Lost Art Press

Author: fitz

Woodworker, writer, editor, teacher, ailurophile, Shakespearean. Will write for air-dried walnut.

The Use and Abuse of Screws in Wood Work

Posted on by fitz

screw_patent_sArchimedes is credited with the invention of the screw, but whether the famous geometrician’s labours extended much further than the enunciation of the scientific principles and the mechanical power of the screw, it is difficult to say. If he made a screw, he certainly must have tried its effect, and was probably well satisfied with its performance, for in the whole range of mechanical appliances in the constructive arts there is not a more useful article than the screw.

Archimedes is further reported to have said, “Give me a prop, a position, and a lever strong enough, and I will move the world,” and, no doubt, if these conditions could be granted to him, he, as well as others after him, could lift the earth, or aught upon the earth, by a combination of the tremendous lifting and driving powers exercised by a series of screws, apart from the lever.

Screws are various, and of various sizes, forms, and materials, but the same principle runs through them all, whether they be manufactured for use in metal or woodwork, or for exerting a lifting, driving, or pressing power separately. Our object here is not to treat of screw-cutting, but rather screw-driving in woodwork, and to throw out some useful hints to the building constituency, and particularly workmen.

The use and abuse of screws is a matter of importance to architects, builders, and their clients, for it is according to the way screws may be applied in several building and kindred operations that good or bad workmanship will be evidenced.
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DON’TS for Makers of Models and Moulds

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donts

DON’T start your job until you have it well fixed in your mind, or you may get in a mess later on.

DON’T trouble the foreman with foolish questions. He has troubles of his own. Besides, you may expose your own ignorance; but

DON’T try to get along without really necessary information which the foreman may have forgotten to give you. You may guess wrong.

DON’T take time to lay out a job, and then not use the lay-out; but

DON’T rush at a job.
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The Wedge

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wedges_1859273. The Wedge. Figure 105 represents a well formed iron wedge, and a is the head, b is one of the sides, and d is one of the edges, and e is the entering edge. A wedge will not rebound as readily when the corners, at the entering edge, are made flush, or square, like the figure, as it will when the corners are rounded off very much, like the edge of an old ax, the corners of which are well ground off. Sharp corners of an iron wedge make it stick when entering.

274. Figure 106 is a very ill shapen wedge but very like the iron wedges which many laborers use, and exactly like the wooden wedges which are often made with the false impression that they will be more effective of such a form than if they were like figure 105. But wooden wedges of such a form cannot possibly be as effective, for any purpose, as if they were like figure 105; because, small wedges of such an ill form will be crushed at the entering point before they are half driven in, and if large wedges are made of such a form, it requires a greater number of blows to drive one in far enough to open a log two inches.

275. Every author whose writings I have consulted on the subject of the wedge, has simply spoke of it in philosophical or theoretical terms, and the most important considerations which affect, directly or remotely, many of the operations of the farm, and which are all-important for the beginner to understand, have been entirely overlooked or rejected, and what has been penned in reference to the wedge, if put into practice, according to the strict letter of the various writers, will, in practice, lead the beginner into most egregious errors.
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The Mallet and Beetle

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beetle_1859267. A mallet should be made of some very hard wood, and, if it be not made of a knot, the ends of it should be banded, like the beetle, to keep it from splitting. That part of a tree, if it be tough wood, which grows just above the surface of the ground, what is called the crook, will make the very best mallets, which will require no hooping. I have a mallet which was made of the crook of a part of a white ash stump, which has been the only mallet in use, for framing all my buildings, and doing all my shop work, for sixteen years, and it is not half worn out, as yet.

A mallet should be turned out true, with the ends convex, or rounding, not less than half an inch from edge to edge. The handle should be put in true, so that the faces will be parallel with the handle, as shown in the fig. 104. Let it be well oiled to prevent its cracking. Never allow the faces of the mallet to be bruised, and dented on iron bolts and such like, but keep it smooth for pounding on chisel handles only. A tough piece of apple wood will make about as good a mallet as almost any other kind of wood. But if it is made of a round piece of wood, on account of its great liability to check, it should be treated as recommended for

Beetles.

268. Figure 104 represents a farmer’s beetle made in a workmanlike manner. Beetles should always be turned true, and the handle turned of an oval form (see Sledge Hammer), and put in very true, so that a line cutting the center of the handle will be exactly parallel with lines continued square across the ends or faces of the beetle, as shown by the dotted lines figure 104. The beetle should hang as nearly like the sledge hammer as possible, and the reader can refer to that paragraph for the information which seems to be lacking in this place.
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