HARDENING AND TEMPERING TOOLS.
I promised in a previous page to describe a little stove for heating soldering-irons, and doing other light work. It is made as follows, and will be found very useful.
Fig. 71, A, is a tube of sheet-iron, which forms the body of the little stove. Four light iron rods stand out from it, which form handles, but these are forked at the ends, and thus become rests for the handles of soldering-irons, or any light bars that are to be heated at the ends. Below is a tray, also of sheet-iron, upon short legs to keep it off the table—for this is a little table-stove. C is the cast-iron grate. You can buy this for a few pence first of all, and then you fit your sheet-metal to it. It will rest on three or four little studs or projections riveted to the stove inside; or you can cut three or four little places like D, not cutting them at the bottom line, a b, but only on three sides, and then bend in the little piece so as to make a shelf. If the stove is about 4 inches high above the grate, and 2 or 3 inches below it, and 6 inches diameter, it will be sufficiently large for many small operations; but that the fuel may keep falling downwards as it burns, the lower part should be larger than the upper, and, to admit plenty of air, should be cut into legs as shown. Round the top are cut semicircular hollows, in which the irons rest. To increase the heat, a chimney or blower, B, is fitted, which has also openings cut out to match those of the lower part, so that the soldering-irons can be inserted when this chimney is put on. If, however, this is not required, but only a strong draught, by turning the chimney a little, all the openings will be closed. A still longer chimney can be added at pleasure. A hole should be made at the level of the grate to admit the nozzle of an ordinary pair of bellows. This stove you would find of great service, and it may be fed with coke and charcoal in small lumps. Now you may make the above far more useful. It will make a regular little furnace, and not burn through, if you can line it with fireclay. In London and large towns you can obtain this; and it only needs to be mixed up with water, like mortar, when you can plaster your stove inside an inch thick or more, making it so much larger on purpose. There is no need to do this below the level of the grate; but if you cannot get fireclay, you may do almost as well by getting a blacklead-meltingpot from any ironfoundry, and boring a few holes round the bottom for air, and fitting it inside your little iron stove. In this you can obtain heat enough to melt brass, and it will last a great deal longer than the iron alone, which will burn through if you blow the fire much; but for general soldering, tempering small tools, and so forth, you need not blow the fire, as the hood and chimney will sufficiently increase the heat. There is no danger in the use of this little fireplace, but of course you would not stand it near a heap of shavings, unless you are yourself a very careless young “shaver.”
Fig. 71.