1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



21 



both ways. Always plane the edges of your 

 board, and lay on your try-square to see that 

 they are planed squarely. When carpenters put 

 up shelves or other work, leaving the rough 

 edges of the boards unplaned. it vexes me ex- 

 ceedingly. You can do a rough job quicker 

 with planed boards and planed edges than you 

 can cut and slash without rule or pencil, simply 

 because you are in a hurry. Haste not only 

 makes wastein carpentry, but you will tind that 

 •• lazy folks " oftentimes " take the most oains "" 

 eventually. 



Where you are to hitch on to other work, some 

 judgment and discretion are necessary: but as 

 a rule I would make the new work level and 

 plumb. Keep constantly by you a plumb and 

 spirit-level: and when you ptit up a shelf, door- 

 step, or any thing else, that is supposed to be 

 leveh make it absolutely level — level north and 

 south, and level east and west: and if any thing 

 is supposed to be perpendicular, have it abso- 

 lutely so. putting the plumb on both sides. Few 

 carpenters will take the pains to do this. Many 

 accidents, and much loss of life, even, have oc- 

 curred by having steps awkwardly put up. If 

 what yon do is put up square and level, you 

 will have the satisfaction of knowing that your 

 work is right so far as you have gone: and if at 

 any future time other work is to be added or at- 

 tached to it, it will be plain, clear sailing. 



Do not go to cutting up your lumber until you 

 know exactly what you want and what you are 

 going to do. Wlienever I set a new carpenter 

 at work it is always interesting to me to watch 

 him. and see if lie will not take more time in 

 remedying blunders tlian he does in doing the 

 work. A man who can go straight ahead, with- 

 out balk or blunder, will accomplish a surpris- 

 ing anio\int of woi'k in a day. But men who 

 can do this are very scarce. This is why it often 

 pays to employ a competent architect, and give 

 him five per cent of the whole amount of money 

 invested, when the job is of any magnitude. It 

 is his business to lay the work out so it can be 

 pushed along rapidly by ordinary mechanics, 

 without running into any snags. 



Have your lumbeialldressed to an even thick- 

 ness. Insist on this at the planing-mlll: that 

 is, have all your inch boards dressed to the usu- 

 al K- and have your two-inch stuff also dressed 

 to an even thickness. If you are using scant- 

 ling, have them all sawed or dressed so all are 

 alike. It will pay you to have it done before you 

 commence. When your lumber is all on the 

 spot, sort it or classify it so you know just what 

 you have. Before cutting, decide what lumber 

 is to be used to the best advantage for a certain 

 place. Never cut oiT a board or stick until it 

 must be cut off. Over and over again, men will 

 go to work and saw off a stick when there is no 

 need of sawing it off at all. and then discover 

 that they made it too short, or spoiled it for the 

 work intended: and then there is some botch- 

 work in splicing it. A great many times the 

 stick or board can be put in place, or nearly in 

 place, before it is cut at all. Cut one end, if it 

 must be cut, and then take your stick or board 

 and nail it in place temporarily, leaving the 

 nails projecting so they can be drawn with a 

 claw-hammer. Almost every carpenter I get 

 hold of will nail things in fast.driving the nails 

 clear down, and then discover that the board 

 has to come off again. He will sav that he can 



get it off again without splitting the board: but 

 the board i.s split, and made ungainly-looking, 

 if not spoiled, before he gets through. 



How many carpenters pound their work all 

 up with their hammer, by pounding a nail after 

 it has gone clear home! One of the first lessons 



nail is down level, without leaving a single 

 hammer-mark. 



Sometimes, when you are undecided just how 

 things are going to come out. you can put your 

 work almost all in place by means of nails driv- 

 en part way in; then if a change is to be made, 

 it can be made easily and nicely. After every 

 thing is in place, just as you want it, and it all 

 looks right, then drive the nails home to their 

 places. 



Do not measure with a rule or square, and 

 then go and cut your stuff, saying it is so many 

 feet and so many inches Jong. Why, I have 

 seen a great pile of lumber all cut up wrong, 

 because somebody madi^ a mistake of a tiuarter 

 or half an inch. Instead of using the square 

 or rule, have some light strips of wood. Lay a 

 strip on tiu; place to be measured, and mark it 

 with your pencil, or cut a notch with your 

 knife. 



Do not think of going to work without a ten- 

 foot pole. When you get it all cut up or mark- 

 ed up. take your plane, plane it off, and mark it 

 over again. 



In taking dimension.s, where you can not get 

 a stick or pole in handy, say in getting the dis- 

 tance between two walls which ai'e four or five 

 feet apart, take two strips, say two pieces of 

 lath. Lay them against each "other, and slide 

 one along the other until it touches the oppo- 

 site wall. Now drive a nail through them, or, 

 better, two nails, and you have the exact dis- 

 tance. It is taken quickly, and there can be no 

 possibility of a mistake. If those who have 

 worked for me, had, in taking dimensions in 

 yeai's past, done this, it would have saved me 

 hundreds of dollars. Where somebody takes a 

 rule or square, and measures, and then says it 

 is so many fe(>t and so many inches, it seems as 

 if snch a one (iluytyfi makes a mistake, especial- 

 ly when I am around. Oftentimes the dimen- 

 sions are given to somebody else, and the sec- 

 ond man does not understand. 



If you are sending for a pane of glass to fit 

 some place, give the boy two sticks to take to 

 the hardware store. Tell him the glass is to be 

 as wide as one stick, and as long as the other: 

 and if you cut your sticks exactly right, your 

 glass will be exact, and the same way in taking 

 the dimensions of any thing. It is quicker, and 

 absolutely safe. Many mechanics seem to think 

 cutting things wrong, and sending boys for the 

 wrong thing, f.hould be counted on as a matter 

 of course in every day's progi-am. 



Do not be in hasie to saw oft' everything. 

 Many times people waste their time and 

 strength in sawing off sticks or boards that do 

 not need to be sawed off at all. They do it on 

 the same principle that the girls did who were 

 wasting their time in scraping and peeling la- 

 bels from some glass jars. When I asked them 

 why they wished to get the labels off. they 

 said they wanted to put on some new. fresh- 

 looking ones. 



" Well." said I, " why not put the new labels 

 right over the old ones, letting them be where 

 they are? " 



Nobody could answer or give any reason, and 

 yet they were consuming valuable time. 



A great part of carpenter work is simply to 

 please the eye. It does not matter how your 

 boards look where the work conceals it. By the 

 skillful use of cheap slender molding you may 



make a botched job look artistic. Let the mold 

 ing cover the joints and general unsightliness. I 

 saw a very pretty ceiling, made of boards one 

 foot wide, dressed on one side. These boards 

 were not even sawed oft' at the ends, and the 

 cracks between them were, some of tliem, an 

 „ ., , , inch wide; vet strips of molding, put on skill- 



my father taught me was to avoid pounding up fully, covered all the cracks and joints, and d - 

 nice soft lumber. Strike your last blows so the vided the ceiling into pretty oblong squares. 



