Elementary Course in Woodwork / Designed for use in high and technical schools, with one hundred and thirty-four illustrations: First Edition

by George Alexander Ross

Fig. 61.

Special results are sought for by specific methods in this exercise. Exercises that are not finished (by the methods given) as they should be, are thrown out as not coming up to the requirements and fall short of the object for which they are designed.

The drawing shows two pieces of wood of given dimensions crossing each other at right angles and halved together, making a flush joint. Requirements: The pieces to be of the exact length, breadth, and thickness called for, fitted closely on both sides, each piece to be exactly in the center of the other, and both sides smoothed off and perfectly flat when finished; the ends of the pieces to be planed square, and the ends of the halving to be fitted from the saw. Methods: After sawing out a piece (long enough to make both pieces, allowing for work on the ends), plane the piece by the methods given for planing in the first exercise; then saw it across in the center and proceed to lay out the pieces so that the face side of each piece will come on the same side; this means that the halving is cut out of the face of one piece and the back of the other ([see Fig. 60]).

Fig. 62.

It will be well to consider this problem of laying out work as a problem in arithmetic. The pieces called for in the drawing are 5½ inches long, 1½ inches wide, and 1 inch thick. The piece that crosses comes exactly in the center. Therefore we have a problem like this: 5½″ -1½″ = 4″, which is the difference between the length of one piece and the breadth of the other; but the piece comes in the center, and so we take the difference of the length, which is 4″, and divide it by 2. 4″/2 = 2″, which will give the distance from the end up to the first edge of the cross-piece. As all measurements have a beginning somewhere, we mark a line near the end of the piece as shown in [Fig. 62], and from this line we lay off the distance to the cross-piece, marking with a knife point the position of the edge. Then we lay off the width of the cross-piece, which is 1½″, leaving the distance to the other end 2″, the same as at the first end.

Fig. 63.

Having found the position of the edges of the cross-piece, we mark a line across the work (using a knife and a square); then mark the lines down the edges. Now taking the gauge, we gauge from the face side of each piece the depth required. Then we cut a notch inside the lines with a knife, as shown at [Fig. 53], place the piece on the bench hook, saw down to the gauge lines with the back-saw (position shown in [Fig. 54]), and remove the portions to be taken out by the methods given for the notch in the first exercise.