A perfect wooden lever-press is shown in the large illustration (Fig. 9), which is drawn so clearly that only the measurements will be required to understand its construction.
Fig. 9.
The base-board of this press is twenty inches long, ten inches wide, and one and one-fourth inches thick. The upright board against which the chase rests is ten inches wide, eight inches high, and one and one-fourth inches thick. The pressure-plate is the same width and thickness, but is seven inches high, and bevelled at the bottom, as shown in the side elevation (Fig. 12). The upright board is placed six inches from one end of the base-board, and is fastened in place with screws that are driven up from the underside of the base-board, with side-braces let in to the edges of the boards, as shown in Fig. 8.
The pressure-plate is hinged at the bottom to a piece of wood, which acts as a platform for the lower edge of the chase to rest on. It is seven-eighths of an inch thick and two and one-half inches wide. Strips are glued and screwed at either edge of the upright board to hold the sides of the chase, and at the top the chase is held with a brass spring-clip that can be made and screwed to the wood. Four inches from the pressure-plate base three blocks are arranged to support the lever, which is connected to the back of the pressure-plate with a tongue of iron one-fourth of an inch thick, three inches long, and one inch wide (Fig. 10). Quarter-inch holes are bored at each end just two inches apart from centre to centre. Two blocks of wood are screwed to the back of the pressure-plate one fourth of an inch apart, and a quarter-inch hole made in each, to receive a bolt, which also passes through one hole in the iron tongue.
The wooden lever is fourteen inches long, one and one-half inches square at one end, and at the other it is rounded, so as to make it easier on the hands. The square end is rounded off and cut in with a saw, as shown in Fig. 11, and one inch in from the end a quarter-inch hole is made.
The blocks that hold the lever are set one and one-half inches apart, and a bolt passes through the upper end of them and through the lever near the end of the iron tongue. The hole in the lever through which the bolt passes is two inches from the end hole, and when spaced properly the inside of the pressure-plate should be seven-eighths of an inch from the face of the chase-board when the handle and tongue are in a straight line, as shown in the side elevation of the press (Fig. 12).
Fig. 7. Fig. 8. Fig. 10. Fig. 11.
Fig. 12. SIDE ELEVATION OF WOODEN LEVER-PRESS