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Title: |
1892 Article-Perkins & Co., Rotary Shingle Machine |
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The Age of Steel, V71, 02 Jan., 1892, pg. 48 |
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Insert Date: |
2/28/2025 7:29:06 PM |
The accompanying illustration represents a very superior rotary shingle machine, manufactured by Perkins & Co., of Grand Rapids, Mich. The makers claim for it the highest excellences in design and construction, and offer records of its achievements in support of their assertions. By actual count this machine was at its first trial started up at 200 clips per minute. Its operation without a hitch at that speed was accepted as a good omen for its future adaptability to high speed and large output of shingles. The record of 214,000 per day for an entire season (at Michigan Shingle Company's mill, Muskegon, Mich.) and of 286,000 for a single day (Buckley & Douglas, Manistee, Mich.) made on the company's prior machines stands ahead of all other records, and it is believed that this latest machine will distance those records. The bed piece is composed of four girts, cast in one frame, an open space at the sawyer's side, and the setting of the spalter to the left as far as possible allows an elevator to be used for carrying off the spalts; a nice feature and one that saves labor. Aside from the undogging rollers at the center, all of the operative parts of the machine are placed outside of the carriage wheel and readily accessible. The center is all open.
The dogging mechanism cannot be beat and is unequaled. The dog is opened by contact with a roller, (but 3 dog rollers used), a pawl or latch then engages with the dog and holds it open, in this manner, takes all friction and strain off from the machine, making the wheel run correspondingly lighter. The dog spring is a helical coil as shown, made of ¼x1¼ inch steel, would be about 6 feet long when straightened out; have had them in use for two years and never had a string wear out or break. Dog rod is placed at back of carriage arm out of the sawyer’s way in blocking. Blocking shelf is made with a rest so sawyer can lean against it and it protects him from getting into the wheel.
The same arbor boxes are retained with one screw adjustment to the caps and for ranging purposes, etc., that have heretofore been so favorably received; a nice addition has been made to them, however, in a vertical adjustment to the box, that raises the step and arbor up so as to adjust the two saws in exactly the same plane; the desirableness of this is the equal wear on the push blocks and retaining both saws in proximity to them. The adjustment is easily made from the top of the bridge pot without changing the steps.
The saw arbors may be shifted to and from the center of the machine so as to insure the engagement of the saws with the center of the shingle bolt. In prior machines the arbors have been set on a diametrical line causing both saws to enter and pass out of cut simultaneously, contributing a double strain on machine and main driving belt, the main belt, in consequence, flapping and giving trouble; in this machine the arbors are set 7 inches off of a diametrical line, the saws entering and leaving cuts alternately and not together as heretofore, thus dividing the strain with beneficial effect on both the machine belt and shingles.
A new saw dust spout is provided audit is a spout that will spout a spout that is guaranteed never to fail in its spouting, it never has and never will be clogged, it is a knot, rot, shim and saw dust proof spout.
A single trip for each carriage journaled on the carriage rim and adapted to be turned up or down (both positions as shown in cut) operates both tilt tables and the spalter, the one trip accomplishing the three functions. This trip may be readily set in operative adjustment at any point in its travel by the hand of the sawyer, or it may be set to actuate either one or all of the several functions by the stationary levers A B C as the sawyer may elect, or foot treadles may be provided. A child can operate them, either directly or through the levers. They are sightly and have not displayed any elements of weakness or liability to disorder; don’t have to be taken out of the machine, oiled up and wrapped up in cotton when the mill shuts down, cannot get sprung and bind or get rusty and work hard to the injury of the operator’s hand.
The adjusting of the butts and points, etc., are controlled as heretofore, as on all of the Perkins hand and power feed machines, by independent screws enabling any man or child to regulate them without difficulty, as but one screw is to be shifted to set the right or the left hand butt, or point, in place of shifting three screws to make the same adjustment as on competing machines, while thickness and lead are equally as readily adjusted by shifting two other independent, screws.
In all other machines where successive carriages are grained, it is accomplished at the mechanical, expense of each carriage shifting and resetting the tilt, dividing equally the distance, time or length of run of the carriage in which it can be accomplished and doubling the labor or strain on the operative parts of the machine.
It is also necessary with above movement to obtain a sufficient distance in which to shift and re-shift the tilt tables, to shorten them up three inches, leaving a corresponding space between the end of the tilt and saw; this is conducive to imperfect shingles. This faulty construction is still adhered to in machines infringing the company’s patent of April 3, 1888. In the king of rotaries, a new principle is adopted; the tilt is shifted for a carriage and if the tilt for the following carriage or carriages is to be shifted the tilt remains in a shifted position, the first carriage that it is not desired, to have the tilt shifted for and that therefore has its trip on carriage in natural adjustment resetting the tilt for that carriage. This feature enables the utilizing of twice the run of the carriage to shift the tilt in, also allows the tilt to be extended clear to the saw; no one will appreciate this latter feature better than the sawyer or filer, for it truly is a mechanical advancement with beneficial result on the shingles produced.
The spalter like the tilt is actuated or opened but once for successive carriages reducing correspondingly the strains on the machine and increasing likewise the time in which the spalt or block may fall out of the machine. The spatting ways are spread apart (as described and claimed in patent April 3, 1888) allowing the block to drop through the opening; the ways are then held open by a latch which is released by the first following carriage that has its trip in natural position, the making of the following carriage close the spatter, for the preceding carriage gains all the time there is, in which the spatter may be held in retracted position for the spalt to escape. All parts of spatter graining device trips, etc., are automatically returned to normal position after operation. The bolt supporting ways spatter and table for bolts to drop on below the carriage wheel are all vertically adjustable.
The feed mechanism is controlled by a lever at the blocking table, the carriage wheel may be stopped by hand or by foot treadle (shown). Nine different feeds are provided with a variation of 10 clips to each change or a total variation of 90 clips, setting a minimum feed at 120 clips would give a maximum feed of 210 clips. A variation of 10 clips entails but 1/16-inch increase of feed to a revolution of the saw, and therefore the change is not excessive on the saw. The feed belt is driven from the saw arbor countershaft; this is preferable to adding the strain to the saw arbor, as customary before the production of our 1890 machine. Two cones, of three steps each, are used, the one on the arbor countershaft having a lengthwise movement so as to bring the face of any of its steps in line with the face of any step on the other cone; this adaptation gives the nine combinations or feed changes. A simple device serves to maintain a proper tension on the belt when shifted. A hand wheel is provided for turning the carriage wheel in setting lead of tilt table, range of saws, etc. Two friction discs on the pinion shaft with a tension spring, to hold them in engagement, provide for the automatic stopping of the wheel without any breakage or undue strain on the operative parts. Further particulars will be furnished on application to the manufacturers. |
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1892 Perkins & Co., Rotary Shingle Machine
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