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XIII.—A BOY’S “CATCHALL.”

THERE is no better way for a boy to spend his evenings, half-holidays, and vacations, than in making some useful and pretty articles of furniture for his own room, providing he has an aptitude for such work, and the mechanical ingenuity and natural patience to do it with neatness and accuracy. Yet a boy should not—if he takes pleasure in such work—become discouraged if his first attempts are not wholly attended by success, as no success comes without perseverance; and perseverance, if the love for the work be not wanting, will inevitably bring its own reward.

The average boy is not usually blessed with overmuch room in which to bestow his many treasures—his bats, balls and marbles, his collection of butterflies and bugs, relics of many a pleasant tramp through field and wood, and last, but far from least important, the treasured books of tale and adventure, so dear to the heart of a genuine boy; therefore the little case or cabinet of the illustration has been contrived, for his own making, as a resting-place for all these and more, and to prove the happy truth of the old adage, “A place for everything, and everything in its place.”

It may be constructed of nicely-selected pine, for this is easily obtained, is cheap, and any little mistake will not entail too much expense if the work has to be done again, and also it is easily worked, and takes a beautiful golden color when “filled,” and finished with shellac. Pains must be taken not to mar the wood with tool-marks. To make a nice piece of work, you will not use any nails, but put the case together with dowels, screws, and glue.

Now look over the drawings together. Sketch No. 1 shows the completed case as it should look when finished and in place. The first section, A, (Sketch No. 2) is a fair-sized box with lifting cover, and a shelf beneath. This will be found handy for many odds and ends of boyish treasures too cumbersome to be stored away in drawers and boxes. Section B contains the specimen, or butterfly case, with a row of small drawers below, these drawers being handy receptacles for marbles, tops, twine, or like odds and ends that make a troublesome litter when thrown together in a large drawer. Two large drawers below these, and the shelf, will find their uses, without doubt. Section C has a couple of shelves for books, with storage room for bats, hockey sticks, etc., below; and in one corner is a small box large enough to hold two or three balls; outside of this, as the other plans will show, is a receptacle for a foot-ball, made of bent wire. This, if not a desirable addition, may be left off.

Having looked our case over in a general way, let us now go into the details of construction and finish. In Sketch No. 2 will be found all the general measurements. The figuring and lettering on the Detail Sketch all refer to this drawing. We will first get out the stock for the side-pieces of the various sections, four in number, and two of them—those belonging to Section B—of exactly the same size and shape. These should be of one and one fourth inch stock, and of the dimensions given in Detail Sketch No. 3. Mark out carefully the simple outline indicated for each piece, using a piece of charcoal, so the line may be easily wiped out and corrected if unsatisfactory. Go over the corrected outline with a soft pencil to preserve them, and then saw them out. This must be done with care, to keep the edges even and true, using either a draw tool or small saw on the finer outlines.

The half-trefoil on side of Section A at the bottom should be drawn with a compass, or scribing tool, and cut with a hand scroll-saw; and the simple pattern on the sides should first be marked out with a compass, the larger hole carefully cut out with a sharp tool to the depth of one fourth inch. The smaller holes, surrounding it, bore out to about the same depth with a small auger-bit. The straight line decoration on sides of Sections B and C are first neatly lined with a pencil, and then cut with a sharp tool, one fourth inch wide, and about as deep. The cover of Section A should be of seven eighths inch stock, and should project fully an inch over the side and front. The back piece, on which the hinges are fastened, should be two and one half inches wide. This will allow ample room for the back board, and give to the cover, when open, sufficient slant to lean easily against the wall. This piece should be well glued and doweled into place, and two neat brass hinges set in, to hold the cover. The bottom of box and bottom shelf of this same section are of same thickness as top, firmly doweled and glued into place. The front panel is of same thickness, and cut to fit exactly into place, doweled and glued. The small jig-saw patterns at bottom of Sketches No. 8, 9, 10, are cut from one half inch stock, and glued on firmly. Section A is now ready to attach to the side piece of Section B. This must be neatly and firmly done with dowels and glue.

In Section B first get out the top, centre and bottom shelves, as well as the narrow strip division for the drawers; these last need not run back more than three inches, excepting for the row of small drawers. This division should run entirely from front to back, the same as the shelves. The thickness of all the shelving is the same throughout. Having framed together our sides with the centre and bottom shelves, and drawer partitions, next place the two narrow uprights, on which the doors are to be hung, in position. These are one half inch wide and firmly doweled and glued into sides; the doors are hung with simple brass hinges and made to lap one over the other on one fourth inch rebate, and shutting against an upright post about three fourths inch square. Glue a strip one inch wide and one half inch thick around the sides and back piece, for the top to rest upon and be fastened to, by one fourth inch dowels, and glued; this strip should, for further security, be fastened by a number of small screws. Space will not allow the details of construction of drawers; but if the lad will look at any well-made drawer, he will easily find out for himself.

We have already got out the side for the book shelves and bat holder, Section C, and have only to dowel and glue shelves firmly into place, put the back boards in position, having got them out the size and shape shown by Sketches 7 and 8.

Now our case is well framed together and it only remains for us to finish various small details. After fitting a one fourth inch shelf into the specimen case midway, the next move is to line the whole of the specimen case and the two long drawers beneath with thin, flat pieces of cork about one eighth inch in thickness. First apply to the whole surface to be covered, a thin coating of hot glue, fitting in the piece of cork while the glue is hot; rub well into place, and apply an even pressure, to be left until the glue is thoroughly “set;” when this is done cover all the cork with nice white paper, applied with flour paste. Frame up the door as shown in Sketch No. 12, of one half inch stock, setting the glass in from the front into a narrow rebate. Then glue a narrow moulding on the outside to prevent the glass from falling out. Hang the door with brass hinges and fit a small lock into place; then dowel neatly into place the under brackets, Nos. 9, 10, 11, in their respective positions, place pretty brass pulls on all the drawers, and the case is nearly ready for finishing.

In the book case Section 6, the simplest way of arranging the shelves is to bore a row of one fourth inch holes front and back and at both sides, and fit little pegs into these for two shelves to rest on. These may be raised or lowered by changing the positions of the pegs. Make a little box as shown of one fourth inch stock, fasten this neatly with small screws into the left-hand upper corner of the bat holder under the lower shelf; this is to hold the base and hockey balls. The back of the case may be made of narrow strips of one fourth inch sheathing, held in by screws.

Fill the woodwork thoroughly with a good filler; Wheeler’s is good. After it is wholly dry, go over the case with a good coat of white shellac, and when dry, rub it down carefully with powdered pummice stone, oil and emery cloth. A second coat of shellac carefully rubbed down, will result in a rich golden brown hue, that will improve with age. This case, when complete, will cover a small space of four feet nine inches by three feet three inches.

In buying stock, select the best pine for all portions that will show. Get the stock well planed and smooth it down.

If made by a carpenter, twenty-five dollars would be the smallest payable price for a good job, so that the price named is not at all excessive for a really good thing.

This case being somewhat elaborate is intended both in design and instructions here given, for those boys who have a fair knowledge of construction, and some ideas as to the best way to set about it; and it must be borne in mind although pine is soft and easily worked, it is also easily soiled and injured by tool marks more readily than the harder woods.

The general schedule of material and cost given below will be found useful in buying.

SCHEDULE OF COSTS, ETC.