Harper's indoor book for boys

by Joseph H. Adams

Lay two of the legs on the floor, three feet apart, and join the ends with one of the six-inch strips. Six inches up from the free ends fasten a narrow strip, as shown in Fig. 2 A. This finishes one of the end supports. Flat-headed iron screws, two and a half inches long, should be used for the unions, and a tighter joint may be secured by also using glue.

Prepare, in similar fashion, the other pair of legs, and, with two pieces of clear pine, or white-wood, five feet long, eight inches wide, and seven-eighths of an inch thick, bind the four legs together, as shown in Fig. 3. You should allow the boards to project six inches beyond the legs at both ends. These pieces are the side-rails, or aprons, and they should be securely fastened with glue and screws to the upper end of each leg.

At the back of the bench arrange two braces of wood, three inches wide and seven-eighths of an inch thick, as shown in Fig. 3. Bevelled laps are to be cut in the side of two legs, as shown in Fig. 2 B, into which the ends of the strips will fit flush. The upper ends of the strips are to be mitred (cut at an angle), and attached to the inside of the apron, as shown in Fig. 3.

For the top of the bench use clear pine planking not less than one inch in thickness. This should be fitted closely together, and fastened to the cross-pieces with stout screws.

From hard-wood a piece should be shaped for a vise-jaw thirty-two inches long, three inches wide at the bottom, and seven inches wide at the top. Near the bottom of the jaw an oblong hole should be cut to receive the end of a sliding piece, which in turn is provided with several holes for a peg to fit into. A corresponding oblong hole is cut near the foot of one leg, through which the piece containing the holes will pass. This last regulates the spread of the jaw. This construction may be seen in Fig. 4, and its final position is shown in the illustration of the finished bench (Fig. 1).

Near the top of the jaw a hole is cut to receive the screw that is turned with the lever-stick to tighten the jaw. A bench-screw may be purchased at any hardware store, and fitted to the work-bench. If it should prove too much of an undertaking for the youthful workman, a carpenter will put it in place at a trifling cost. The wood screws are the cheapest, but the steel ones are the most satisfactory, and will cost about one dollar for a small one.

From the apron (at the front of the bench) a piece should be cut fifteen inches long and six inches wide. This opening will admit a drawer of the same width and height, and as deep as may be desired. Twenty-four inches will be quite deep enough.

Rabbets are cut in the ends of a front piece, and the sides are let into them, as shown in Fig. 5. The bottom and back are fastened in with screws, and the drawer is arranged to slide on runners that are fastened across the bench inside the aprons, as shown in the upper corner of Fig. 3.

At the front of the drawer a cove may be cut out, and a thin plate of iron screwed fast across the top of it, so that the fingers may be passed in behind the plate to pull out the drawer (Fig. 5). It will not do to use a projecting drawer-pull, as that would interfere with pieces of work when clamped in the vise. In planing strips, or boards, that are too long for the vise to hold securely, a wooden peg, inserted in a hole at the opposite end of the apron from the vise, will be found convenient. Two or three holes may be made for boards of different widths, and the peg adjusted to the proper one as occasion requires.

A planing-stop, with teeth, may be purchased at a hardware store and set in place near the vise-jaw. The complete bench will then be ready for use.