Improvements in Heel Trimming Machines.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 29th Oct., 1891
Complete Specification Left, 29th July, 1892-Accepted, 3rd Sept., 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Heel Trimming Machines.
I WILLIAM HENRY DORMAN of The Hawthorns, Newport Road Stafford, in
the County of Stafford Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this invention to
be as follows:-
This invention relates to heel-trimming machines in which a revolving cutter
head is used having cutters or knives attached which operate upon the boot heel.
Said boot heel being held by the person operating the machine and moved about
80 as to present all parts of its surface to the action of the cutters.
The boot is held with its leg in a horizontal position and its heel is supported
upon a rest in front of the cutters. The top piece of the heel bears sidewise upon
a top piece guard which is provided with a projecting lip against which the edge
of the top piece bears so that the interior angle made by the top piece guard and
the lip receive the exterior angle or edge of the top piece.
The top piece guard and the lip are carried upon a horizontal cross slide so that
they may be set as desired nearer to or further from the horizontal centre line of
the cutter spindle.
They are also each capable of independent adjustment in the line of the cutter
spindle, so that the lip may be set to project more or less as desired from the top
piece guard and may also be set nearer to or further from the corners of the cutting
edges of the cutters.
Thus the lip and the top piece guard can both be set in reference to the cutters
so as to enable all varieties of heel to be dealt with including those heels which are
furnished with metal tips.
The lip may be grooved or furnished with teeth to prevent the top piece slipping
from it.
The cutters or knives are flat and to secure them in the head one edge is bevelled
and a groove having one edge also bevelled or undercut is sunk for a certain length
in the underside of the knife.
The cutter head has a groove into which takes the bevelled edge of the knife
and a specially shaped clamping plate takes into the groove in the knife and secures
the knife to the head.
The upper or counter of the boot bears against an upper guard, the thin edge of
which enters the crease between the heel and the upper, commonly known as the
feather, and in order to allow this upper guard to be moved in over the cutters,
so as to permit of trimming both high and low heels with the same knives, this
guard is made of a shape so that a considerable portion of the width of the cutters
may run in behind it as the guard is made to approach more nearly to the top piece
guard.
For the same reason the knife clamping plate before referred to is recessed to
allow the rand knives to come as near as possible to the top piece guard.
Dated this 28th day of October 1891.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Heel Trimming Machines.
I WILLIAM HENRY DORMAN, of The Hawthorns, Newport Road, Stafford in
the County of Stafford Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement :-—
This invention relates to heel-trimming machines in which a revolving cutter
head is used having cutters or knives attached which operate upon the boot heel.
The boot is held with its leg in a horizontal position and its heel is supported
upon a rest in front of the cutters. The top piece of the heel bears sidewise upon
a top piece guard which is provided with a projecting lip against which the edge of
the top piece bears so that the interior angle made by the top piece guard and the
lip receives the exterior angle or edge of the top piece.
The top piece guard and the lip are carried on a horizontal cross slide so that
they may be set as desired nearer to or further from the horizontal centre line of
the cutter spindle. They are also each capable of independent adjustment in the
line of the cutter spindle so that the lip may be set to project more or less as
desired from the top piece guard and may also be adjusted to the corners of the
cutting edges of the cutters. Thus the lip and the top piece guard can both be
Bet in reference to the cutters so as to enable all varieties of heel to be dealt with
including those heels which are furnished with metal tips.
The lip may be grooved or furnished with one or more teeth to prevent the top
piece (or the metal tip as the case may be) slipping from it.
The cutters or knives are flat and to secure them in the head one edge is bevelled
and a groove having one edge also bevelled or undercut is sunk for a certain length
in the underside of the knife. The cutter head has a bevelled groove into which
takes the bevelled edge of the knife and a specially shaped clamping plate takes
into the groove in the knife and secures the knife to the head.
The upper or counter of the boot bears against an upper guard, the thin edge of
which enters the crease between the heel and the upper commonly known as the
feather and in order to allow this upper guard to be moved in over the cutters, so
as to permit of trimming both high and low heels with the same knives, this guard
is made of a shape so that a considerable portion of the width of the cutters may
run in behind it as the guard is made to approach more nearly to the top piece
guard. For the same reason the knife clamping plate before referred to is
recessed to allow the rand knives to come as near as possible to the top piece
guard.
My invention is illustrated by the accompanying drawings in which
Fig. 1 is a front elevation, Fig. 2 is a plan and Fig. 3 is an end elevation of the
machine head.
Fig. 4 is a section of the same through the trimming knives.
Figs. 5 and 6 are vertical and horizontal sections respectively through the centre 4
of the cutter spindle and knife holders.
Figs. 7 and 8 are a plan and cross section of one of the trimming knives.
Figs. 9. 10 and 11 are views and a section enlarged of the upper guard.
Figs. 12. 13 and 14 are views and a section enlarged of the lip.
Fig. 15 is an enlarged horizontal section through the lip and the top piece 4
guard.
The same letters indicate the same parts in all the figures.
The cutter spindle a of the machine is carried in suitable bearings and is revolved
in the direction indicated by the arrow by means of a conveniently arranged belt.
At one end it is adapted to carry the knife holder 6 which has a taper shank c 5

page_text: with a screw d formed upon it which enters a suitable hole prepared for it in the
spindle a. The thread upon the screw d is of such a direction as to become tighter
in the spindle a by any turning movement due to the work of the knives in trimming
the heel. The knives e are of the form shewn in Figs. 7 and 8 the edge c¹ is
bevelled to fit in the groove f formed in the holder to receive it and a groove g
is sunk for a certain length in the underside of the knife. One edge of the
groove g is bevelled or undercut and the knife clamp i has a projection ; formed
upon it adapted to fit the edge h so that when the clamp i is gripped upon the
knives e by means of the screw k screwed into the holder b, the latter are securely
held in place.
A second knife holder which carries the rand knives m is connected to the
holder 6 by means of a ball jointed rod n so arranged that while the pins o. p. with
which it is furnished serve to revolve the holder in conformity with the holder b
the balls q. r. allow of the holder being moved somewhat out of line with the
holder b. The socket s which receives the ball r is provided with a rectangular
tongue t which while driving the holder around allows the latter to advance and
recede (in the direction of the length of the cutter spindle a) in relation to the
holder b.
The socket u which receives the ball q is recessed deeply in the knife holder b so
as to enable the knife holder b and the knife clamping plate i to be recessed or
channelled across their diameter well back under the knives e and the screw k
which retains the knife clamping plate i to be kept back out of the way of the
rand knife holder when it advances towards the holder b.
The holder carries the rand knives m which operate upon the edge of the heel
seat and the holder revolves in a bush or bearing v which is carried on centres w..
by swinging links y. z. in turn carried at their rear ends on other centres a¹ 6' which
are capable of adjustment in a horizontal direction and are conveniently supported
from the machine frame. These swinging links y. z. permit of movement of the
bush or bearing to or from the holder b and a light spring c¹ keeps the bush v up
towards the holder b when no boot is under the operation of the machine.
The upper guard d' is carried upon the bush v and is of the shape shewn in
Figs. 9. 10 and 11. The thin edge f¹ enters the feather of the boot and supports
the boot heel while being operated upon. The shape of the upper guard
it to advance over the knife edges g' in trimming heels lower than the width of
the knives.
allows
The lip and the top piece guard when viewed endwise of the spindle a are
of the same curve as the circle described by the corner j¹ of the knives e in their
rotation. They are carried on a piece k¹ curved to suit and formed at l to slide
in a way m¹ prepared for it in the machine frame so that by means of the screw n¹
the lip and the top piece guard may be set to or from the spindle a as may be
desired.
The lip may be adjusted lengthwise of the spindle a in relation to the corners ¹
of the knives by means of an adjusting screw of in the piece k¹ and the top piece
guard can be adjusted, by means of a screw p², nearer to or further from the
corners of the knives so as to allow more or less, as desired, of the lip /¹ to
project or be exposed beyond the top piece guard and between it and the
knives e.
The less the lip ¹ is exposed the closer will the knives pare to the extreme edge
of the top piece and the more the lip 2 is exposed the more will the extreme edge
of the top piece be protected from the action of the knives.
In the case of trimming heels having metal tips the lip h' must be projected far
enough from the top piece guard to ensure that the knives shall not touch the
tip. A screw 1 serves to clamp fast the lip h¹ and the top piece guard i¹ when
they are correctly set. The lip h¹ may have one or more grooves, or a ridge or
tooth may be formed as shewn in Figs. 12 to 15 to prevent the top piece or metal
tip of the boot heel from sliding off.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
In a machine for trimming the heels of boots and shoes.
1. The use of a top piece guard provided with a lip having a positive inde-
pendent adjustment in the direction lengthwise of the cutter spindle, substantially
as described.
2. The use of a top piece guard having a positive adjustment lengthwise of the
cutter spindle independent of that of the lip, substantially as described.
3. A top piece guard provided with a lip and adjustable in the direction at right
angles to the cutter spindle, substantially as described.
4. The use of a combined top piece guard and lip with independent adjustments
in the direction lengthwise of the cutter spindle and together adjustable in the
direction at right angles to the cutter spindle, substantially as described.
5. The use of flat knives in which the dovetail for holding the knife is formed
partly by the outside edge of the knife and partly by means of a groove sunk into
the body of the knife, substantially as described.
6. The use of a groove or grooves or a ridge or tooth upon the lip of the top
piece guard for the purpose of preventing the slipping of the edge of the top piece
or tip of the boot heel, substantially as described.
7. The use of an upper guard shaped so as to enable it to advance over and
cover the trimming knives to a greater or less degree according to the height of
the heel to be trimmed substantially as described.
8. The use of a knife holder constructed with a recess or channel, between the
parts which carry the trimming knives, in such a manner as to allow the rand
knives to approach sufficiently near to the top piece guard to trim the lowest heel,
substantially as described.
9. The use of a knife holder constructed with a recess or channel, between the
parts which carry the trimming knives, in such a manner as to allow the rand
knives to approach sufficiently near to the top piece guard to trim the lowest heel
combined with an upper guard shaped so as to enable it to advance over and cover
the trimming knives to a greater or less degree according to the height of the heel
to be trimmed substantially as described.
Dated this 28th day of July 1909