Shortcuts to success

Press, 13 February 1986, Page 25

Shortcuts to success

shelves so that brooms, mops and brushes can be hung off the floor. Another space-saving idea for the impossibly small laundry fitted with an automatic washingmachine is to fit a counter over the laundry tub, designed to lift off when the tub is needed for use. A hole in one comer would allow the machine’s outlet hose to run into the tub. Not all home owners would consider a roomy laundry-cum-utility room a desirable feature. For one or two persons it may be possible to design a fold-away laundry, where washer, dryer and tub, with shelving above, fit side-by-side — closed off from the adjoining kitchen or family room by neat, folding louvre doors. Proper lighting and ventilation can easily be incorporated into a new or remodelled laundry, but will require a little thought. Inadequate lighting here, as in the rest of the house, makes the laundry an unpleasant and unpopular area in which to work. The small windows found in many laundries are not conducive to letting in large amounts of natural light. If larger windows or a skylight are not feasible, consider installing a ventilator.

Most tradesmen use shortcuts to speed up work without affecting either the strength or appearance of the finished job. Here is a selection. The cutting of corrugated iron lengthwise along the direction of the flutes, or corrugations, always presents some difficulty when ordinary tinsnips are used. This is mainly because the sheet is rigid in this direction, so it is hard to bend the cut section out of the way to give clearance for the blades. This job can be done effectively with an ordinary handsaw. Only the back tooth is used, and damage to it is negligible. Two people will be needed. One bears down on the handle and the other, with a cloth wrapped round the end of the saw blade, pulls the tool along the length of the corrugations. This causes the tooth of the saw to cut a deep score along the sheet. The parts are then bent once or twice in opposite directions. They should separate, leaving a clean straight edge with no risk

of spreading or distorting the corrugations. Of course, this method can be used only along the line of the corrugations. For cutting across the corrugations either tin snips or a special sheetsaw can be used. Protect carpet from paint: Wall-to-wall carpeting can be a problem when repainting the skirting. A good idea is to insert folded paper or aluminium foil along the edge between the skirting and carpet with a wide-blade scraper or putty knife. Once the paint is dry press the blade between the paper and the moulding edge to break the paint seal then pull the paper out. Quick assembly: On workshop _ equipment which requires frequent assembly and disassembly by means of bolts and wing nuts, speed the process by grinding away several threads on the end of the bolt. The nut will then fit easily over the bolt end and, when the threads are engaged, a quick spin of the nut will tighten it.

Improvised vice: An extra vice is often very useful in the workshop. An ordinary sash cramp of suitable length can be fitted to your bench to form a vice as firm and rigid as the orthodox type. The apron pieces of the bench should be slotted so that the bar of the cramp can be inserted in them in such a way that the loose head bears against the inside face of the front apron piece. Cleats are then screwed across the slots to support it and prevent any vertical movement. A wooden block made to slide along the bar forms one of the vice jaws. The other jaw is, of course, the outer side of the front of the bench. Keyhole: To locate the cotter key hole in a bolt even when it is covered with grease or dirt, make a slight saw kerf across the top of the bolt with a

hacksaw blade to indicate the direction of the hole. Align castle nut slots with the hole in order to insert the cotter key. Accurate boring: This is a simple method of boring a hole in, say, a thick door to ensure that the hole is perfectly horizontal. This is especially useful when boring the large hole for fitting a Yaletype night-latch, when the hole needs to be reasonably true to the door face. A key ring — or similarly weighted ring — is slipped over the shank of the bit before it is inserted in the brace and allowed to rest mid-way. As the brace is being turned, any slight deviation of the bit from a horizontal line will be easily detected by the movement of the key ring — toward the door if the brace is being held too high, and toward the chuck if the brace is held too low.