bed flat in that case, and make the regular cuts for straight work.
A Wall-bracket
The simple bracket shown in Fig. 1 is an easy one to draw, and it may be cut from holly, birch, oak, or any good wood about one-eighth of an inch in thickness. The bracket or front-piece is half the back-plate, omitting the top ornament. The shelf (A) may be rounded, scalloped, or cut serpentine, as indicated by the dotted lines, and the three parts are put together with fine nails, or screws, and glue.
A Fretwork-box
For a glove or necktie box an attractive design is shown in Fig. 4, A being the top and B the front or back. The ends should be made a proportionate size, and a part of the traced ornament can be transferred to them, so as to match the other parts.
A GLOVE-BOX AND A T BRACKET
Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Fig. 6.
A good size to make this box will be ten inches long, five inches wide, and three inches deep. This should be the size of the main rib or rectangle in the top, and out from it the scallops project three-quarters of an inch all around.
Lay out one-quarter of the cover design on a piece of smooth paper; then make a tracing of it. With a piece of transfer-paper this quarter should be gone over with a blunt lead-pencil, so that the lines will be transferred to the wood. Take care when making a transfer to see that the quarter has been accurately placed on the wood so that a perfect rectangle will be had.
Put this box together with glue and small, slim nails, and arrange a bottom of thin wood to fit where the lower cross-rib of the sides is shown. If the saw leaves ragged edges at the reverse side of the wood, they may be cleaned off with fine sand-paper or a small file.
Some Other Designs
Another design for a bracket is illustrated in Fig. 5; and in Fig. 6 a T is shown that may be used for a bracket or a wall-hanger, along the top edge of which small hooks may be arranged to hold a shoe-horn, button-hooks, scissors, and other small bedroom accessories.
Wood-turning
The common examples of wood-turning with which a boy is most familiar are tops, balls, bats, dumb-bells, Indian clubs, broom-handles, and spools. All of these objects are made in a lathe, and this is the self-same machine that has been in use for centuries, with but few modifications. Like the potter’s wheel, it is simplicity itself and needs no improvement.
The object of a lathe is to cause a piece of wood or other material to revolve from end to end, so that when a chisel or other sharp-edged tool is held against the moving surface it will cut away that part of the material at which the tool is directed.
The boy who lives near a wood-working establishment, or mill, can gain more knowledge in watching a wood-turner at work for half an hour than he can learn from reading a book on the subject for many days. It is a simple craft, but a firm hand and a true cut are the important factors in making a boy a master of the lathe.
Once the knowledge is gained, however, it is an easy matter to turn all sorts of objects.
A simple lathe may be made from a small table, a grindstone, a trunk-strap, and several small parts that are easily gotten together. Read how in his boyhood days the author constructed a small lathe.
Between the legs of a table two bars were nailed across for supports to the shaft, which was made of oak and measured three feet long and one inch square. This just fitted the hole in a grindstone that was used for the balance-wheel. Six inches from the ends of the shaft the corners were cut away to form bearings on the cross-bars, which were hollowed out to receive it. A leather strap was nailed over to keep it in position. The grindstone was next placed on the shaft, near one end, between the bearings, and wedged. Over it two brackets, four inches high, were screwed in position on the table top, six inches apart, forming a support for a shaft of a small wheel or pulley made of wood. In the end of an ash shaft, one inch square and eight inches long, were three sharp points made by driving in nails without heads, the projecting ends being filed to points; these, forced against the block, held one end firmly enough to turn. The places where the bearings came were cut in the form of a cylinder three-quarters of an inch in diameter, and corresponding places were hollowed in the supports (as shown at Fig. 8) to receive it, a small piece of wood being screwed on over each, after the shaft and wheel were put in position.
A belt was made of an old trunk-strap, passed round the grindstone and through two holes in the table over the little wheel, causing the latter to revolve very rapidly when the former was turned. This was done by a treadle put in the following manner: Two cranks were made (A in Fig. 7) by a blacksmith and attached to the ends of the long shaft. They were three inches long and had a knob on the end of the handle to prevent the connecting-rods from slipping off. The latter were of hard-wood, with a half-inch hole bored through near one end. They were then split six inches, allowing them to be placed on the handles. A screw was then put in to secure them, the lower ends being connected with a treadle made as in Fig. 7.
Fig. 7. Fig. 8. Fig. 9.
The second spindle at first was made immovable by inserting a piece of quarter-inch wire in a wooden bracket, which was screwed to the table; but finding it not always convenient to use blocks of the same length, one was arranged to slide; it could be secured in any position with thumb-screws. A long cut a quarter of an inch wide was first sawed in the table in the line of the short shaft; then a bracket three inches high was screwed to a short strip two inches wide, one inch thick, and a foot long. A similar strip was placed beneath, through which two thumb-screws passed. A piece of wire, filed to a point and driven in the bracket, served for a centre. A movable block of wood three and a half inches high was used for a tool rest, which by means of two small bolts and thumb-screws was held fast to the table top. Slots cut in the table top made it possible to move this rest forward or backward, and the thumb-screws, or winged-nuts, as they are properly called, were tightened at the under side of the table, as shown at Fig. 9.
A great deal of pleasure may be had at little or no cost with a lathe of this description. All sorts of small things may be turned, and when a boy has mastered the craft it would be well to add an iron lathe to his stock of tools, if the cost is at all within his means.