The shore itself has now to be prepared. Its top end should be grooved sufficiently ([fig. 51]) to receive the needle. This will prevent lateral motion when under pressure.
Fig. 51
The bottom end should be slightly slotted, in order to receive the end of a crowbar (see [fig. 52]).
It is now placed in position, and gently tightened up by the leverage of a crowbar acting in the slot, and using the sole piece as a fulcrum.
The advantage of the sole piece not being at right angles to the shore can now be seen, as if it were so laid no tightening could be gained by the leverage. This system is an improvement upon the tightening up by wedges, as the structure is not jarred in any manner. If the frame is to have more than one shore, they are erected in the same manner, the bottom shore being the first put up, the others succeeding in their turn. When in position the shores are dogged to the sole piece and a cleat is nailed down on the outer side of the system. The bottom ends are then bound together by hoop iron just above the ground level. To prevent the shores sagging, struts are fixed as shown on [fig. 49].
Fig. 52
Besides preventing the sagging these struts serve the purpose of keeping the shores in position. They may be fixed as nearly at right angles to the shores as possible, or at right angles to the wall; in any case they should reach to the wall plate at a point just below the needle. The struts should be nailed to the shores and wall plate. If the latter is wider than the shores, it should be cut to receive the struts.
It sometimes occurs that the timbers are of insufficient length to reach from the sole piece to wall plate. To overcome this difficulty, a short timber is laid on the sole piece against and parallel to the next middle raker, and on this short timber a rider shore stands reaching to its position on the wall plate (see [fig. 49]).