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Title: |
1866 article: Improved shingle and barrel-head sawing machine |
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Source: |
Scientific American 1866-06-16; new series, vol. 14, issue 25, p. 407 |
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Insert Date: |
5/12/2011 2:05:53 PM |
Text of article:
Improved Shingle and Barrelhead Sawing Machine.
No department of industry, in a comparatively new country like ours, is of more general utility and importance than that pertaining to the manufacture of wood into the thousand-and-one forms of usefulness which wood can be made to assume. Slate has not, even in our large towns, yet usurped the use of shingles for roofing purposes, and the covering of buildings with tin or patent roofing is confined in its employment. In the newer and the more rural portions of the country where the material is easily and cheaply obtained, and water or steam power can be advantageously employed, shingles will continue for a long time to be the favorite material for roofing and weather boarding. The increased demand for short sawed lumber for barrel headings, fruit boxes, etc., makes every improvement in the preparation of lumber for such purposes an important matter.
The improvement illustrated in this article demands the attention of all interested in the above branches of business.
A is a 38 or 40 inch saw, upon a substantial frame, B b, and is rotated by means of a band around the pulley, C. M M are the two slide posts on which are bolted the V-shaped vertical slides having opposite guides upon the bolt gate, or cage, D D, which is counterbalanced by weights, L L, suspended by a five-eighth cord over the shives or pulleys, K K, (one not shown). E is a head block fastened down to the top of the bolt gate by means of gibs and sliding to and from the saw on the slides shown at O O, and is actuated or fed by the latch and pawl handles, H H, and feed rack, I I. G is the handle which operates the dogs at each end of the block shown at F F. There are two wedges, one
located on each side of each slide post, in order to keep the bolt carriage perfectly in line with the saw in moving up and down.
In operation, the weights, L L, are sufficiently heavy to keep the bolt gate or carriage elevated above the saw, near the points, M M. The bolt or block is laid upon the top ot the carriage, and the dogs, F F, are forced into the end by means of the lever, G, and held there by a latch. The handle, H (shown as raised), is now pressed, when it feeds the block forward over the saw, and at the same time pushes the balanced bolt gate down, the saw cuts up through the block, and straight with the grain, and makes a shingle. Remove the pressure of the hand and the bolt gate rises and is ready for another cut. By moving both handles, H H, at once straight pieces are sawed, or without taper, for barrel heads, box stuff, etc.
The advantages claimed are simplicity, by which any person capable of keeping the saw in order can run one of these machines as well as a thorough mechanic, sawing from 1,700 to 2,500 shingles per day of eleven hours; the use of a thinner saw than generally employed, thereby saving material by less waste in the "kerf," a bolt being used entirely, one of only three-quarters of an inch thickness at one end by two and three-quarters at the other, having actually been cut with the machine into five No. 1 shingles; of sawing always with the grain.
For further information, certificates, etc., apply to C. S. & S. Burt, Dunleith, Ill., or to S. J. Ahern, No. 88 Wall street, New York. |
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