IMPROVE- MENTS IN NAILING MACHINES CHIEFLY DESIGNED. FOR USE IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BOXES AND SIMILAR ARTICLES
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Francis Watson at the Offico
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 31st October 1883. Communicated
to him from abroad by Joseph H. Swift, of Brooklyn, New York, United
States of America
WILLIAM FRANCIS WATSON of 43 Southampton Buildings, London,
"IMPROVE-
MENTS IN NAILING MACHINES CHIEFLY DESIGNED. FOR USE IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF BOXES AND SIMILAR ARTICLES "
[a communication to him from abroad by
Joseph H. Swift, of Brooklyn, New York, United States of America]
This invention relates to machines for feeding nails to the work into which they
are to be driven, and for driving the said nails.
The said invention comprises improvements in the construction of the nail-
feeding and driving devices and to the mechanism in connection therewith.
In carrying the said invention into practice I provide a frame having four
bearings in which are supported the journals of two shafts. On the first shaft is a
pulley which is suitably driven by a belt. The said pulley is loose on the first
shaft and has a couical recess into which is fitted a conical friction pulley. The
said friction pulley which has a neck with a flange and is loose on the said first
shaft is held from turning thereon by a groove and feather and is capable of
moving to and fro on the first shaft into and out of the conical recess in order to
fasten the pulley or to unfasten it from the said shaft by a collar on the neck_and
an elbow lever. The said collar is pivotted by bolts between the forks of the short
arm of the said elbow lever, which has for its fulcrum a rock shaft supported in
bearings in the frame. The long arm of the elbow lever has a foot piece and a
retracting spring. By applying pressure to the foot piece when the pulley is in
motion, the friction pulley is forced into the conical recess in the driving pulley
and by friction is locked therein causing the first shaft to be drivon.
A pinion on the end of the first shaft drives a cog wheel on the end of the
second shaft and gives motion thereto
On the said second shaft are a pinion and a cam wheel. The cam wheel has a
cam on its side. On the rock shaft is an arm having at its upper end a roller
which bears against the cam on the cam wheel. The said arm is adjustable by
means of a set screw. When pressure is applied to the foot piece depressing the
elbow lever engaging the friction pulley with the driving pulley and setting the
Paine & 1

page_text: first and second shafts in motion, and then suddenly removed from the foot piece,
the cam roller operates against the cam on the side of the cam wheel and holds the
friction pulley in engagement with the driving pulley until one revolution of the
cam wheel is made, when the said roller drops into a notch at the end of the cam
and releases the friction pulley from the said driving pulley which is then drawn
back by the retracting spring against the friction brake on the frame whereby the
motion of the first shaft is stopped.
The brake is adjustable by set screws in the frame and may press the edge or
back of the friction pulley. As the motion of the first shaft is intermittont,
depending as it does upon the operation of the elbow lever the friction pulley, the
cam roller, and the cam, so the motion of the second shaft is also intermittent.
On the end of the second shaft is a crank which has a wrist connection with a
pitman to which it imparts intermittent motion. The said pitman is connected by
a second wrist to segments and imparts intermittent motion to them.
The said segments are fixed at their centres to the ends of short shafts having
bearing on the frame and cranks at their other ends. To the wrists of the said
cranks are connected short pitmans which are connected at their other ends by
pivot bolts to a cross-head and impart intermittent motion to it from the segments.
The said cross-head has V-shaped grooves and is intermittently reciprocated in the
frame on V-shaped ways or guides.
The nail punches have excentric heads and are moved into position and suspended
in a T-shaped groove in the lower edge of the cross-head. The said nail punches
enter channels in the nail boxes, and are reciprocated with the cross head and aro
not thereby withdrawn from the nail channels but remain connected with the nail
boxes. I may arrange any number of nail punches, but five is a very convenient
number for ordinary use.
The nail boxes have mortices through which they are slipped into position on a
supporting bar and held by set screws in connection with the nail punches. The
said nail boxes are made in two parts hold together by set screws. Each of the
parts has a recess into which is placed a slide or die and compression springs. Tho
slides or dies bavo slots by which they are suspended on pins in one of the parts.
They also have counterpart nail grooves, which together form nail guides to be
closed or opened at the lower end. The compression springs keep the slides or dies
closed, and consequently the lower ends of the guides closed until they are forced
open by the descent of the nail punches. The parts of the nail boxes have
channels which form nail grooves into which enter nail tubes. The nails descend
through the nail tubes and the nail grooves into the nail guides and onto the
closed ends thereof; and rest on their points until the nail punches descend, strike
the nails on their heads, and force open the slides or dies and drive the nails
through the nail boxes into the work to be nailed.
The work is placed on a table under the nail boxes and against a back plate.
The table and the back plate are both adjustable to suit the work. The table is
adjustable by arms passing through slots in the back plate and connected with a
block through which passes an adjusting screw supported at its lower end in n
socket on the frame and having at its upper end a bevel wheel connecting with
a second bovel wheel on a shaft having a hand wheel to operate a screw for raising
or lowering the work under the nail boxes.
The back plate is adjustable as the heighth of the pieces for the boxes against
it may require, and by slido arms in grooves in the frame. in the inner ends of
which grooves are excentrics on a shaft having a hand lever to operate the slide
arms and move tho work in or out under the nail boxes as the thickness of the
pieces of the work to be placed against the back plate may requife.
The pieces of the work against the back plate are held from bending or splitting
by clamps having V-shaped grooves. The said clamps slide in grooves on the
frame formed by lugs or projections and are operated to hold and release the pieces
of the work against the back plate by pins in bars connected to projections on the
cross head by which they are intermittently reciprocated.
•

page_text: To one side of, and adjacent to, the table is an incline properly supported to
eceive the pieces of the work that are to go against the back plate and to permit
hem to slide forward by gravity. To move these pieces end wise in front of the
back plate in position to be nailed a slide working in grooves in a supporting.
frame, is intermittently operated by a pin, and a slot in an elbow lever pivotted to
a projection on the frame, and intermittently operated by a slot and a pin from
the cross head. On the said block are excentrics operating against swinging rods
pivotted to projections on the frame, and having at their lower ends, pins passing
through slots in the back plate to bear against the pieces of the work that are in
front of the back plate and adjust their position with respect to the other pieces of
the work to be nailed to them, so as to permit, for example, the end pieces of
boxes to stand in a little from the ends of the side pieces, to afford protection to
prints or labels on the ends of the boxes.
To the frame is fastened an annular plate across and fastened to which is a bar
to which is pivotted centrally a perforated plate having on its under side a ratchet
in which operates a weighted pawl to revolve the perforated plate. The said pawl
is operated by an elbow lover pivotted to a bracket as a fulcrum to the weighted
pawl and the long arm is slotted to receive the wrist pin of the pitman which is
connected to the crosshead from which intermittent motion is imparted to the
perforated plate. On the lower side of the annular plato is a nail receivor, a
receptacle into which the nails drop from the perforations in the perforated plate,
through an opening in the annular plate and from which nail tubes lead to the
nail guides in the nail boxes. To prevent the weighted pawl from raising the
edge of the perforated plate, clips extend from the annular plate over the edge of
the perforated plate or into a groove in the edge of it. Tho perforated plato
should be perforated at regular intervals adapted to the ratchet, and in rows
adapted to the number of nail punches to be used at one time in nailing the work.
The nails should be placed in the perforations in the perforated plate by hand,
point foremost. As the perforated plate revolves, the rows of nails will be dropped
into the nail receiver and into the tubes, and be conducted to the nail guides in
the nail boxes in the proper positions to be driven.
The perforated plate has projections on its lower side to give depth enough to
the perforations to hold the nails in a vertical position, and a basin to fit into tho
opening in the annular plate, and the ratchet is on the bottom of the basin which
serves as a receptacle for the nails in bulk. The annular plate has an opening in
front of the nail receiver for the oscape of misplaced nails. The perforated plate is
regulated in its movements by an adjustable friction brake held to the frame by
sot screws.
The pinion on the second shaft imparts intermittent motion to a cog wheel on
the end of a short shaft supported in bearings on the frame. The short shaft has
a crank connected by a wrist to a pitman to which it imparts intermittent motion.
The pitman has a compensating joint and is connected at its upper end by a slot
and pivot to a crank on the end of an axis supported in bearings on the frame.
On the said axis is supported by lugs and set screws a hopper to which intermittent
motion is imparted by the said pitman. The said hopper has at its front inside
edge inclined shutes and conduits leading to them.
The said shutes are inclined forward and in front of each shute on the front of
the hopper are swinging guide springs.
Any desired number of shutes may be used to suit the work, five is a very
O convenient number.
The swinging guide springs close the fronts of the shutes and can be turned to
one side to give access thereto. When nails are placed in the hopper in bulk, tho
intermittent tilting motion of the said hopper forces the nails forward into the
conduits and shutes and behind the spring guides into the inclined channels formied
The nails drop point
by V-shaped bars having inclined tracks between them.
foremost into the said tracks being held therein by their heads, and slide down the
tracks in single file. The V-shaped bars have extensions and are adjustable to vary

page_text: "
the width of the track to suit different sized nails, by lugs and set screws. The nails.
that do not 'become suspended in 'the tracks and 'slide down therein, drop through
spaces. A guard is placed across the tracks to stop the waste nails from coming
forward, but it is provided with openings to permit the nails in the tracks to pass
through it.
The V-shaped bars are supported on cross pieces on the frame. To a projection
on the cross head is pivotted by a bolt a pitman which is connected at its upper
end by a slot and bolt to a crank on a rock shaft, supported in bearings in the
frame. On the said rock shaft are held by set screws cams. The first set of cams
operate intermittently against a bar supported in inclined slots in the frame and
move a bar backwards in the slots. The said bar is drawn forward again in tho
slots by retracting springs. The second set of cams and compressing springs.
oporate tho, bar in a slot in a similar manner. Through openings in the bars are
connected in a self adjusting manner stops which pass through slots in a supporting
bar fastened to the frame. The said stops have compression springs and nuts to
make them yielding and solf adjusting. The stops in one position are held by the
retracting springs and the compression springs against the ends of the tracks and
prevent the discharge of nails therefrom into the nail tubes and thence into the
nail boxes under the nail punches but when drawn back by the cams permit the
nails to so descend. When the stops are drawn back, the other 'stops are forced
forward and permit but one nail from each track to descend. To the bar are
connected arms to which are adjustably connected by screws and nuts adjustable
arms having end bearings in which is supported a roller working on guides. As
the said bar moves forward, the roller presses against the nails in the tracks and
suspends the movements of the nails downward, but as the said bar is drawn
back the roller is raised from the nails onto the guides and permits the nails to
advance.
To the side of the hopper are pivotted arms which in a like manner support and
operate the roller to cause the nails to be evenly distributed in the track. A plate
having off sets and slots is placed under the nuts of the middle stops, the outer
stops being left free. The plate is pivotted to the lever by which it is operated to
force the off sets under the nuts of the middle stops, to render them inoperative or
operative, and thereby to stop or start the nails in the corresponding tracks, to
vary the number of nails to be driven at once.
I may vary the details of construction without departing from the nature of this
invention.