COLORFUL, lightweight and easy to make, you’ll find these fire-place tools make themselves at home on any hearth. Only Do-It-Yourself Aluminum plus a whitewash brush, a ball of dyed jute cord, and miscellaneous screws are needed to build this modern set.
To get started, cut the handles to length, 22 inches for the poker, 21 inches for the shovel, and 18 inches for the broom. Before bending the shovel and broom handles apart, fasten them together with No. 8 x 3/4 -inch sheet metal screws. Wedge the two rods apart, and bend to fit the shovel’s scoop and the brush. Rough out the flat parts at the ends with a hacksaw or coping saw; then file to fit snugly along the sides of both brush and shovel’s scoop.
You’ll want to shape and form both pieces of the poker and hook rods before joining them. Taper ends of both pieces on jointer, jig, or band saw, or by hand with hacksaw; rasp and file smooth. Bend the hook in a vise or with a monkey wrench.
As a cover for the rod handles, bend the 1/8 x 3/4-inch bar over the rounded handle ends and fasten it to the rods with 1/8-inch diameter x 1/2-inch rivets. Wrapping cord of dyed jute, or venetian blind cord in a color to match your room’s decorative scheme, is used to wind the handles.
To make the shovel scoop, make a full-size pattern and trace it onto a plain sheet of Do-It-Yourself Aluminum. The aluminum sheet can be easily cut with ordinary scissors or tin snips. Bend up the edge seams first between hardwood blocks, then hammer flat on a bench with a mallet (ex-cept along top of back). Bend up back and sides, tucking flaps under back edge seam. Fasten the back flaps with 3/32-inch diameter x 1/8-inch aluminum rivets (cut down from 1/4-inch length). Attach the scoop to the handles with two 3/32-inch diameter x 1/4-inch rivets along each side. Countersink holes in rod on outside and file flush after driving head.
Lay out the hood for the brush by rolling it on the aluminum sheet, marking the sides and allowing at .least % inch along each end. See half-size pattern for reference. Screw the ends of the handle through the overlapped ends and into the wood with No. 6 x %-inch flathead screws, countersunk flush in the handle rods.
The frame is bent from one rod, with a lap-joint at the bottom. File out the lap joint after cutting off the short ends left over and fasten with two 1/88-inch diameter x 7/16-inch rivets (cut down from %-inch length). Countersink holes and file both sides smooth after driving head. If you shouldn’t happen to have a 6-inch piece of 1/16 x 1 x 1-inch angle for the notched support bar, bend up an angle from a doubled sheet of aluminum. Rivet the lips on the underside of the support bar with 3/32-inch diameter x Y4-inch rivets.