FARM MECHANICS: MACHINERY AND ITS USE TO SAVE HAND LABOR ON THE FARM TEXT

happens that men and horses stand idle waiting for what should be a quick repair job. [Illustration: Figure 60.--(1) Cotter Pin Tool. Handy for inserting or removing all sorts of cotter keys. (2) Nest of S Wrenches of different sizes. Farmers have never appreciated the value of light, handy wrenches to fit all sorts of nuts and bolt heads closely.] For bench work a riveting hammer and a ball peen machinist's hammer are needed. A nest of S wrenches, two rivet sets, cold chisels, round punches and several files also are required. The same twist drills up to three-eighths-inch will do for iron as well as wood. However, if much drilling is done, then round shank twist drills to fit the drill chuck will work better. Farmers seldom drill holes in iron larger than one-half inch. For particular work, to get the exact size, reamers are used to finish the holes after drilling. Screw holes in iron are countersunk in the drill-press. [Illustration: Figure 61.--Hack Saw. One handle and a dozen blades. The frame should be stiff enough either to push or pull the saw without binding. The teeth may point either way to suit the work in hand.] [Illustration: Figure 62.--Powerful Bolt Cutter. It is intended for factory use.] For small work, twist drills with square shanks for brace use should range in sizes from one thirty-second of an inch up to one-quarter inch, then every one-sixteenth inch up to one-half inch. For boring screw holes in wood the quickest work is done with pod bits. Not many sizes are needed, but they are cheap, so that a half dozen, ranging from one-sixteenth to one-quarter inch or thereabouts, will be found very useful. Pod bits belong to the wood department, but on account of being used principally for screw sinking, they are just as useful in the iron working department as in the carpenter shop. Sheet metal snips for cutting sheet metal properly belong with the iron working tools. Snips are from ten to fourteen inches in length. A medium size is best for miscellaneous work. If kept in good working order twelve-inch snips will cut 18-gauge galvanized or black iron. But a man would not care to do a great deal of such heavy cutting. [Illustration: Figure 63.--Cutting Nippers. For cutting the points from horseshoe nails after they are driven through the hoof to hold the shoe in place. These nippers are hard tempered and should not be used for any other purpose.] [Illustration: Figure 64.--Two Shapes of Steel Crowbars.] _Pipe-Fitting Tools._--Recent farm improvements require a few tools that rightfully belong to plumbers. Every farm has some kind of water supply for domestic use and for live-stock. A great many farm machines require pipe tools for repair work. Every year more plumbing reaches the farm. Plumbing work is no more difficult than other mechanical work, if the tools are at hand to meet the different requirements. One job of plumbing that used to stand out as an impossibility was the soldering together of lead pipes, technically termed "wiping a joint." This operation has been discontinued. Every possible connection required in farm plumbing is now provided for in standardized fittings. Every pipe-fitting or connection that conducts supply water or waste water nowadays screws together. Sizes are all made to certain standards and the couplings are almost perfect, so that work formerly shrouded in mystery or hidden under trade secrets is now open to every schoolboy who has learned to read. [Illustration: Figure 65.--(1) Pipe Vise. Hinged to open for long pipes. (2) Machinist's Vise. Made with a turntable to take any horizontal angle. The pipe jaws are removable.] The necessary outfit to handle all the piping and plumbing on the farm is not very expensive, probably $25.00 will include every tool and all other appliances necessary to put in all the piping needed to carry water to the watering troughs and to supply hot and cold water to the kitchen and the bathroom, together with the waste pipes, ventilators and the sewer to the septic tank. The same outfit of tools will answer for repair work for a lifetime. Farm water pipes usually are small. There may be a two-inch suction pipe to the force pump, and the discharge may be one and a half inch. But these pipes are not likely to make trouble. [Illustration: Figure 66.--Pipe Cutter. The most satisfactory pipe cutter has three knife-edge roller cutters which follow each other around the pipe. Some of these cutters have two flat face rollers and one cutter roller to prevent raising a burr on the end of the pipe. The flat face rollers iron out the burr and leave the freshly cut pipe the same size clear to the end.] [Illustration: Figure 67.--Pipe-Wrench. This type of wrench is valuable for working with the heavier farm implements. It is intended more for holding than for turning. It is rather rough on nuts. Damaged nuts show signs of careless work.] There should be a good pipe vise that will hold any size pipe up to three inches. At least two pipe wrenches are needed and they should be adjustable from one-quarter-inch up to two-inch pipe. We must remember that water pipe sizes mean inside measurements. One-inch pipe is about one and one-quarter inches outside diameter. Three-quarter-inch pipe is about one inch outside. Two-inch pipe will carry four times as much water as one-inch pipe, under the rule "doubling the diameter increases the capacity four times." [Illustration: Figure 68.--A smaller sized wrench with wooden handle.] The three-wheel pipe cutter works quickly and is satisfactory for most jobs. Sometimes two of the knife wheels are removed and rollers substituted to prevent raising a burr on the end of the pipe. Threading dies are made in standard sizes. A good farm set consists of stock and dies to thread all the different sizes of pipe from one-quarter inch to one inch, inclusive. Not many pipes larger than inch are threaded on the farm. They are cut to the proper lengths in the farm shop and the threads are cut in town. CHAPTER II FARM SHOP WORK PROFITABLE HOME REPAIR WORK Each farmer must be the judge in regard to the kind of mechanical repair work that should be done at home and the kind and amount of repair work that should go to the shop in town. A great deal depends on the mechanical ability of the farmer or his helpers. However, the poorest farm mechanic can do "first aid" service to farm implements and machinery in the nick of time, if he is so disposed. A great many farmers are helpless in this respect because they want to be helpless. It is so much easier to let it go than to go right at it with a determination to fix it, and fix it right. [Illustration: Figure 69.--Logging Chain. One of the cleverest farm inventions of any age is the logging chain. It is universally used in all lumber camps and on every farm. It usually is from 16 to 20 feet in length, with a round hook on one end for the slip hitch and a grab hook on the other end that makes fast between any two links.] [Illustration: Figure 70.--Neckyoke and Whiffletree Irons. Farmers can make better neckyokes and whiffletrees than they can buy ready-made. The irons may be bought separately and the wood selected piece by piece.] [Illustration: Figure 71.--Measuring a Worn Skein for a New Boxing. The pasteboard calipers are cut to fit the old skein sideways because it is probably flattened on the bottom from wear.] On general principles, however, farm repair work should not occupy a farmer's time to the detriment of growing crops or the proper care of live-stock. Farming is the business; mechanical work is a side issue. At the same time, a farmer so inclined can find time during the year to look over every farm machine, every implement and every hand tool on the farm. The stupidest farm helper can clean the rust off of a spade and rub the surface with an oily cloth, in which some fine emery has been dusted. The emery will remove the rust and the oil will prevent it from further rusting. Every laborer knows better than to use a spade or shovel after a rivet head has given way so the handle is not properly supported by the plate extensions. There really is no excuse for using tools or machinery that are out of repair, but the extent to which a farmer can profitably do his own repairing depends on many contingencies. In every case he must decide according to circumstances, always, however, with a desire and determination to run his farm on business principles. [Illustration: Figure 72.--Wooden Wagon Axles. Axle timber may be bought in the rough or partly fitted to the skeins.] [Illustration: Figure 73.--Showing how to fit the irons on the forward end of a wagon reach.] [Illustration: Figure 74.--Wire Splice. With a little practice wire may be wound close enough to prevent slipping.] _Home-made Bolts._--The easiest way to make a bolt is to cut a rod of round iron the proper length and run a thread on each end. On one end the thread may be just long enough to rivet the head, while the thread on the other end is made longer to accommodate the nut and to take up slack. A farmer needs round iron in sizes from one-fourth inch to five-eighths inch. He will use more three-eighths and one-half inch than any other sizes. Blank nuts are made in standard sizes to fit any size of round iron. Have an assortment, in different sizes, of both the square and the hexagon nuts. [Illustration: Figure 75.--Emergency Bolts. A bolt may be made quickly without a forge fire by cutting a short thread on one end for the head and a longer thread on the other end for the nut.] [Illustration: Figure 76.--Rivets. A stock of soft iron rivets of different sizes and lengths should be always kept on hand ready for immediate use.] To make a bolt in the ordinary way requires welding, but for repair work in a hurry it is better to select the proper iron and cut it to the required length either with a cold chisel in the vise, or with a hardy and a handled cold chisel over an anvil. The quickest way of cutting that mashes the rod the least is to be preferred. The size of the rod will determine the manner of cutting in most instances. [Illustration: Figure 77.--Rivets.] [Illustration: Figure 78.--Rivet Set. This style of set is used for small rivets. The size should be selected to fit the rivets closely. Larger rivets are made to hug the work by means of a flat piece of steel with a hole through it.] [Illustration: Figure 79.--Rivet Set.] [Illustration: Figure 80.--(1) Coulter Clamp. Plow-beam clamps should be made in the farm shop to fit each plow. (2) Garden Weeder. The quickest hand killer of young weeds in the garden is a flat steel blade that works horizontally half an inch below the surface of the ground.] [Illustration: Figure 81.--Stock and Dies. Taps and dies and stocks are best kept in compartments in a case made for the purpose.] [Illustration: Figure 82.--Stock for Round Dies. The opening is turned true and sized accurately to fit. The screw applies pressure to hold the die by friction.] [Illustration: Figure 83.--Taps and Dies. Standard threads are tapped into blank nuts and corresponding threads are cut onto bolts with accuracy and rapidity by using this style taps and dies. They may be had in all sizes. The range for farm work should cut from 1/4" to 5/8", inclusive.] [Illustration: Figure 84.--Taper Tap for Blacksmith's Use.] [Illustration: Figure 85.--Machine Bolt and Carriage Bolt. The first is used against iron and the second against wood, but this rule is not arbitrary. The rounded side of the nuts are turned in against wood; the flat side against washers or heavier iron. Use square head bolts if you expect to take them out after the nuts have rusted on.] [Illustration: Figure 86.--Plow bolts and sickle bar bolts should be kept in stock. Standard sizes and shapes are made for several different makes of plows and machines.] Taps and dies are made to fit each size of rod. If the thread on the bolt is cut with a solid, or round, plate die, the corresponding tap is run clear through the nut. In that case the nut will screw on the bolt easily, possibly a little loose for some purposes. It is so intended by the manufacturers to give the workman a little leeway. If it is desirable to have the nut screw on the bolt very tight, then the tap is stopped before the last thread enters the nut. A little practice soon qualifies a workman to fit a nut according to the place the bolt is to occupy. [Illustration: Figure 87.--Lag Screw. To set a lag screw in hardwood, bore a hole the size of the screw shank as calipered between the threads.] [Illustration: Figure 88.--(1) Wagon-Box Irons, showing how to attach the box and the rave to the cross-piece and to brace the side of the box to hold it upright. There may be several of these braces on each side of the wagon box. (2) U Bolt in Cement. A solid staple to be embedded in concrete for a horse ring, door hinge, cow stanchion, etc.] Generally it is desirable to have nuts fit very snug on parts of machines that shake a good deal, and this applies to almost all farm machinery and implements. [Illustration: Figure 89.--Wagon-Box Brace. It is offset to hold the rave and to brace the sideboard at the rear and the front ends and sometimes in the middle of light wagon beds.] [Illustration: Figure 90.--Two Plow Clevises and a Plow Link.] Ordinarily a horse rake is supposed to travel steadily along like a cart, but the ground is rough and in practical use the nuts loosen almost as soon as haying commences. Some farmers make a practice of riveting bolt ends to prevent nuts from working loose. When the bolts have square heads, this practice is not objectionable, because with two wrenches a nut can be twisted off over the riveting, but a great many bolts have round heads and very short, square shanks. Theoretically, the shanks are driven into the wood firm enough to prevent the bolts from turning. Practically this theory is a delusion and a snare, as every farm boy can testify. Bolts are not manufactured in quantities in the farm blacksmith shop. They can be made by machinery cheaper, but so many times a bolt is needed on short notice that the farm shop should have the necessary tools and materials to supply the need quickly. _Forging Iron and Steel._--Iron and steel are composed of the same properties, but differ chemically. Steel also is finer grained than iron and it requires different treatment. Iron should be forged at a light-red or white heat. If forged at a dark-red heat the iron generally will granulate or crack open and weaken the metal. For a smooth finish the last forging may be done at a dark-red heat, but the hammer must be used lightly. The weight of the hammer as well as the blows also must differ with the different size of iron under heat. Small sizes should be treated with hammer blows that are rather light, while for large sizes the blows should be correspondingly heavy. If light blows be given with a light hammer in forging heavy iron the outside alone will be affected, thus causing uneven tension and contrarywise strain in the iron. Steel should never be heated above a yellow heat. If heated to a white heat the steel will be burned. Steel should never be forged at a dark-red heat. If this is done it will cause considerable strain between the inner and outer portions, which may cause it to crack while forging. The weight of the hammer and the hammer blows in forging of steel is vastly of more importance than in forging iron. If the blow or the hammer is not heavy enough to exert its force throughout the thickness of the steel it will probably crack in the process of hardening or tempering. If steel be properly forged it will harden easily and naturally, but if improperly forged the tempering will be very difficult--probably a failure. The quality of a finished tool depends greatly upon the correct heat and proper method used in forging and hardening it. _Making Steel Tools._--Steel for tools should first be annealed to even the density and prevent warping. This is done by heating it to a dull cherry red in a slow fire. A charcoal fire for this purpose is best because it contains no sulphur or other injurious impurities. After heating the piece of new steel all over as evenly as possible it should be buried several inches deep in powdered charcoal and left to cool. This completes the annealing process. While working steel into proper shape for tools, great care is required to prevent burning. It should be worked quickly and the process repeated as often as necessary. Practice is the only recipe for speed. When the tool is shaped as well as possible on the anvil it is then finished with a file by clamping the new tool in the vise, using single cut files. Bastard files are too rough for tool steel. After the tool is shaped by cross-filing and draw-filing to make it smooth it is sometimes polished by wrapping fine emery cloth around the file. Oil is used with emery cloth to give the steel a luster finish. Tempering is the last process in the making of such tools as cold chisels, drills, dies, punches, scratchawls, etc. _Tempering Steel Tools._--Good judgment is required to get the right temper. Good eyesight is needed to catch the color at the exact instant, and quick action to plunge it into the water before it cools too much. Dies are made very hard. The color of the steel at dipping time should be a bright straw color. Cold chisels will break when being used if tempered too hard. If cold chisels are to be used for cutting iron, the color should be violet; if the chisels are for cutting stone, purple is the color. Drills for boring iron are tempered a dark straw color at the cutting edge merging back into blue. The water in the dipping tub should be warm, as steel is likely to check or crack when it is tempered in cold water. [Illustration: Figure 91.--Blacksmith Hammers. Some smiths use a heavy machinist's hammer. But the flat peen is more useful when working around the anvil and the leg vise.] Tool steel should be held in a perpendicular position when it enters the water to cool all sides alike. Otherwise the new tool might warp. It is better to dip slowly, sometimes holding the point, or cutting edge, in the water while permitting the shank to cool slowly enough to remain soft. Some sizes of steel may be tempered too hard at first and the temper immediately drawn by permitting the heat of the shank to follow down almost to the edge, then dip. This is done quickly while watching the colors as they move towards the point or edge. _Draw-filing._--Making six-sided and eight-sided punches and scratchawls out of hexagon and octagon tool steel is interesting work. The steel is cut to length by filing a crease all around with a three-cornered file. When it is sufficiently notched, the steel will break straight across. To shape the tool and to draw out the point the steel is heated in the forge to a dull cherry red and hammered carefully to preserve the shape along the taper. Special attention must be given to the numerous corners. A scratchawl or small punch, must be heated many times and hammered quickly before cooling. An old English shop adage reads: "Only one blacksmith ever went to the devil and that was for pounding cold iron." After the punch or scratchawl is roughed out on the anvil, it is fastened in the vise and finished by cross-filing and draw-filing. Copper caps on the vise jaws will prevent indentations. [Illustration: Figure 92.--Vise Jaw Guards. Soft auxiliary vise jaws are made of sheet copper or galvanized iron.] [Illustration: Figure 93.--Roll Filing. To file a piece of steel round it is rolled by one hand while the file is used by the other hand.] Draw-filing means grasping each end of the file and moving it back and forth sidewise along the work. For this purpose single-cut files are used. The smoothing is done with a very fine single-cut file, or if very