942 Popular Science Monthly 



Protecting Drawings on Front Edge 

 of Drawing Board 



WHILE making large drawings it is 

 often necessary to allow the drawing 

 to extend over the front end of the drawing 

 board. To prevent the worker from crush- 

 ing the drawing paper while in this position, 

 simply fasten a thin strip of wood to the 

 front end or edge of the board with a small 

 block under each end. Allow the extending 

 edge to drop behind the strip and it will 

 be well protected. — Thos. W. Benson. 



Setting a Lathe Quickly for 

 Taper Turning 



A SHOP recently received an order for 

 turning a large number of tapered 

 brass plugs of varied lengths and diameters. 

 The lathe on which the orders were filled as 

 they came was an old one, not having the 

 common taper attachment, which would 

 have made the job an easy one. The taper 

 per foot in inches was of course given with 

 each lot. The illustration shows the man- 

 ner of setting the tapers, which, though 

 they did not afford the rapidity of an up- 

 to-date machine, gave excellent results. 

 One of the plugs out of each lot was 



Manner of setting the tailstock of a lathe for 

 turning a taper of a given length and size 



turned back for about 4 or 5 in. of its 

 length with the centers in line, as shown in 

 Fig. 1, A-B. The tail-stock was then set 

 over to one-half the given taper, and the end 

 tips of a 12-in. box scale brought in contact 

 with the center points. In Fig. 2 a piece of 



steel C squared on three sides was then 

 drawn fairly tight in the tool post and 

 tapped with a hammer to bring it in line 

 with the face of the square head. The tool 

 post was then run back and the work again 

 placed in the machine. A small square 

 was placed against the piece C, and the tail 

 stock again thrown either way until the leg 

 of the square was exactly in line with the 

 turned portion A-B. This afforded the 

 distance D-E, Fig 3. The sizes at the ends 

 could then of course be readily turned. 

 There are other ways to secure tapers by 

 trial cuts which give good results, but 

 owing to the size of the work in this case the 

 method used was the most practical since it 

 gave close and exceptionally accurate re- 

 sults. — F. W. Bentley. 



Making a High Gloss Finish on a 

 Matt Surface Picture 



A PHOTOGRAPH submitted for publi- 

 cation was returned to me with a 

 request for a clearer picture. As I no 

 longer had the negative or more prints, I 

 naturally wanted to fix the one returned 

 so that it would pass inspection. It was 

 accomplished in the following manner: 

 I laid the print on a table and rubbed 

 over it five coats of floor wax with a soft 

 rag. Each coat was rubbed down lightly, 

 but thoroughly. The last two coats I 

 finished by rubbing the print upside down 

 on a piece of blotting paper. This resulted 

 in a high gloss print, bringing out the detail 

 in the shadows so that i t was accepted as a 

 new print. — Henry Simon. 



How to Straighten a Warped 

 Drawing Board 



IF a drawing board should warp in spite of 

 the wooden battens on the back of it, it 

 may be straightened as follows : 



Paste strips of paper on the concave side 

 of the warped board so that the paper 

 strips are at right angles to the hollow. 

 Also paste strips diagonally across these so 

 that the board face is crossed and recrossed 

 by strips of paper. Leave the strips on for 

 a week and then wash off and it will be 

 found that the board has regained its flat 

 surface. 



I have seen boards straightened in this 

 way which were so badly warped that the 

 paper pulled hard enough to start the glue 

 holding the inset pieces on the back. The 

 pull of the paper is not noticeable a few days 

 after it is put on. 



