Carpentry for Boys Part 11

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THINGS TO AVOID IN MORTISING.--You must be careful to refrain from undercutting as your chisel goes down at the lines _a_, _b_, because if you commit this error you will make a bad joint.

As much care should be exercised in producing the tenon, although the most common error is apt to occur in making the shoulder. This should be a trifle undercut.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 209._]

See the lines (A, Fig. 209), which ill.u.s.trate this.

LAP-AND-b.u.t.t JOINT.--The lap-and-b.u.t.t is the form of uniting members which is most generally used to splice together timbers, where they join each other end to end.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 210._]

Bolts are used to secure the laps.

But the lap-and-b.u.t.t form is also used in doors and in other cabinet work. It is of great service in paneling.

A rabbet is formed to receive the edge of the panel, and a molding is then secured to the other side on the panel, to hold the latter in place.

SCARFING.--This method of securing members together is the most rigid, and when properly performed makes the joint the strongest part of the timber. Each member (A, Fig. 212) has a step diagonally cut (B), the two steps being on different planes, so they form a hook joint, as at C, and as each point or terminal has a blunt end, the members are so constructed as to withstand a longitudinal strain in either direction.

The overlapping plates (D) and the bolts (E) hold the joint rigidly.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 211._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 212._]

THE TONGUE AND GROOVE.--This form of uniting members has only a limited application. It is serviceable for floors, table tops, paneling, etc.

In Fig. 213, a door panel is shown, and the door mullions (B) are also so secured to the rail (C). The tongue-and-groove method is never used by itself. It must always have some support or reinforcing means.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 213._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 214._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 215._]

BEADING.--This part of the work pertains to surface finishings, and may or may not be used in connection with rabbeting.

Figs. 214 and 215 show the simplest and most generally adopted forms in which it is made and used in connection with rabbeting, or with the tongue and groove. The bead is placed on one or both sides of that margin of the board (Fig. 214) which has the tongue, and the adjoining board has the usual flooring groove to b.u.t.t against and receive the tongue. It is frequently the case that a blind bead, as in Fig. 215, runs through the middle of the board, so as to give the appearance of narrow strips when used for wainscoting, or for ceilings. The beads also serve to hide the joints of the boards.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 216._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 217._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 218._]

ORNAMENTAL BEAD FINISH.--These figures show how the bead may be used for finishing corners, edges and projections. Fig. 216 has a bead at each corner of a stile (A), and a finishing strip of half-round material (B) is nailed to the flat edge. Fig. 217 has simply the corners themselves beaded, and it makes a most serviceable finish for the edges of projecting members.

Fig. 218, used for wider members, has the corners beaded and a fancy molding (C); or the reduced edge of the stile itself is rounded off.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 219._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 220._]

THE BEAD AND RABBET.--A more amplified form of work is available where the rabbet plane is used with the beader. These two planes together will, if properly used, offer a strong subst.i.tute for molding and molding effects.

Fig. 219 has both sides first rabbeted, as at A, and the corners then beaded, as at B, with the reduced part of the member rounded off, as at C. Or, as in Fig. 220, the reduced edge of the member may have the corners beaded, as at D, and the rabbeted corners filled in with a round or concaved moulding (E).

SHADING WITH BEADS AND RABBETS.--You will see from the foregoing, that these embellishments are serviceable because they provide the article with a large number of angles and surfaces to cast lights and shadows; and for this reason the boy should strive to produce the effects which this cla.s.s of work requires.

CHAPTER XI

HOUSE BUILDING

House building is the carpenter's craft; cabinet-making the joiner's trade, yet both are so intimately a.s.sociated, that it is difficult to draw a line. The same tools, the same methods and the same materials are employed.

There is no trade more enn.o.bling than home building. It is a vocation which touches every man and woman, and to make it really an art is, or should be, the true aspiration of every craftsman.

THE HOUSE AND EMBELLISHMENTS.--The refined arts, such as sculpture and painting, merely embellish the home or the castle, so that when we build the structure it should be made with an eye not only to comfort and convenience, but fitting in an artistic and aesthetic sense. It is just as easy to build a beautiful home as an ugly, ungainly, illy proportioned structure.

BEAUTY NOT ORNAMENTATION.--The boy, in his early training, should learn this fundamental truth, that beauty, architecturally, does not depend upon ornamentation. Some of the most beautiful structures in the world are very plain. Beauty consists in proportions, in proper correlation of parts, and in adaptation for the uses to which the structure is to be put.

PLAIN STRUCTURES.--A house with a plain facade, having a roof properly pitched and with a simple cornice, if joined to a wing which is not ungainly or out of proper proportions, is infinitely more beautiful than a rambling structure, in which one part suggests one order of architecture and the other part some other type or no type at all, and in which the embellishments are out of keeping with the size or pretensions of the house.

COLONIAL TYPE.--For real beauty, on a larger scale, there is nothing to-day which equals the old Colonial type with the Corinthian columns and entablature. The Lee mansion, now the National Cemetery, at Washington, is a fine example. Such houses are usually square or rectangular in plan, severely plain, with the whole ornamentation consisting of the columns and the portico. This type presents an appearance of ma.s.siveness and grandeur and is an excellent ill.u.s.tration of a form wherein the main characteristic of the structure is concentrated or ma.s.sed at one point.

The Church of the Madelaine, Paris, is another striking example of this period of architecture.

Of course, it would be out of place with cottages and small houses, but it is well to study and to know what forms are most available and desirable to adopt, and particularly to know something of the art in which you are interested.

THE ROOF THE KEYNOTE.--Now, there is one thing which should, and does, distinguish the residence from other types of buildings, excepting churches. It is the roof. A house is dominated by its covering. I refer to the modern home. It is not true with the Colonial or the Grecian types. In those the facade or the columns and cornices predominate over everything else.

BUNGALOW TYPES.--If you will take up any book on bungalow work and note the outlines of the views you will see that the roof forms the main element or theme. In fact, in most buildings of this kind everything is submerged but the roof and roof details. They are made exceedingly flat, with different pitches with dormers and gables intermingled and indiscriminately placed, with cornices illy a.s.sorted and of different kinds, so that the multiplicity of diversified details gives an appearance of great elaboration. Many of those designs are monstrosities and should, if possible, be legally prohibited.

I cannot attempt to give even so much as an outline of what const.i.tutes art in its relation to building, but my object is to call attention to this phase of the question, and as you proceed in your studies and your work you will realize the value and truthfulness of the foregoing observations.

GENERAL HOUSE BUILDING.--We are to treat, generally, on the subject of house building, how the work is laid out, and how built, and in doing so I shall take a concrete example of the work. This can be made more effectual for the purpose if it is on simple lines.

BUILDING PLANS.--We must first have a plan; and the real carpenter must have the ability to plan as well as to do the work. We want a five-room house, comprising a parlor, dining room, two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. Just a modest little home, to which we can devote our spare hours, and which will be neat and comfortable when finished. It must be a one-story house, and that fact at once settles the roof question. We can make the house perfectly square in plan, or rectangular, and divide up the s.p.a.ce into the proper divisions.

THE PLAIN SQUARE FLOOR PLAN will first be taken up, as it is such an easy roof to build. Of course, it is severely plain.

Fig. 221 shows our proposed plan, drawn in the rough, without any attempts to measure the different apartments, and with the floor plan exactly square. Supposing we run a hall (A) through the middle. On one side of this let us plan for a dining room and a kitchen, a portion of the kitchen s.p.a.ce to be given over to a closet and a bathroom.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 221._]

The chimney (B) must be made accessible from both rooms. On the other side of the hallway the s.p.a.ce is divided into a parlor and two bedrooms.