18 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
keep constantly moving about and are 
very difficult to hit. 
Tops are made of different varieties of 
wood, according to the kind of top and the 
person who is to use it. Thus, if the top 
is for a very little boy it may be of soft 
wood (pine or basswood) and shaped like 
the Spanish top which is shown in Fig. 1. 
This top is generally made of mahogany ; 
it has not a peg, but instead of that it is 
furnished with a rounded knob at the 
lower end and it spins very quietly, con- 
sequently it may be used upon wooden 
floors and smooth pavements. Such a top 
is one of the easiest things to make, and 
very neat ones may be turned up in the 
simplest and cheapest kind of lathe. Peg 
tops are generally made of one ol; the 
harder kinds of wood, such as beech, 
^ maple, elm, apple, pear, 
mahogany, lignum vitae 
or boxwood. Boxwood is 
said to make the best top ; 
we are told that lignum 
vitse answers admirably. 
Beginners, however, will 
find it difficult to work, 
and therefore we would 
recommend elm, pear, ap- 
ple or dogwood as the best 
material for a first trial on a peg top. 
The peg should be of steel. Most of 
those which are sold are mere bits of iron 
wire. A few of the better class are of 
steel wire. Choice tops have a special 
forged steel peg, made conical and with 
a tang like that shown in Fig. 2. 
When well turned this makes a 
very fine peg. It cannot be driven 
into the wood so as to split the 
top, and the weight makes the top 
easy to throw. When a forged 
peg cannot be had, a very good 
one may be made out of a large 
bradawl which may be bought for 
a trifle in any hardware store. 
Soften it in the fire, cut off the 
round part to a length of about 
three-quarters of an inch, and file 
the square shoulders as round as 
you can. It is then ready to be 
driven into the wood. First of 
all, however, you ought to examine some 
good top, either in the stores or by borrow- 
ing it for a few minutes from the owner. 
In this way you will get a correct idea of 
the shape, etc., of the article you wish to 
make. 
Having decided upon size and shape, 
procure a piece of good tough wood, close 
grained and well seasoned. Pare off the 
corners with a chisel or hatchet so as to 
make it nearly round. The object of 
this is to leave as little work for the 
gouge and chisel as possible. In the 
hands of an experienced turner, and with 
a good strong lathe, the corners can be 
ripped off with a gouge as quickly or even 
more quickly than with a hatchet. It is 
astonishing what an amount of wood can 
be cut off in a few seconds in the lathe 
when one knows how to do it, the great 
secret of success being a high speed, a 
sharp tool and a steady hand. For be- 
ginners, however, we would advise the re- 
moval of the corners by means of an axe 
or knife. The knife best suited to such 
purposes is the common draw knife with 
two handles. The wood is held in a vice 
or clamp, a circle is marked on each end 
with a pair of dividers, and the corners 
are carefully paired off to this circle. 
Those who have a small plane may use it 
and make the piece of wood very nearly 
quite round before putting it in the lathe. 
The wood is now ready for centering, and 
as this demands a consideration of the 
most suitable kind of lathe centre for such 
work, we will treat this point in our next 
article. 
(To he continued.) 
A Hanging Cabinet. 
BY TEED. T. HODGSON. " 
THE proficient scroll -sawyer will no 
doubt, after a time become tired of 
making brackets, card- baskets, photo- 
frames and the thousand and one other 
useful and ornamental articles that are 
usually made up of work formed almost 
entirely by the aid of the scroll-saw. To 
give him an opportunity of trying his 
skill on something equally as useful, more 
durable, and perhaps just as handsome, 
I propose to show him how he can make 
a very nice " hanging cabinet." 
To begin with, I present at Fig. 1 a 
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