On one of the upper tiers the cross pieces were made eight inches longer than the others, and where they extended beyond the front of the rack pieces of pine 6 × 2 × 7⁄8 inches were nailed to the ends, making a convenient hook for hanging hand screws, which are always in the way on the floor. It also made a very convenient shelf for storing narrow waste strips of lumber, which should not be destroyed, as one can never tell when they will be needed.
In the case of a rack made of iron pipe, the ends of these long cross pieces need be only ordinary pipe elbows.
The labour of building a lumber rack was much heavier than anything the boys had done before, but it brought the larger muscles into play, seemed like real carpenter work, and was an excellent preparation for the finer tool work to follow. A boy who has never carried out a piece of large work successfully cannot realize the satisfaction of looking at a really good piece of construction and being able to say, "I made that all myself!"
Fig. 94. First wind vane
Ralph suggested that one or two things more were needed to make their equipment ship-shape—one was a tool cabinet, and another was some arrangement for storing small pieces of stock; but as both of these required considerable tool practice, they were recorded in a notebook as among the things to be done later on.
It was agreed that the shop needed a vane to show the direction of the wind, and the boys' design for this is shown at Fig. 94. It included a weather vane and windmill.
The whole combination required five pieces of wood. The two short pieces, 7 inches long by 1 inch square, were first dressed to size, cut out and halved together as shown. They were then taken apart and cut to the lines shown, with a knife, making propeller blades similar to those made for the aeroplane. When both were finished, they were again put together, and a hole drilled through the centre a trifle larger than a flat-head wire nail 21⁄2 inches long. This nail is to hold the mill to the horizontal piece. The nail is to be tight in this horizontal piece, but the windmill must revolve freely about the nail. It is for this reason that the hole in the mill must be slightly larger than the diameter of the nail.
The horizontal piece is bevelled on one end with the knife and has a 1⁄4-inch slot sawed out at the other. The slot is to receive the wind vane. The vane was sawed out of 1⁄4-inch wood, fitted into the slot and nailed with brads.