Fig. 44.
I must say a word or two as to neatness and order, especially in the arrangement of tools and appliances for the lathe. Whether you have a dozen tools or a hundred, always put them in the same place, so that any particular article can be found instantly, no time being wasted hunting up and down, or examining a long row of tools for the one required at that particular time. Turning tools, moreover, should be kept distinct from those used for carpentry, and in a special rack by themselves. The best tool-rack, I think, which can be made, is one like Fig. 44. This may be made of deal, but the pieces between the holes are thus liable to get split off, and beech or ash is therefore preferable. The whole frame is made to be screwed to the wall; or, if the latter is damp, the frame should be first screwed to a board covered with baize, and this, in turn, fixed to the wall. Thus arranged, it will have a very neat appearance, and the tools being kept dry, will remain generally free from rust. They should, nevertheless, be carefully looked over once a week and wiped, when those requiring to be ground should be subjected to that operation, and thus be ready for future use when required. They are bad workmen who allow blunt or damaged tools to accumulate, instead of at once setting them in order. The horizontal bars are bored with holes by means of a centrebit. The holes must be arranged as to size by the measurement of the ferules of the tool handles, some being larger and some smaller, so that when the tool is placed in any hole, the handle will drop in to the depth of the ferule and fit. Thus the tools will all stand upright, instead of leaning from one side or the other. After the holes are made, a piece is cut out (see fig. B) at the front edge, because the blades of some tools are wider than the ferules, and, in addition, if this were not done, the different tool-rails must be as far apart as the whole length of the tool (handle and all included), to allow of the latter being lifted sufficiently high to drop into the holes.
The strips for the holes should be about 2 inches wide, the lower one, for the larger chisels and gouges, rather wider than the upper ones. Sometimes these tool-racks are fitted up inside a cabinet, whose doors have similar racks; thus all can be shut in out of the reach of dust and dirt. Holtzappffel, the great lathemaker of London, fits up such cabinets complete in oak or mahogany, all the tools being handled in hard wood and turned to one pattern. The cost, however, £5 and upwards, renders such less desirable to the young mechanic, who can rig up a common tool-rack, which will serve his purpose equally well. It is also far more satisfactory, in looking round your workshop, to feel that you have at all events been as little extravagant as possible, for amateurs get no return for outlay as tradesmen do.
Chapter IX.
There is no operation in which the young mechanic is so much at fault as in that of grinding and setting in order the various tools he has to use. Nevertheless he will never become either an independent workman or a good one, if he has to depend upon others for this necessary labour.