p '.
SPONS'
MECHANICS' OWN BOOK
A MANUAL
FOR
HANDICRAFTSMEN AND AMATEURS.
SECOND EDITION.
E. & F. N. SPON, 125, STEAND, LONDON,
NEW YORK: 35, MURRAY STREET.
1886.
T
D
LONDON :
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAJIFCIUD STREKT AND CHAFING CROSS.
■j HE GETTY CENTER
LIBRARY
INTKODUCTION.
The title of this work almost suffices to indicate tbe character of tlie con-
tents, without the aid of any prefatory explanation. The authors have no
new theories to advance, nor discoveries to relate : their aim has been
rather to discuss from an everyday practical view the various mechanical
trades that deal with the conversion of wood, metals, and stone into useful
objects.
The method of treatment of each branch is scientific, yet simple. First
in order comes the raw material worked upon, its characters, variations,
and suitability. Then the tools used in working up the material are
examined as to the principles on which their shape and manipulation are
based, including the means adopted for keej)ing them in order, by grinding,
tempering, filing, setting, handling, and cleaning. A third section, where
necessary, is devoted to explaining and illustrating typical examples of the
work to be executed in the particular material under notice. Thus the book
forms a complete guide to all the ordinary mechanical operations ; and
whilst professional workmen will find in it many suggestions as to the
direction in which improvements should be aimed at, amateur readers will
be glad to avail themselves of the simple directions and ingenious devices
by which they can in a great degree overcome the disadvantage of a lack of
manipulative skill.
To render the book still more useful to the emigrant and colonist, who
often has only his own wits to depend on in building and repairing his
home, several further chapters have been added, dealing with the enclosure,
approaches, water supply, drainage, warming, lighting, and ventilation of a
dwelling.
In conclusion, hearty thanks are tendered to the many specialists whose
writings have combined to give unusual value to the book. It is hoped that
the following list is complete : —
Sir J. Savile Lumley on bronze casting ; J. Richards, T. D. West,
W. H. Cooper, and Leander Clarke on iron founding and casting ; Joshua
Eose on chisels, and hammering iron plates ; Cameron Knight on black-
smithing generally ; E. Kirk on soldering and burning ; Dr. Anderson on
a 2
tV INTRODUCTION.
woods ; Eev. A. Eigg and A. Cabo on carpenters' tools ; Grimsliaw and
Hodgson on saws ; Henry Adams on joints in woodwork ; E. J. Palmer and
J. Cowan on dovetailing and dowelling; A. Yorke, E. Luckhurst, and
A. Watkins, on rustic constructions ; D. B. Adamson on veneering ; T. J.
Barnes on wood carving ; J. Dalton on French polishing ; J. Woodley on
brickwork ; J. Slater on roofing ; P. J. Davies on lead glazing ; W. F.
Smith on metal-working machine tools ; E. Lock wood on electric bells and
telephones; E. W. Edis on paperhaugings ; Field on lighting; Eldridge on
gas-fitting ; A. Walmisley on ventilation ; Dr. Pridgin Teale on warming ;
Eev. J. A. Eivington on fresco painting ; W. E. Corson on stairs ; and
E. Gambler Bousfield on house construction in Canada. Mention may also
be made of T. J. Syer, 1, Finsbury Street, Chiswell Street, at whose work-
shops amateurs can receive lessons in the manipulation of tools. Lastly,
some acknowledgment is due to the following technical journals, whose
interesting columns always rcjiay perusal, viz. American Artizan, American
Machinist, Builder, Building News, Cabinet-maker, Deutsche Industrie
Zeitung, English Mechanic, Industrial World, Iron Age, Plumber and
Decorator, Sanitary Eecord, Scientific American.
The Editous.
CONTENTS.
Mechanical Drawing : buying and keeping instruments ; drawing boards ; scales ,
squares ; paper ; mounting ; mounting on linen ; pencilling ; erasing errors ; inking ;
testing straight-edge ; using parallel rules ; using compasses ; tints, dimensions, and centre
lines; title; nature of drawings; finishing a drawing; colours; shading; colouring
tracings ; removing drawings from the board ; mounting engravings ; fixing pencil draw-
ings ; tracing-cloth; tracing-paper; transfer-paper; copying drawings ., pages 1-13
Casting and Founding : general outline of the operations. Brass mid Bronze Casting :
characters of the various alloys employed, reactions of the metals on each other, mixing
the metals, effects of tempering; furnaces, their construction, means of producing
draught, fuel, the ordinary cupola, the ordinary melting furnace, the circular melting
furnace, the reverberatory furnace ; crucibles ; moulding ; facing the moulds, filling the
moulds, moulding in wax, forma perduta method, castings of natural objects ; casting,
pouring the metal, temperature for pouring, escape of gases from the mould, ornaments
in relief; cores; making bronze figures; using plaster patterns, finishing the casting,
bronzing its surface, Japanese bronzes, inlaying on bronzes ; casting en cire perdue, the
model, reproduction in wax, formation of the core, constructing the lanthorn, retouching
the wax bust, preparing the bust before making the cope, formation of the cope, firing
'the block, the final casting in bronze. Iron Founding : pattern-making, cores, shrinkage,
'taper ; tools, crucibles, pots, moulding flasks, packing the flasks, clamping them ; casting
in sand, with and without cores ; casting in loam ; forms of castings ; examining castings
as to quality and soundness ; shrinkage of iron castings ; chilling iron castings ., 13-44
Forging and Finishing : definition of the terms ; explanation of the technical phrases,
to make up a stock, fireirons, rod, bar, plate, to take a heat, to finish at one heat, to draw
down, to draw away, to upset, scarfing, butt-weld, tongue-joint, to punch, to drift out,
the hammerman, the tuyere or tweer ; forges or hearths ; anvils ; vices and tongs ;
hammers ; cutting tools, principles and practices in making chisels ; drilling and boring,
construction of drills; swaging tools; surfacing tools, filing up, cleaning clogged files,
polishing ; screw-cutting tools ; forging ; welding, wrought iron, steel, steel to wrought
iron; tempering, hardening, softening, annealing, the colour scale, case-hardening;
examples of smiths' work, — making keys, bolts, nuts, tongs, hammers, chisels, files,
scrapers, drifts, punches, spanners, wrenches ; adjusting surfaces by hammering ; red-lead
joints; rust joints ; riveting 44-90
Soldering : solders, composition and characters of these alloys ; colouring solders to
match metals. Burning or Autogenous soldering : adaptations of the process, application
to pewter, brass castings, iron castings, stove plates ; burning seams in lead ; the burning
machine, air-vessels, bellows, tubes, jets, wind guards. Cold soldering : the flux, the
solder, application. Hai-d soldering various metals and objects. Soft soldering : the
solders, fluxes, irons, and bits employed, and precautions needed. Generalities, — including
blowpipes, lamps, mechanical blowers, supports, tools, braziers' hearth, means of heating
the iron ; hints on fluxes, spelter, commercial grades of solder, cleaning impure solder,
soldering zinc and galvanized iron, soldei'ing without an iron, soldering brass to platinum.
a 3
VI CONTENTS.
soldering brass wire, soldering brass to steel, mending cracked bell, soldering iron and
steel, soldering silver, soldering glass to metal, soldering platinum and gold, mending tin
saucepans, soldering brass, soldering pewters and compo pipes, laying sheet lead, mending
leaden pipe, gas for blowpipe work, blowpipe brazing 90-116
Slieet-metal working : useful characters of sheet metals. Striking out the patterns,
— relations of circles, cones, cylindrical tubes. Tools, — mallet, cutting tools, flattening
tools, folding tools, forming tools. Working the metals, — seamless goods, bending, spinning ;
seamed goods, pipes, cups, square boxes, riveting 116-126
Carpentry : — Woods : acacia, ake, alder, alerce, alerse, apple, ash, assegai, beeches, birches,
blackwood, boxes, broadleaf, bunya-bunya, cedars, cedar boom, cherry, chestnut, cypress,
cypress pine, dark yellow-wood, deal, deodar, dogwoods, doom boom, ebony, elms,
eucalyptus, fir, greenheart, gums, hickories, hinau, hinoki, hornbeam, horoeka, horopito,
ironbark, ironwood, jacks, jaral, jarrah, kaiwhiria, kamahi, kanyiu, kauri, kohe-kohe,
kohutuhutu, kohwai, larches, lignum-vitje, locust-tree, mahoganies, maire, maire-taw-hake,
mako, mango, manuka, maple, mingi-mingi, miro, monoao, mora, muskwood, mutti,
nageswar, nanmu, naugiia, neem, neinei, oaks, pai-ch'ha, pear, persimmon, pines, plane,
pohutukawa, poon, poplar, pukatea, puriri, pymma, pynkado, rata, rewa-rewa, rohun, rose-
wood, sabicu, sal, satinwood, sawara, she-pine, sissu, sneezewood, S23ruces, stopperwood,
stringy-bark, sycamore, tamanu, tauekaha, Tasmanian myrtle, tawa, tawhai, teak, titoki,
toon, totara, towai, tulip, walnuts, willow, yellow-wood, yew ; British Guiana woods ; Cape,
Natal, and Transvaal woods ; Ceylon woods ; English woods ; Indian woods ; New Zealand
woods : Queensland woods ; Straits Settlements woods ; Tasmanian woods ; West Indian
woods ; growth of wood ; felling ; squaring ; features ; defects ; selecting ; classification ;
market forms ; seasoning ; decay ; preserving ; fireproofing ; conversion ; shrinkage ;
composition ; suitability ; strength ; measuring ; prices. Tools : Guiding tools, — chalk
line, rule, straight-edge, squares, spirit level, plumb level, gauges, bevels, mitre-box,
compasses, callipers, trammel, shooting-board, bell-centre punch, combinations; Holding
tools, — pincers, vices, clamps ; Rasping tools, — saws (principles, qualities, selecting, using,
filing, setting, sharpening, gumming ; examples of teeth for cross-cuts, back-saws, fleam
tooth, buck-saws, web-saws, rip-saws, circular saws, baud-saws ; jig-saws, table for jig and
circular saws, home-made fret-saw) ; files (principles, forms, using, sharpening) , Edge-
tools, — chisels and gouges (principles, forms, using), spokeshaves, planes (principles, forms,
adjusting, using), sharjieniug methods (grindstones, oilstones), miscellaneous forms
(circular plane, rounder, box scraper, veneer scrape]-, mitre-plane, combination filisters,
adjustable dado) ; Boring tools, — awls, gimlets, augers, bits and braces, drills, miscella-
neous (angular bit stock, countersink, expansion bit, boring machine) ; Striking tools, —
hammers, mallets ; Chopping tools, — axes and hatchets (principles, using, form of handle,
form of cutting edge), adzes (curvature); Accessories, — bench, bench-stops, holdfasts,
sawing rest, bench-vices ; nails, nail-punch, nail-pullers ; screws, screw-driver. Care of
Tools : wooden parts, iron parts, rust preventives, rust removers. Construction : joints,
definition of carpentry and joinery, principles of joints, equal bearing, close jointing,
strains, classification of joints, classification of fastenings, lengthening joints, strengthening ■
joints, bearing joints, post and beam joints, strut joints, miscellaneous joints, fastenings,
keying, corner-piecing, mortising and tenoning, half-lap joint, dovetailing, blind dovetails,
mechanical aids in dovetailing, dowelling, joining thin woods, glueing, hinging. Examples
of Construction : workshop appliances, — tool-chest, carpenters' bench, grindstone mount;
rough furniture, — steps, ladders, cask-cradle, tables, seats (box stool, 3-legged stool,
chairs), washstand, bedstead, chest of drawers, dresser ; garden and yard accessories, —
wheelbarrow, poultry and pigeon house, hives, forcing frames, greenhouses, summer-
houses, fences, gates ; house building, — floors, roofs, doors, windows .. .. 126-350
Cabinet-making: — Woods: Amboyna, apple, ash, beech, beefwood, birch, box, camphor,
canary, cedar, cherry, ebony, holly, kingwood, lime, locust-wood, mahogany, maple, oak,
partridge-wood, pear, pine, plane, rose, sandal, satin, teak, tulip, walnut, zebra. Tools :
CONTENTS. Vii
tool-chest, bench, planes, dowel plate, smoothing implements, sawinfj vest, moulding board,
mitring and shooting board, vice. Veneering: cutting veneers, fixing the veneer by the
hammering and cauling processes, presses and hammers employed ; inlaying, imitation
inlaying. Examples : couch, chairs, folding bookcase, chest of drawers, wardrobe, side-
board 350-386
Carving and Fretwork : — Carving : woods, — camphor, ebony, lime, mahogany, oak,
pear, sandal, sycamore, walnut, wild cherry, yew ; qualities of wood, staining, adaptability ;
tools, their selection, qualities, use, sharpening ; operations. Fretwork : woods ; tools ;
operations 386-399
XTpllolstery : tools ; materials ; leather work, — small chair buttoned and welted, plain
seats, easy chairs, settees and couches ; hair cloth ; fancy coverings, — plain seats, buttoned
seats, spring edges, French easy chairs, needlework chairs ; mattresses, — spring, tufted top,
folding, stutled, French pallets ; beds and pillows 399-405
Painting-, Graining, and Marhling -.—Painting .- definition of paints; basic
pigments, — white-lead, red-lead, zinc oxide, iron oxide; colouring pigments, — blacks, blues,
browns, greens, lakes, oranges, reds, yellows ; vehicles or mediums, — linseed-oil ; driers ;
grinding; storing; applying; priming; drying; filling; coats; brushes; surface;
removing old paint ; cleaning painf; knotting ; water-colours ; removing smell ; discolora-
tion ; miscellaneous paints, — cement paint for carton-pierre, coloured paints, copper paint,
floor painting, gold paint, iron paint, iron painting, lead paints, lime paints, silicated
paint, steatite paint, tin-roofing paint, transparent paint, tungsten paints, window paint,
zinc painting ; composition of paints ; measuring painters' work ; painters' cream ; wall
painting, frescoes, spirit fresco, preparing the ground, the pigments admissible for colour-
ing, preparation of the colours, production of delicate tints, the fixing medium and its
application, unalterable durability of the finished work. Graining : object of the process,
outline of the operations, colours, tools ; styles of graining — ash, chestnut, mahogany, maple,
oak (light and dark), rosewood, satinwood, walnut ; hints. Marbling : the production of
painted surfaces iu imitation of black and gold, black Bardilla, Derbyshire spar, dove,
Egyptian green, granites, Italian jasper, royal red, St. Ann's, sienna, and verd antique
marbles 405-433
Staining : the staining of wood considered as a substitute for painting, objects to be
attained, essential features to be observed ; recipes for compounding and applying black
stains, black-board washes, blue stains, brown stains, ebonizing, floor staining, green
stains, grey stains, imitating and darkening mahogany, oak stains, purple stains, red
stains, imitating satinwood, violet stains, imitating and darkening walnut, and yellow
stains 433-446
Gilding : what the process consists in ; leaf metals ; composition and characters of the
sizes used for attaching the leaf; tools and apparatus. The operation of Dead gilding, —
preparing the surface to receive the leaf, transferring the leaf to the surface, when to lay
it, making good the blank spaces, completing the adh 'sion, sizing the surface ; modifications
for dead gilding on plain wood, polished wood, cards, textiles, painted and japanned
surfaces, metals, masonry, ivory, and plaster of Paris. Bright Gilding — on transparent
material, such as glass ; securing adhesion of the leaf, making fancy patterns ; on opaque
material 446-449
Polishing : principles. Marble polishing : producing a plane surfoce, taking off the
rough, polishing up, rendering brilliant, filling flaws ; polishing imitation marbles. Metal
polishing: the broad principles of polishing metallic surfaces by hand, best means of
conducting the operation, mistaken notions to be avoided, running work in the lathe,
relative merits of oils and water; Belgian burnishing powder ; brass-polishes; burnishing,
kinds of burnishers, precautions in using the burnisher, variations in the tools and
methods adapted for plated goods, gold and silver leaf on wood, gold leaf on metal ; leather
Vlll CONTENTS.
gilding ; engravers' burnishers ; clockmakers' burnishers ; burnishing book edges, cutlery,
pewter, and silver ; making crocus ; emery paper, emery paper pulp, emery wheels ;
friction polish ; german silver polish ; glaze wheels for finishing steel ; polishing gold and
silver lace ; an artificial grindstone ; polishing and burnishing iron and steel ; plate
powders ; prepared chalk ; putty powder ; razor pastes ; rottenstone or tripoli ; rouges.
Wood polishing: object of the process, what it consists in, the preliminary filling in,
modes of performing it and materials employed, smoothing the surface, rubbing in linseed-
oil, the foundation coat of polish, its importance and the precautions to be observed in
applying it, the bodying-in process, allowing to harden, putting on the final polish,
original recipe for making the finishing polish, unfavourable characters of the ingredients,
attempts to improve by bleaching the lac, a new evil thus introduced, action of solvents
on the lac, meteorological conditions to be observed when polishing, most favourable
range of temperature, state of the weather, reasons for its influence ; general method of
wood polishing adopted in America ; the processes carried on in first-class piano factories ;
collection of recipes for furniture creams, French polishes, reviving fluids, compounds for
darkening furniture, wood-fillers, and mixtures for black woodwork, carvings, antique
furniture, fancy woods, black and gold work, white and gold work, &c. ; polishing woods
in the lathe, modifications to suit hard and soft woods ; the Japanese lacquer shiunkei as a
substitute for French polishing 449-472
Varnish.irig' : nature of varnishes, points governing their qualities, objects in view in
using varnishes ; ingredients of varnishes ; the principal resins and gums, their varnish-
making qualifications ; solvents and their suitability ; driers and the objections to them ;
kinds of varnish and their essential differences ; mixing varnishes, white oil vai'uishes or
spirit and turpentine varnishes ; rules regulating the application of varnishes ; recipes for
compounding oil varnishes (copal, amber, Coburg, wainscot, &c.), spirit varnishes (cheap
oak, copal, hard spirit, French polish, hardwood lacquer, bi'ass lacquer, &c.), turpentine
varnishes, Brunswick black, and varnish for ironwork 472-475
Meclianical Movements : simple, compound, and perpetual motion ; pulleys, blocks
and tackle, White's pulleys, Spanish bartons, mangle-wheel and pinion, fusee-chain and
spring-box, frictional clutch-box, other kinds of clutch-box, throwing in and out of gear
the speed motion in lathes, tilt-hammer motion, ore-stamper motion, reciprocating rotary
motion, continuous rotary motion converted into intermittent rotary motion, self-reversing
motion, eccentrics, crank motions, cams, irregular vibrating motion, feed-motion of
drilling machine, quick return crank motion of shaping machines, rectilinear motion of
horizontal bar, screw bolt and nut, uniform reciprocating rectilinear motion, rectilinear
motion of slide, screw stamping press, screw-cutting and slide-lathe motion, spooling-
frame motion, micrometer screw, Persian drill, rack and pinion, cam between friction
rollers in a yoke, double rack, substitute for crank, doubling length of stroke of piston-
rod, feed-motion of planing machines, fiddle drill, substitute for crank, bell-crank lever,
motion used in air-pumps, Chinese windlass, shears for cutting metal plates, lazy tongs,
toothed sectors, drum, triangular eccentric, cam and rod, cam-wheel, expansion eccentric,
rack and frame, band-saw, toggle-joint for punching machine, silk spooling motion, crank
and fly-wheel, yoke-bar, steam-engine governor, valve motion, bell-crank, ellipsograph,
elbow-lever, pawl and elbow-lever, crank-pin and bell -crank, treadle and disc, centrifugal
governor for steam-engines, water-wheel governor, knee-lever ; cam, bar, and rod ; spiral
grooved drum ; disc, crank-pin, and slotted connecting-rod ; slotted crank, engine
governor, valve motion and reversing gear, obtaining egg-shaped elliptical motion, silk
spooling motion, carpenters' bench clamp, uncoupling engines, varying speed of slide in
shaping machines, reversing gear for single engine, diagonal catch and hand-gear,
disengaging eccentric-rod, driving feed-rolls, link-motion valve-gear, screw clamp,
mangle-wheel and pinions, mangle-rack, rolling contact, wheel and pinion, ratchet-wheel,
worm-wheels, pin-wheel and slotted pinion, Geneva stop, stops for watches, cog-\"rheels,
roller motion in wool-combing machines, ratchet and pawl, drag-link motion, expanding
CONTENTS. IX
pulley, chain and chain pulley, lantern-wheel stops, transmitted circular motion, inter-
mittent circular motion, tappet-arm and ratchet-wheel, spur-gear stops, pawl and crown-
ratchet, ratchet-wheel stops, brake for cranes, dynamometer, pantograph, union coupling,
anti-friction bearing, releasing sounding-weight, releasing hook in pile-driving, centrifugal
check-hooks, sprocket-wheel, differential movement, combination movement, series of
changes of velocity and direction, variable motion, circular into reciprocating motion,
Colt's revolver movement, Otis's safety stop, Clayton's sliding journal box, Pickering's
governor, windlass, rack and pinion for small air-pumps, feeding sawing machine, movable
head of turning lathe, toe and lifter, conical pendulum, mercurial compensation pendulum,
compound bar compensation pendulum, watch regulator, compensation balance, maintaiu-
ing power in going barrel, Harrison's going barrel, parallel rulei's, Cavtwright's parallel
motion, piston-rods, Chinese windlass, gyroscope, Bohnenberger's machine, gyroscope
governor, drilling apjiaratus, see-saws, helicograph, spiral line on cylinder, cycloidal sur-
faces, polishing mirrors. White's dynamometer, edge-runners, Robert's friction proof,
portable cramp drills. Bowery's clamp, tread-wheels, pendulum saws, adjustable stand
for mirrors, cloth-dressing machine, feed-motion of Woodworth's planing machine, Russian
door-shutting contrivance, folding ladder, self-adjusting step-ladder, lit'ting jack, jig-saw,
polishing lenses, converting oscillating into rotary motion, reciprocating into rotary
motion, Parsons's plan for same, four-way cock, continuous circular into intermittent
rectilinear reciprocating motion, repairing chains, continuous circular into intermittent
circular, Wilson's 4-motion feed for sewing-machines, Brownell's crank motion, describing
parabolas, cyclographs, describing pointed arches, centrolinead, Dickson's device for con-
verting oscillating into intermittent circular motion, proportional compasses, Buchanan
and Righter's slide-valve motion, trunk-engine, oscillating piston engine, Root's double
quadrant engine, rotary engines, bisecting gauge, self-recording level, assisting crank of
treadle motion over dead centres, continuous circular into rectilinear reciprocating
motion, continuous circular into rocking motion, Root's double reciprocating engine,
Holly's rotary engine, Jonval turbine, reciprocating motion from continuous fall of water,
water-wheels, Fourneyron turbine, Warren's turbine, volute wheel. Barker mill, tumbler,
Persian wheel, water-raising machines, Montgolfier's hydraulic ram, D'Ectol's oscillating
column, swing boat, lift-pump, force-pump, double-acting pump, double lantern-bellows
pump, rotary pumps, Hiero's fountain, diaphragm forcing pump, counter-balance bucket,
pulley and bucket, reciprocating lift, Fairbairn's bailing scoop, Lansdell's steam siphon
pump, swinging gutters, chain pumps, weir and scouring sluice, balance pumps, steam
hammer, Hotchkiss's atmospheric hammer, rotary motion from dilferent temperatures in
two bodies of water, flexible water main, air-pump, aeolipile or Hero's steam toy, Brear's bilge
ejector, gasometer. Hoard and Wiggin's steam trap, Ray's steam trap, wet gas-meter, Powers's
gas regulator, dry gas-meter, converting wind or water motion into rotary motion, common
windmill, vertical windmill, paddle-wheel, screw propeller, vertical bucket paddle-wheel.
Brown and Level's boat-detaching hook, steering apparatus, capstan, lewis, tongs for lifting
stones, drawing and twisting in textile spinning, fan blower, siphon pressure gauge,