From L. R. H., North Argyle, N.Y. — Will you please inform me what philosophical principle is involved in the fact that a long screw-driver will turn a screw with less power than a short one? Can you explain the phenomenon to an unphilosophical subscriber?
Answer.—Our correspondent, in asking his question, virtually asserts that, with a long screw-driver, more power can be applied to the head of a screw than with a short one. This fact has often been denied, yet we believe it to be well established. The difference in the lengths of the screw-drivers admits of a difference in the manner of using them, and this difference in the way of using accounts for the difference in the power exerted. (more…)
“Well, I don’t call a monkey wrench a screw driver. I call a screw a thing with a slotted head, and a screwdriver, the thing that goes into the slot to turn the screw.”
That remark was made in the shop, and was pretty near correct. Outside of the shop no one ever thinks of calling anything a screw driver except the instrument used to turn slotted screws. I had almost said wood screws, but that would have discarded the screw driver most in sight, that little convenience that comes, and goes, with every sewing machine, to tempt the operators to get them out of repair, and which, it is needless to say, isn’t, sometimes, worth the powder it would take to blow it to Chic—, but after all, it serves its purpose—what more would you want? And it is used by more people than any other mechanical instrument.
In fact few domestic screw drivers are just what they should be; and carpenters screw drivers are not much better. Wood screws are of various lengths and sizes. You can get little bits of wood screws, an inch long, or you can get them, just the same length, as big as a lead pencil.
Here are half a dozen estrays now on my desk while I write; how, whence, or when they came I don’t know. They will do for samples, and they vary from an eighth to more than a quarter of an inch in size. Now it don’t stand to reason that the little screw—not much bigger than a knitting needle, requires the same size and kind of a screw driver that the big one does. (more…)
Graphic designer and woodworker Tom Buhl reproduced an illustration of “Grandpa’s Workshop” for the Santa Barbara I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival, and it is quite cool.
You can see more photos of the painting being made here. See more of Tom’s work here.
The tendency of our times is to disregard old maxims. It is true, many of them, based on the experience of other people under very different conditions, are not applicable in our day. “Haste makes waste” may be true in the workshop, but the business man knows that “time is money,” and it pays to be in a hurry when the market shows signs of a change.
The good old maxim that “whatever is worth doing is worth doing well,” is too often forgotten. “That is good enough for him, or for the money,” is a poor excuse for a man to sacrifice his good name, and still worse to induce him to acquire careless habits. It has been said that while American workmen are better paid, better fed, better educated, and, we may add, better behaved, than those of any other country, they can beat the world in slighting their work and cheating their customers and employers. (more…)
Today I made the feet for my teak campaign chest. From the outside, this looks like a one-hour job: Turn the feet and their tenons. Glue the tenons into holes in the four square base blocks.
But many campaign chests have removable feet that unscrew from the base blocks. So if you want to do it right, it’s a bit more complex.
I tapped the base blocks with a 1-1/2” tap – the largest I have. Then I screwed the base blocks to the underside of the base.
I turned the teak feet – the quickest part of the day – and bored out their centers with a 1-3/8” x 1-1/2”-deep mortise. To join the feet to the case, I made maple tenons that fit snug into their feet and threaded the tops so they would screw into their base blocks.
Finally, I threaded the tenons into the base blocks and glued the feet onto the tenons – rotating them so they would show the nice cathedral grain facing front.
I turned the chest on its feet and stepped back to look at my day’s work.
Very unimpressive for six hours of futzing around.
