A
MANUAL
OF THE
HAND LATHE:
COMPRISING
CONCISE DIRECTIONS
FOR
WORKING METALS OF ALL KINDS, IVORY, BONE AND PRECIOUS
WOODS; DYEING, COLORING, AND FRENCH POLISHING;
INLAYING BY VENEERS, AND VARIOUS METHODS
PRACTICED TO PRODUCE ELABORATE WORK
WITH DISPATCH, AND AT SMALL EXPENSE.
BY EGBERT P. WATSON,
LATE OF “THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN,” AUTHOR OF “THE MODERN PRACTICE OF
AMERICAN MACHINISTS AND ENGINEERS.”
ILLUSTRATED BY SEVENTY-EIGHT ENGRAVINGS.
PHILADELPHIA:
HENRY CAREY BAIRD, INDUSTRIAL PUBLISHER,
406 WALNUT STREET.
LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, SON & MARSTON,
CROWN BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET ST.
1869.
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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
HENRY CAREY BAIRD,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States, in
and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
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TO MY DEAR SON,
EGBERT PERLEY WATSON,
I DEDICATE
THIS LITTLE BOOK,
IN THE
HOPE THAT HE MAY BE A GOOD MAN,
AND A GOOD MECHANIC.
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PREFACE.
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I did not write this little book with the intention of apologizing to
the prospective reader, so soon as I had done so, but with the honest,
I hope not egotistical, feeling that I had something to say that was
not generally known. We live to learn and to impart what we know to
others, and I have taken this method of giving my experience in a
pastime that is elevating, artistic in every sense of the word, and a
wholesome relief from the cares of business.
In regard to the work itself, I can show samples of every thing of any
importance described or given in it. I have not made all of the
patterns given in the back part, for that is mere routine, but in
gross, and in most details, the book is the result of experience, and
will be found reliable _as far as it goes_. That it does not cover
every possible change and use to which the lathe can be put, I am well
aware.
Something must be left for the workman to find out himself. Neither
have I given any recipes for varnishes, for those cannot be made by
inexperienced persons. Moreover, they can be had so cheaply and
universally, that it is mere folly for any amateur to make them.
Saluting all persons who love the art of which this little volume is
descriptive,
I am their sincere friend,
EGBERT P. WATSON.
NEW YORK, _April 15, 1869_.
CONTENTS.
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PAGE
CHAPTER I.
THE FOOT LATHE 13
CHAPTER II.
TOOLS 22
CHAPTER III.
SCRAPERS, ETC 30
CHASING AND SCREW CUTTING 33
CHAPTER IV.
CHASERS, ETC 35
CHAPTER V.
CHUCKING 42
CHAPTER VI.
METAL SPINNING 51
CHAPTER VII.
ORNAMENTAL CUTTING 59
TO MAKE A PAIR OF SOLITAIRE SLEEVE BUTTONS 59
CHAPTER VIII.
CENTRES 65
CHAPTER IX.
FANCY TURNING 71
CHAPTER X.
ORNAMENTAL WOODS 77
VARIETIES 77
SNAKE WOOD 78
TULIP WOOD 79
GRANADILLA 80
TAMARIND 80
CAM WOOD 81
BOX WOOD 81
LAUREL ROOT 82
WHITE HOLLY 82
EBONY 82
OLIVE WOOD 83
SANDAL WOOD 83
ROSE WOOD 84
CURLED MAPLE 84
BIRDS’ EYE MAPLE 84
TREATMENT 85
CHAPTER XI.
WOOD TURNING 87
CHAPTER XII.
TOOLS FOR WOOD TURNING 90
CHAPTER XIII.
TOOL TEMPERING, ETC. 92
CHAPTER XIV.
ARTISTIC WOOD TURNING 96
CHAPTER XV.
STAMP INLAYING 102
CHAPTER XVI.
DESIGNS IN MOSAIC 106
CHAPTER XVII.
FINISHING THE OUTSIDE 110
CHAPTER XVIII.
INLAYING CONTINUED 114
GLUING IN VENEERS 115
IVORY 116
POLISHING 118
DYEING IVORY 118
CHAPTER XIX.
ORNAMENTAL DESIGNS FOR INLAYING 121
CHAPTER XX.
GENERAL SUMMARY 125
LACQUERS 126
SOLDERING 127
VARNISHING AND POLISHING 129
BRUSHES 131
PEARL 131
MISCELLANEOUS TOOLS 131
CURVING VENEERS 132
CUTTING MISCELLANEOUS MATERIALS 133
INDEX 135
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MANUAL
OF THE HAND LATHE.
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CHAPTER I.
THE FOOT LATHE.
There are two distinct kinds of work done in foot lathes—the useful
and the merely ornamental. Both afford enjoyment and profit to those
who practise them. The mechanic who earns his living by working ten
hours a day in a workshop, does not care to go home and pursue the same
calling in the evening; but he can institute an agreeable change in his
life, beautify his dwelling, and cultivate his taste, by the use of the
lathe, and thus obtain ornaments that would cost large sums if
purchased at the stores; or he may, indeed, make the lathe a source of
revenue, and sell the product of his skill and ingenuity at high prices
to those who admire, but have not the ability to construct.
To many mechanics, even, the lathe is merely a machine for turning
cylinders or disks, or executing beads, ogees, scrolls, or curves of
various radii, so that, after all, the work is pretty much alike, and
ceases to be attractive. This is quite a mistaken view. There are no
such goods in market as those made on lathes, and peculiar tools used
in connection with them—by lathes with traversing mandrels, with
geometric chucks, with dome chucks, and compound slide rests. There are
lathes that, while one could chase up a five-eight bolt in them as well
as on the simple pulley and treadle machine, are also capable of
executing all sorts of beautiful things—vases with bases nearly
square, or exactly square, with round tops and hexagonal bodies, with
gracefully-curved angular sides and bases, fluted vertically; boxes
with curious patterns, resembling basket work; in fact, any combination
of straight and curved lines, cut in the sides, it is possible for an
ingenious man to invent. Strictly speaking, these are not lathes, for
in order to do the things before mentioned it is necessary to use after
attachments in connection with them, so that the combination of them
produces the results spoken of. There is, absolutely, an unlimited
field for the genius of workmen to exert itself in designing patterns
and executing work of an ornamental character.
All ornamental work resolves itself into movements of three
kinds—angular, circular and straight. From the combination of these
with each other, the times where they merge and emerge, where a
movement of one kind changes into any other, where an ellipse becomes
part of a circle, where circles are generated across the circumferences
of other circles, where these patterns are drawn over and upon each
other without destroying the character of either—we say, by such
movements, and many others which it would be confusing to follow, the
most beautiful forms are made.
Or, if the taste of the workman runs upon mechanical instead of
artistic things, there are steam engines to be made, steam boilers to
be spun up, of small size; in fact, any piece or machine that can be
thought of.
It is almost unnecessary to specify the innumerable kinds of work that
can be done in a hand lathe, but the amateur who delights in metal
turning may make trinkets of all kinds for his friends, that shall vie
in beauty with the best efforts of the jeweler and goldsmith. This, of
course, is dependent on the material used, the taste of the workman,
and his originality of conception. Pins for ladies’ wear can be made of
boxwood and ebony, glued together in sections, of all designs, and
afterwards turned in beads and mouldings, or otherwise ornamented in a
chuck, as will be shown hereafter. Sleeve buttons can be made of ebony
and silver, ivory and silver, pearl and gold, or any combination that
is desired. Chess and checker men also afford a chance to display
skill. And, besides these, special work of any nature is within the
capacity of the machine.
There is no family in this country that would not find it economy to
have a foot lathe in the house, where the members have mechanical
tastes—not necessarily the male members, for ladies use foot lathes,
in Europe, with the greatest dexterity. Some of the most beautiful work
ever made, was by Miss Holtzapfel, a relative of the celebrated
mechanist of the same name. If there are shovels to be mended, the
lathe will drill the holes and turn the rivets. If the handle of the
saucepan is loose, it will do the same. If scissors or knives want
grinding, there is the lathe; if the castors on the sofa break down,
there is the lathe; if skates need repairs, either of grinding or of
any other kind, there is the lathe. In short, it ought to be as much a
part of domestic economy as the sewing machine, for it takes the odd
stitches in the mechanical department that save money.
Let not the inexperienced reader, who hears of a lathe for the first
time, be frightened at this array of terms, or diverted from the use of
it by the recital. In its simple form, as shown in Fig. 1, it is
readily understood, and, after a little practice, easily managed by any
one, and, after the first few weeks, the amateur will realize the
fruits of his application.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
At first, it had not even a continuous rotary motion, but the spindle
was driven by a belt worked by a spring pole or its equivalent. The
belt was rolled round the spindle, and the pole allowed to spring up;
the spindle then revolved the length of the belt, or rope, for belts
were not thought of, and the operation was repeated, the work being
done only when the force of the spring pole revolved the spindle and
the job the right way.
Foot lathes had, prior to the introduction of the engine lathe, been
used on very heavy work. It is but a few years, comparatively
speaking—not twenty—since cast-iron shafts, six, eight, and ten
inches in diameter, were turned in such lathes. For all that we know to
the contrary, many jobs, far exceeding this in size, have been thus
executed.
In some shops, there are still standing heavy oaken shears, made of
timber twenty inches deep, and four or six inches wide, faced with
boiler iron, and in the racks above there are long-shanked tools, with
which the men of old were wont to do the work.
These lathes are never used now, except for drilling holes, or for
apprentices to practice on, but they serve to show what machinists had
to do in olden times, when there were no vise benches to sit on and
watch the chips curling off the tool, as men do now.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
Hand lathes are not in great favor in large machine shops. They are not
used, or should not be, for any purpose except drilling, and then they
are no longer hand lathes, but horizontal drilling machines. There is
no simple work to be done on a hand lathe that could not be performed
to better advantage and more cheaply on a machine constructed for the
purpose.
Some large machine shops keep a hand lathe going continually, cutting
off stud bolts, facing and rounding up nuts, and similar work. This
does not seem profitable. A machine to do this work would do more, of a
better quality, than hand labor could.
The foot lathe—the terms hand and foot lathe are synonymous—is
generally used, at the present time, by small machinists, manufacturers
of gas fixtures, amateurs, etc.; men who do not work a lathe
constantly, but are called off to braze or solder, or, perhaps, to fit
some detail with a file. For these uses the foot lathe is one of the
cheapest of tools; for the same person that does the work furnishes the
power also, so that a man working on a foot, or hand lathe, as it is
often called, ought to have first-class wages. Moreover, a first-rate
foot lathe turner is always a good mechanic, for it takes no small
degree of dexterity to perform the several jobs with ease, and
dispatch, and certainty. To always get hold of the right tool, to use
the same properly, so that it will last a reasonable time without being
ground or tempered, to rough-turn hollow places with a square edge, to
chase a true thread to the right size every time, without making a
drunken one, or a slanting one, to make a true thread inside of an oil
cup or a box—all these several tasks require good judgment, dexterity,
and a steady hand. Of course, where a slide-rest is used, the case is
different. We allude, specially, to a cutting tool managed by the hand.
To do all these things, however, it is necessary to have tools, and
good ones, or none. It is an old saying, that a bad workman quarrels
with his tools, but a good workman has a right to quarrel with bad
tools, if he is furnished with them, through chance or design. It is
impossible to execute good work with a dull tool, one badly shaped, or
unsuited to the purpose, and, therefore, it is important to set out
right at the beginning.
There is no tool more efficient in the hands of a good workman, than
the diamond point, Fig. 2, here shown. For roughing off a piece of
metal, for squaring up the end, for facing a piece held in the chuck,
for running out a curve, or rounding up a globe, it is equally well
adapted. It may be truly called the turner’s friend.