Home instruction for sheet metal workers

For the benefit of those who are using this work, it is well to give, at the outset, a general statement of the plan upon which it is written, together with some advice for the use and study of the same, being a Practical Instruction Manual for the Apprentice, Helper, and Mechanic. It includes Detailed Instructions on Cutting, Forming, Soldering, Preparing Full-Size Details from Architects' Blue Prints, Developing the Patterns, Laying Out the Work on Sheet Metal, Forming and Bending on the Brake and Assembling. It also covers forms of Architectural Cornice and Skylight work, including Instructions on Preparing Details, Developing the Patterns and constructing the work whether in the shop or on the building. A glance at the table of contents will give, at once, a clear idea of its scope and arrangement.

From this it will be seen that the book is for the most part composed of practical problems. The aim of the book is not only to assist the apprentice, helper, and the mechanic to understand the theory of the subject, but chiefly to help him master the practical side of sheet metal work. A student, who will study the problems and make up the models either at home or in the shop, where he is employed, will be as well off as if he had taken a course at a trade school.

The chapter on cutting curves and circles, and also the chapters on soldering are very important to the beginner, and must not be overlooked by him. These chapters make up the fundamentals of the practical side of sheet metal work. The student who thoroughly masters them will have a splendid foundation for the more advanced work which follows.

Chapters V and VI on drawing tools and their uses, and drawing geometrical problems have been prepared to enable the student to become familiar with certain geometrical problems. These will help him understand the underlying principles of sheet metal pattern drafting. The student will do well to study these chapters carefully, as they form the groundwork for the more advanced drawings, of which a good part of the book is composed.

Those problems, which call for detail and scale drawings, will be of special value to the sheet metal worker and pattern draftsman. They will familiarize him with the reading of original drawings, such as those received from architects, from which he is required in many cases to make new drawings adapted to his own peculiar wants.

To make it easier for the reader to follow out the details of the more complex drawings, large folders have been added to the book, which arc bound separate in handy reference form. These enable him to follow out the smallest details with greater ease than if these drawings were reduced to page size and printed in the book.

Important features in the book are the chapters on skylight and louvre work, the subject being covered completely, including flat, hipped and pitched skylights, stationary and movable louvres, turret sash, gearing, etc. The student will find this work of especial interest, because it is a branch of the sheet metal trade which requires, in addition to skilful workmanship, considerable constructive knowledge.

The practical problems throughout the book have been arranged in sequential order according to their difficulty, and while each problem is complete in itself, some are necessarily carried farther into detail than others. References are made from one problem to another, pointing out the similarity of methods employed or of principle used.

The aim in presenting this course of instruction on architectural sheet metal work is to benefit the apprentice, the helper, as well as the mechanic, and to give assistance to those who are unable to take a course at a trade school, no matter where they are located. At the present time when a boy is taken in the shop to learn a trade, neither the master mechanic nor the workman has the time to give him the practical and technical instruction he ought to receive, and therefore what he learns is only what he can pick up himself. With the instruction given in this course, which is similar to that at the New York Trade School, a young man by close application can master his trade with such shop help as will be given if he is worthy of it. Sometimes the mechanic with whom he is working is not as bright as he might be, and the information obtained is not any too intelligent. The boy will have to pick up a little here and there, and at the expiration of his apprenticeship is supposed to be a mechanic, to whom other apprentices will look for information, and it does not require very deep thinking as to the kind of mechanics we will have years hence. While a course in a trade school does not make a mechanic, it does give the student practical and technical, knowledge which he would be unable to obtain in the shop, and this knowledge, gained through studying this course, he can apply to the practical every-day work arising in the shop, and it is only a matter of time when he will climb ahead of the boy who lacks this information.