Pliers

“ Apply the pliers at right angles with the hammer (if the action of the upright, your pliers will be in an upright position) and catch the hammer at a depth of about three-quarters of the thickness of the felt. If the hammers are very hard it may be well to use both the pliers and the pick; but care must always be taken not to get the hammers too soft, and extreme care must be taken not to get some softer than others. Some hammers are always used more than others and, of course, these will need more softening. ”

“ This done, loop the ends of each half oval over the ring and press them down hard with your pliers to hold them in place. The way an egg holder is made is shown at A in Fig. 32.
Each leg is a short strip bent over and pressed on to the top of the ring. It is made rigid by putting a binder on it and to one of the half ovals as shown at B. To make the handle take a piece of lead wire and bend it to fit the outline shown at C; then straighten [81] it out and cut off a strip of iron of the same length. Bend the ends of it over 1⁄2 an inch and shape it up with your round nose pliers. ”

“ For hanging them, either eyelets with rings as sold are used or two holes, about 5 cm. apart, are punched with the eyelet pliers in the middle of the top edge and eyelets clamped in with the punch pliers. For doing large quantities it is advisable to procure a machine, the small eyeleting machine, which pierces and clamps the eyelet at the same time.
Mounting plates, plans, drawings, or maps on cloth is done in the following way: Paper can only be properly mounted upon a very tightly stretched [Pg 173] linen or cotton material; linen being generally used in England. ”

“ When much beading of one kind is being done, a large heavy pair of round-nose pliers (Fig. 10) with the jaws bent around in a curve and sprung apart enough to allow for the thickness of the metal proves to be a handy tool. After the edge of the shell has been flared out to start the bead, the pliers are opened enough to admit the metal and then closed and the stock guided around to form the bead as far [10] as possible. In this way the larger part of a bead is rapidly formed, one jaw of the pliers acting as a spinning tool and the other corresponding to the back-stick. ”

“ Those not wishing to buy at once the complete outfit named above will find that they can do good small work to start on with the aid of a pocket-knife, a pair of scissors, a pair of Bernard combination wire cutter and pliers, needles and thread, cord, a pair of tweezers, a hammer and saw, and small drill set. ”

“ On the other hand, shop tools comprise those of general utility which are largely used by hand. Hammers, wrenches, hand shears, pliers, chisels, bits, and the like, are examples of shop or hand tools. ”

“ You must be careful to stretch your thread out very evenly, & have it tempered soft, because it will then be easier to twist with your pliers. Then with your fine design before you, you commence to compose your stretched thread inside the iron bowl, first the principal members, according to their way of arrangement, piece by piece painting them over with solution of gum tragacanth, so that they adhere to the clay-solution with which you pasted the inside. ”

“ In this way objects such as egg boilers, candlestick sconces, lanterns and brackets to hang them on, photograph frames and helpful and artistic creations without end can be made.
The Tools You Must Have. —You will need very few tools for making Venetian iron work and these are (1) a pair of flat nose 5 inch pliers; [26] (2) a pair of round nose 5 inch pliers; (3) a box-wood four-fold, 2-foot rule; (4) a vise; (5) a pair of tinner’s snips [77] and (6) a small riveting hammer, all of which are shown in Fig. 27. ”

“ The extent and variety of work undertaken will determine the necessary working space and the assortment of tools needful. Other things being equal, the most complete assortment of tools and supplies makes possible the production of the best work in the minimum time. The equipment of the beginner need be but small and inexpensive, however, increasing the same as he discovers what is most necessary and desirable, in an increasing field of work. Wonderful pieces of taxidermy have been done with a pocket knife, pliers, needle and thread, some wire, tow and arsenic. ”

“ When the pile is high enough it is lifted to the pressing rolls by a man who feeds it between the rollers, where great pressure is given, and the pile automatically returns to the front of the machine, and it is turned and placed for pressing the other way of the sheet. From two to a dozen pressings will be given according to the degree of finish required, and also to the hardness of the material. ”

“ At each machine sat a human being working with hand, foot, and eye, watching the flashing needle, guarding the margin of the seams, jerking the cloth hither and thither quickly, accurately, watching the spool to see that the thread ran freely, oiling the gear with one hand while the other continued to push the garment rapidly under the needle, the whole body swaying, bending, twisting this way and that to keep time and pace with the work. ”

“ Single sheet cutters are used for other papers, the reel is mounted, run forward between slitting knives, and a swinging knife divides the paper into sheets. Another make of machine will take from one to seven reels, and the paper passing between the slitters is cut into sheets by a revolving cutter, which makes a clean cut the whole width of the web, and the sheets are dropped on a travelling felt, carried forward to the front of the machine, and knocked up by boys or girls. ”

“ The dressing machine consists of a hollow cylinder, or frame, covered with wire cloth of different degrees of fineness, the finest being at the elevated, or upper end of the cylinder, which is inclined in the same way as the bolting mill. Within the cylinder, which may be made of pieces of wood rendered circular, and, like the ribs of an animal, placed at certain distances from each other, a reel is placed with its axle in the centre of the cylinder, which is fixed, or stationary. ”

“ Iron rules and squares in various sizes, shears, knives, compasses and spring dividers, folders, files, pincers and hammers of different sizes, chisels, gouges, and punches.
The finisher's tools are: Gold cushion, gold knife, scraper, steel; and furthermore, for hand-tooling, letter-box, fillets, rolls, ornaments, and letters, all very fine and very dear tools, which must be kept in special cupboards and boxes so as to protect from possible injury. The higher the class of work done in the shop, the larger must be the stock of these tools. ”

“ One operator can care for many machines, as they stop automatically when a thread breaks. Each machine may consist of a variable number of spool carriers, according to the character of the work they are engaged on. Carriers are made to travel around [65] cam-like grooves formed in the bed of the machine, being operated by a chain of gears which propel them around a predetermined course. Gears and slots are so arranged that the carriers are made to cross and recross each other in their passage, so that the various threads of yarn carried are plaited around the strands of rubber. ”

“ After leaving the loom all threads A are cut by pushing a knife lengthwise between the plain cloth and the pile. As each pick is severed both pieces rise vertically and the fibres open out as at B. Since the pile threads are from two to six times as numerous as those of the ground, and rise from an immense number of places, a uniform brush-like surface is formed. Raised figures are produced by carrying the threads A beneath the ground cloth, where no figure is required, so that the knife shall only cut those portions of the pile weft that remain on the surface. ”

“ But if a knife is longer than the breadth of a fabric it receives only a slight lateral movement, and must be periodically removed for sharpening. In plain and printed goods healds control all the warps; but in figured goods, other than those made from printed warps, a Jacquard is needed to lift, and a creel to hold, the pile threads.
Single Pile Looms.—The chief feature which renders most single pile looms dissimilar from others is the mechanism by which wires are woven upon, and withdrawn automatically from, a ground texture. Wires are of two kinds, namely, without and with knives ”

“ An inch-high pile of writing paper with a sharp knife may take one thousand pounds for each foot of length of the knife to drive it through. A higher pile on a fifty-inch power cutter may take three tons pressure, plus the automatic clamping effort and plus frictional losses, and (more important) plus a tremendous increase in case the knife is dull.
Care of the Machine
A man is known by the condition of the machine he keeps. Keep the knife sharp. That is the first rule to repeat every day and every hour of the day. The second rule is to oil every hole and place required on the machine. ”

“ Even a small tremble in the hand of the one holding the knife would cut through the thin line, ruining it, but so accurate is their handiwork that the lines vary in width hardly at all and the rope seems so uniform that one would think it had been made in a machine. ”

“ Preparing or Drawing Machinery.—A faller or gill drawing machine consists of a long feeding sheet which conveys silk to a pair of rollers (back rollers) . These rollers present the silk to a set of fallers (steel bars into which are fixed fine steel pins) , which carry forward the silk to another pair of rollers, which draw the silk through the pins of the fallers and present it to the rollers in a continuous way, thus forming a ribbon of silk called a “sliver.” ”

“ These unnatural-looking partings are sometimes demanded by persons who make no pretension to good taste, and they will not be advised by the tradesman, who knows full well what is likely to suit them best. Partings which require the most skill in their manufacture, if the aim be to produce a good article, are silk and skin partings, and to make the first of these proceed as follows:—In proportion to the length of parting required prepare a stout wire frame—say six inches long, and four inches wide, and that you are going to work a three and a-half inch parting. ”

“ In hand knitting an indefinite number of loops are skewered on a wire or pin, but, in Lee’s frame, an individual hooked or bearded needle is employed for the support and formation of each loop in the breadth of the fabric. ”

“ Suppose, for example, that in a case of emergency a pulley of a certain diameter is required, and that the only one at hand has too large a bore, then we may take a mandrel or arbor of the diameter of the shaft the pulley is required for, and drive on it two thin washers and turn them to fit the bore of the pulley, and cut a recess in each to enable the metal to be poured through. ”

“ The pillars of these low causeways are generally six, seven, and many three and nine-sided, and as even as if they had been cut with a chisel; they rest one upon another in joints, the top one round to fit into the one beneath like a socket, and the pillars are so closely packed, that you can hardly get the point of a knife between them. ”

“ A cylinder, or roll, C, furnished with a series of steel knives, rotates in one of the divisions formed by the midfeather, and the floor of the trough in this division is inclined in such a manner as to cause the pulp, as it travels, to pass under the roll. Beneath the roll is the bed-plate, which is fitted with a series of steel knives c c similar to those on the exterior of the roll. ”

“ The rollers and cylinders are then put in motion by wheel-work moved by a horse, water, or any other impulsive power; the wool, &c. is drawn forward, and extended, during its passage, into a thread or sliver; which, on being submitted to the adtion of a similar machine, but of different dimensions, is spun into thread of various degrees of fineness: after the yarn has thus passed beneath the rollers, it falls into canisters suspended below, for its reception.—A minute specification of this useful machinery is inserted in the 16th vol. ”

“ Creases are to be made in the fabric, and the design is that the creasing action shall take place as nearly as possible in front of the needle, and in line with the arm of the sewing-machine; and, to secure that, an extension-plate is provided extending out laterally from the base-plate in line with the movement of the feeding device, which supports the material under the jaws, and receives their impinging action in the operation of making the crease. ”

“ A pile may be tested for squareness by jogging it in the cutter table against both the back gage and the side gage, if the machine gages are themselves in perfect adjustment. If it is difficult to see whether the sides of the pile are close against the gages at all points, narrow strips of paper put between the pile and gages will show whether the pile touches the gages uniformly. ”

“ The guide now showed them how the gummed sheets are pressed smooth for perforation, and then led them into a room where a score or more of odd little machines were in swift operation. Each machine is tended by two workwomen, most of whom wear fantastic caps of paper to shade their eyes, as the sheets must be fed into the machines with absolute accuracy in order that the perforations shall come in the right place. ”

“ Sewing on gathers (fig. 21) .—To distribute the fullness equally, divide the gathered portion of material, and the band, or plain piece, on to which it is to be sewn, into equal parts, and pin the two together at corresponding distances, the gathered portion under the plain, and hem each gather to the band or plain piece, sloping the needle to make the thread slant, and slipping it through the upper threads only of the gathers. ”