Ralph had painted two signs and fastened them in prominent places on the wall. One read: "One thing at a time"; the other, "A place for everything, and everything in its place."

"Those are very old-fashioned," he said, "but they are none the less absolutely true. Many boys fail to accomplish anything in tool work because they do not heed the first, and more time is wasted than we ever realize, particularly among mechanics, by failing to observe the second. It often seems a waste of time to put a tool or piece of stock away in a definite place, but, on the other hand, one often spends ten times as many minutes in looking for a thing as he would putting it in its place where it could be found instantly."

"What's the answer?" said Harry absent-mindedly.

"The answer is that we will make a rack for our lumber before we do anything else.

"It need not be very fine work, but it will make our shop much neater, if the surfaces of the wood are planed instead of being left rough, and to give you practice in planing and to develop your muscles, I am going to let you do most of the planing, while I lay out the work."

The rack as finally constructed is shown in Fig. 93. The shop was not sheathed on the inside, the framework or studding being exposed. The short cross pieces were nailed to the studding with ten-penny wire nails, but where they joined the uprights they were let into the latter to a depth of ¹/₂ inch before being nailed. Harry wanted to know what this was for, and Ralph explained that if the cross pieces were simply nailed to the uprights, all the weight would be carried by the nails. By letting or "gaining" them part way into the uprights, the weight was carried by the latter without so much strain on the nails.

"Then why don't you let them into the wall studs too?" asked Harry.

"Because the studs are in position and we couldn't saw them out without breaking through the outside of the building; therefore we are obliged simply to nail them on."

Four of the uprights were spaced three feet apart, and held in place at top and bottom by blocks nailed to the ceiling and floor. A carpenter would have simply "toe-nailed" them by driving nails at an angle through the ends of the uprights into the floor, but the boys were not yet skilled in carpenters' methods. An ideal lumber rack is made of galvanized iron pipe. It is indestructible, fire-proof, rather expensive, and the joints are regular pipe fitter's joints, elbows, tees, crosses, and floor plates.

This was beyond our boys' pocket-book, as it would have required the services of a pipe fitter.

One of the uprights laid out and partly cut is shown at a, the openings having been taken out with cross cut saw and chisel.

On one of the upper tiers the cross pieces were made eight inches longer than the others, and where they extended beyond the front of the rack pieces of pine 6 × 2 × ⁷/₈ inches were nailed to the ends, making a convenient hook for hanging hand screws, which are always in the way on the floor. It also made a very convenient shelf for storing narrow waste strips of lumber, which should not be destroyed, as one can never tell when they will be needed.

In the case of a rack made of iron pipe, the ends of these long cross pieces need be only ordinary pipe elbows.

The labour of building a lumber rack was much heavier than anything the boys had done before, but it brought the larger muscles into play, seemed like real carpenter work, and was an excellent preparation for the finer tool work to follow. A boy who has never carried out a piece of large work successfully cannot realize the satisfaction of looking at a really good piece of construction and being able to say, "I made that all myself!"

Ralph suggested that one or two things more were needed to make their equipment ship-shape—one was a tool cabinet, and another was some arrangement for storing small pieces of stock; but as both of these required considerable tool practice, they were recorded in a notebook as among the things to be done later on.

It was agreed that the shop needed a vane to show the direction of the wind, and the boys' design for this is shown at Fig. 94. It included a weather vane and windmill.

The whole combination required five pieces of wood. The two short pieces, 7 inches long by 1 inch square, were first dressed to size, cut out and halved together as shown. They were then taken apart and cut to the lines shown, with a knife, making propeller blades similar to those made for the aeroplane. When both were finished, they were again put together, and a hole drilled through the centre a trifle larger than a flat-head wire nail 2¹/₂ inches long. This nail is to hold the mill to the horizontal piece. The nail is to be tight in this horizontal piece, but the windmill must revolve freely about the nail. It is for this reason that the hole in the mill must be slightly larger than the diameter of the nail.

The horizontal piece is bevelled on one end with the knife and has a ¹/₄-inch slot sawed out at the other. The slot is to receive the wind vane. The vane was sawed out of ¹/₄-inch wood, fitted into the slot and nailed with brads.

When all these parts were assembled, it was necessary to find the centre of gravity of the whole combination, as it is important that it be perfectly balanced.To find the correct point, a light string was slipped under the horizontal piece and moved back and forth until the vane hung horizontally. The spot where the string touched the wood was marked with a pencil and a ¹/₄-inch hole drilled at this point for the pivot. A corresponding hole was drilled 3 inches deep into the bevelled end of the standard.

A piece of ¹/₄-inch maple dowel was used as a pivot, the upper end being sand-papered until the vane swung freely. The boys found that by placing a metal washer between the vane and its standard, much of the friction was removed. A wire nail driven into the standard through a hole drilled in the horizontal piece would have answered the same purpose as the dowel. When the centre of gravity is not found for the pivot, the vane is apt to tilt forward or backward and not only look badly, but bring considerable friction on one end, so that it will not revolve freely with the wind.