Other Appliances.—A number of other appliances and contrivances will be found, under their respective headings, in [Part V].
A FEW ESSENTIALS TO SUCCESSFUL WORK
Do one thing at a time. Finish one job before you start two or three others.
First learn to work well, then ability to work quickly will come of itself.
Plan your work to the end before beginning to use your tools.
Make drawings carefully to scale before beginning any but the simplest work.
Lay out the work carefully on the wood with sharp, accurate lines, according to the drawings, measuring everything with exactness at least twice.
Cut the work accurately with sharp tools to the lines you have laid out.
Keep testing the accuracy of the work with the square, straight-edge, rule, level, or plumb.
Keep your tools sharp and in good order.
Have the most convenient place for each tool and always keep it in that place when not in use.
Do your work thoroughly and strongly. Do not half make it. Do not half fasten it together. The only time you will regret thorough work is when you have to take it apart again.
"The labor is small, the pastime is great."—[a]Goethe].
PART II
CHAPTER VI
ARTICLES TO BE MADE IN THE WORKSHOP
Even if you are able to use tools quite well, you may still not know how to go to work to make some particular thing, so it is quite important to know how to lay out, put together, and finish different kinds of work.
The number of things you can make is legion. The number it is worth while for you to make is much smaller. Amateurs often say that the work they do themselves costs more (even counting their own labour as nothing) than to hire the work done, and it is one aim of this book to prevent that undesirable result, in some cases at least.