IMPROVED MACHINERY TO BE EMPLOYED IN THE APPLICATION OF DOWELS TO WOOD- WORK
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Rodrigues Rogers at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th
August 1861.
I, WILLIAM RODRIGUES ROGERS, of Gray's Inn Road, in the County of
Middlesex, Builder, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVED MACHINERY TO BE EMPLOYED IN THE APPLICATION OF DOWELS TO WOOD-
WORK," to as be follows:-
This Invention relates, firstly, to an arrangement of machinery for preparing
woodwork to receive dowels; and secondly, to machinery for bringing together
under pressure the parts intended to be secured by means of dowels. For
boring dowel holes at any required distance apart in the pieces to be united, I
fit a boring machine with clamps, which clamp the work and present it either
sideways or endwise to the action of the rotary cutters. On a cast-iron main
frame, fitted with parallel guides, I mount a sliding table or frame, which
carries a pair of adjustable swivel clamps; these clamps are made to advance
to and recede from each other by means of a right and left-handed screw
shaft mounted in the sliding frame, and operated by a hand wheel. They are
held firm by clamping nuts, which, when slackened, will allow of the clamps
receiving a quarter turn; thus the clamps may be made to face each other
and embrace a piece of wood that is to be presented endwise to the cutters, or
to face the cutters, and present the work sideways to the cutters. The
clamping jaws are operated by vertical screws. The cutters, which I propose
generally to use in pairs, are fitted to cutter spindles, which are mounted in

page_text: adjustable socket bearings that slide by means of a right and left-handed screw
shaft on a horizontal slide bar, for the purpose of adjusting their distance
apart. This slide bar is fixed in a frame that is capable of sliding vertically in
a standard frame firmly secured to the main frame, the vertical movement
being imparted thereto by means of a supporting screw which passes through
the cross head of the standard frame, and is operated by a hand wheel.
Driving pulleys are keyed to the cutter spindles for the purpose of receiving
motion through driving bands from any first mover, and imparting the same to
the cutters. To bore the holes for the insertion of the dowels, the cutters are
set to the required height and distance apart, the wood is then clamped and
pressed up to the cutters until the required depth of hole is bored; the sliding
frame which carries the wood is then drawn back, and the work is released
from the clamps.
The machinery for pressing together the parts intended to be united to form,
say a door, after the dowels have been inserted in their respective holes,
consists of a table of suitable dimensions to receive the largest kind of work.
On this table are mounted transverse sliding beds (two, three, or more),
similar to a-lathe bed, and fitted each with slides, which are made to advance
and recede by means of a right and left-handed screw shaft, so as to close
upon the work and impart a lateral pressure thereto, and then quickly release
it. For holding the work down to the table, each pair of lateral slides is
made to carry a cross head, from the centre of which a pressing plate is
suspended by a screw operated by a hand wheel. Mounted lengthwise of the
table is a right and left-handed screw which operates a pair of slides for giving
pressure to the work at right angles to the slides already mentioned.
To operate with this machine to make a dowelled door, the pieces of the
framing having been prepared for the dowels, and the several parts composing
the door having been put together, and the dowels inserted in their holes, the
work is laid in the centre of the table and the screw shafts are set in motion.
The slides will now be brought to bear upon the work and impart such
pressure thereto in the plane of the dowels that the coupling faces of the
work will be brought into close contact, the dowels being at the same time
forced home, and thereby securing the parts in their proper relative positions.