Nov. 14, 1884.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



403 



THE WORKSHOP AT HOME. 

 By a Working Man. 



{Continued from p 356.) 



WHEN I was explaining the way of making a simple 

 picture-frame on p. 356, I recommended the 

 amateur to clamp it up by strips of wood nailed down on to 

 a plank ; and this method will serve very well if he is only 

 going to make one or two. Should he, however, take a 

 fancy to this kind of work, he hid better construct the 

 simple kind of clamp which I am going to describe, and 

 which is shown in Fig. 24. He will find it very handy for 



-4Ar- 



A, 



h 



Fig. 24. 



7 



shallow trays with mitred corners, and similar things 

 beside. I always use it myself. First and foremost we cut 

 out four pieces of beech-wood into the shape shown at A ; in 

 the clamp now before me, the four longer sides of these 

 measure 2 inches. Through these we bore diagonally from 

 h to h, and cut the grooves lnj, h g, from the holes /( /( to the 

 ends of the blocks. Now cut two pieces alike, as shown 

 at B and 0. Drill a hole in the bottom of B a quarter to 

 half-way through it. This is to take the end of the 

 screw immediately to be referred to. It is a wooden 

 one cut in a " box," and if the amateur does not possess 



such a box, he can buy a screw like S (in D, above) 

 for a few pence. must be tapped to take this screw, 

 as shown at S ; the diagonal holes h h, too, must be bored 

 through it. It only remains to thread a sufficiently stout 

 piece of cord through the four pieces A and 0, and our 

 clamp is complete. It is shown in action in D. The 

 frame ff having been glued up, the four pieces A are 

 placed one at each corner, and B against one edge. Then 

 the two ends of the string are firmly attached to the handle 

 of the screw previously passed through C, as are the strings 

 too, and the end of the screw is inserted in the hole at the 

 bottom of B. A glance at the figure will show how, by 

 turning the screw, the string is tightened, A A A A caused 

 to approximate, and the included frame// tightly clamped 



While we are talking about picture-frames, though, by 

 far the prettiest and most eflfective frame that the amateur 

 can make is what is known as the " Oxford " one ; in 

 which instead of the corners being mitred and square, the 

 sides and ends cross each other and project, as shown in 

 Fig. 25. It will be noticed, too, in the sketch, that the 



n 



pro 



n 



/ \ 



' \ 



ti 



:3 



y 



y 



Fig. 25. 



edges of the piece of wood are what is called " stop-chara- 

 fered " ; that is to say bevelled at an angle of 45°, in (if 

 I may so speak) lengths, the bevel stopping at intervals 

 and not extending all along the work. Let us suppose 

 now that we are going to make an Oxford frame to take a 

 " Cabinet sized " photograph, the mount of which will mea- 

 sure about 6i in. by 4i in. Oak is very commonly used 

 for these frames, but I have myself made a great many from 

 walnut wood, which is very pretty and effective, and, with 



t|- 



"U" 



Fig. 26. 



moderate care, easy to work. First we must square up four 

 bits of wood I in. wide and | in. deep, two of them 9| in. 

 long, the other two 7i in. long. These are to be (what work- 

 men call) " halfened " together. Fig. 26 explains this. 

 Here A B represents one of our pieces of wood in which the 

 notches N N are cut | in. wide (the width of the wood) corre- 



