Garden Hand Plow From Scrap: Wheelbarrow Wheel, Ripped Spruce Handles and a Shovel-Blade Moldboard (Boy Mechanic, 1919)

"The labor of spading a garden of even moderate size is sufficient to warrant the person who undertakes the job in making a hand plow like that shown in the illustration."

Mark both handles on a 7/8 by 4 in spruce strip 5 ft long, one curved grip at each end on opposite edges. Cut the curves with a keyhole saw, then rip the board into the two handles; smooth them and trim the grips with a sharp knife. Cut a section of broomstick for the upper brace.

Lower brace: iron 1/4 by 1-1/4 by 12 in, drilled for 1/4 in bolts, bent at right angles 1-1/2 in from each end, with a 1/4 in hole at the middle. Vertical support: 1/4 by 1-1/4 by 18 in, four 1/4 in adjusting holes 1 in apart at the top, three 1/4 in holes at the bottom for the moldboard, and a 5/16 in hole at the 7-1/2 in mark. Two braces 14 in long of 1/4 by 1-1/4 in, a 3/8 in hole at the front of each for the 3/8 by 10 in axle bolt and a 5/16 in hole at the other end, each 1 in from the end. Landside: 1/8 by 3/4 by 12 in.

Draw his moldboard (Fig. 4) on cardboard ruled in 1 in squares, tracing the outline square by square, and mark the bolt holes. Trace it on an old shovel blade, using the thickest part for the point of the share. Cut it out, smooth the edges and sharpen the cutting edge. Drill for 1/4 in bolts to the vertical strap and 3/16 in bolts to the landside.

Curve the moldboard and fit it to the supports as in Figs. 1-3. Bend the 12 in landside strip under the moldboard and bolt it on. Assemble on the 16 in wheel and 3/8 in axle bolt, with wheel and landside in line (Fig. 2) and the landside's rear edge raised slightly (Fig. 3); set the vertical strap's height for the operator in its adjusting holes. Paint the plow and oil the smoothed cutting parts.

From "Garden Plow Made of Pick-Up Material" by T. T. Sturgeon, in **The Boy Mechanic, Book 3**, Popular Mechanics, 1919 (Project Gutenberg 71856; checked on the archive.org scan boymechanic0003unse, pp. 227-228). The moldboard shape is his Fig. 4 grid. The keyhole saw is a coping saw here; the tools and metric figures are ours.