Soapy water is applied to the surfaces of forged iron and steel to enable the tool to cut off thick slices without becoming heated, thereby avoiding some of the friction; and is applied also to smoothly polish a surface when it is reduced to very near its finished dimensions. It is therefore necessary to provide some means of applying only a proper quantity of water, and to supply it at the proper place, to avoid the inconvenience of having it running about the table, and into its slots, causing dirt to accumulate. To meet the requirement a water-can may be made, of a semi-cylindrical form, and allowed to hang in contact with the slide-rest, the can being suspended with a sort of wire hook, one end of which is in a hole in the can and the other end attached to a screw or pin projecting from the rest. A can of this class is denoted in Fig. 766, and it should be furnished with a flexible tube for conveying the water to any exact spot desired. One end of this pipe requires fixing at a short distance above the can's bottom, as seen in the Figure, to allow all dirt to remain in the can, instead of entering the pipe. The other end of the pipe should have a small cock, to arrest the flow whenever necessary, without shifting it; but a flexible tube may, if desired, be used without a cock, in which case the flow of water is stopped by lifting up the pipe's end and hanging it upon the slide-rest.

The running of waste water into the slots of a table is, however, of less importance than the falling of shavings into the same places. Many of these recesses in a table hold the pieces that fall in, through having bottoms, so that the shavings cannot fall entirely through. Through the slots being of a tee-shape, hooks are necessary to pull out whatever falls in, if it is large enough to cause an obstruction to a bolt-head while being entered. To avoid inconvenience of this sort, all the shavings which will lie on a surface after being detached with the tool during planing, should be swept or scraped into a narrow tray placed close to the work for the purpose. Brass shavings, gun-metal shavings, and other shavings which are driven about during cutting, are prevented falling into the slots by placing mats, pieces of canvas, oil-cloth, and similar articles, at those parts on which the shavings fall. By such arrangements as these, much of the otherwise necessary cleaning of the table after planing an object will be avoided, in addition to the advantage of keeping the slots clear, that bolts may be placed in whenever necessary.