When starting any model or project in the shop proceed as follows:

1. Make a drawing or set of drawings that will show the size and shape of every piece that enters into its construction, and the method of assembling the parts. (See Chapter II (Drawing).)

2. Make out a bill of materials from the drawings. (See Chapter II (Drawing).)

3. Select and cut the stock for the entire project and mark each piece so that you will always know what it is to be used for.

4. Square all pieces to dimensions, remembering to work duplicate parts together. (See Chapters VII and VIII.)

5. Lay out all joints, cuts, and holes on each of the pieces, remembering to measure always from the face side, the joint edge, and the end first squared. (See Chapter IX (The Common Joints).)

6. Show to the teacher and receive his O. K.

7. Try out on a practice piece any joint or unit of construction that is new to you or that you have failed to handle satisfactorily on preceding models.

8. Show this practice work to your teacher and receive his permission to proceed with the construction of the model in hand.

9. Cut the parts to their proper outline, cut the joints, bore the holes, and fit the parts together, following the methods as outlined in Chapters IV, V, VII, VIII, and IX. 10 Scrape and sand the surfaces. (See Chapter VIII (Miscellaneous Tool Processes).)

11. Stain, fill, and finish the parts. (See Chapter X (Wood Finishing).)

At times some, or all of the parts should be assembled and glued before the staining and finishing is done. Judgment must be used at this point. Glue will not, of course, stick well to finished surfaces. On the other hand, the parts can be finished and polished much better and more easily before they are assembled than afterward.

12. Assemble and fasten the parts.

Pointers:

1. Remember that dull tools never do good work.

2. Use 'tools for the purpose intended. The try-square should be used to test right angles and to serve as a guide in laying out work. It is not intended to be used as a hammer or a screw driver. Again, use a mallet to force the chisel to its work. The hammer is intended for driving nails.

Reference Work: Study the methods of work of several successful men in your town and classify the qualities that have made them succeed. Does any man who is careless and inattentive, and always asking help of others, ever get to be a foreman or a superintendent? Has travel or reading helped make these men successful? Are they systematic? Who are the men who are willing to accept responsibility and to "deliver the goods?" Are they the successful men or the failures? Would it hurt you to spend a few minutes daily in inspecting the stain table, the tool case, or the lumber rack, reporting the conditions you find to your teacher, and putting things in order for him? The habits you will form, if you keep a note book and do such work systematically and faithfully, will doubtless be as valuable to you as any tool practice that you will ever get. You will have started your career as a foreman and superintendent. Read, Control of Mind and Body and Mind and Work, by Luther H. Gulick,