IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SHAPING THE HEADS OF BOLTS AND SCREWS AND FOR NUT SHAPING, APPLICABLE WHOLLY OR IN PART TO OTHER SIMILAR USES
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Ford Smith at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th June 1875.
I, WILLIAM FORD SMITH, of Gresley Iron Works, Salford, in the
County of Lancaster, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SHAPING THE HEADS OF BOLTS
AND SCREWS AND FOR NUT SHAPING, APPLICABLE WHOLLY OR IN PART TO OTHER
SIMILAR USES," to be as follows:-
―:
My Invention relates principally to machine tools adapted to be
employed in the shaping of the hexagonal, square, or flat-sided heads of
bolts or screws, and in the shaping of nuts. The bolts or screws to be
shaped are secured in chucks or vices which can be rotated so as to
present fresh surfaces to the cutting tools, which are fixed to a
reciprocating sliding bar or frame. Nuts may be screwed or fixed on
mandrils or screws fixed in the vices, or to supports fitted to be rotated
by the means herein-after indicated.

page_text: Each machine may be provided with two or more vices and with two
or more sets of cutting tools. I prefer to employ a vice formed with
three gripping pieces, which are forced against the shank of the bolt
when a cam ring is rotated. The vices are rotated by means of catches
which take into slots formed in the periphery of each vice, the said
catches being mounted upon levers which are coupled together, so that
both or all of the vices can be turned simultaneously.
Detents engage
with the slots when the vices have been rotated to the required extent,
say for example, to the extent of one-sixth of a revolution.
When the coupled levers are moved back preparatory to the operation
of turning the vices, the said detents are acted upon and are withdrawn
from the slots in order to permit the vices to be rotated.
During the rotation of the vices the detents are released and are
pressed by springs against the rings in which the slots are formed, and
enter slots when the required movement has been imparted to the
vices. This arrangement or a modification thereof may be employed in
machines especially adapted for shaping nuts and having two or more
nut mandrils, which may be simultaneously rotated to the required
extent by the means herein described. Two cutting tools preferably
formed of cylindrical steel are arranged to act upon two opposite sides
of each bolt head. Each tool holder is fitted to swivel on a carriage,
which is arranged to slide to and fro on the aforesaid reciprocating bar.
Screws working in nuts or tapped holes in or on each carriage and
bearing against the tool holder are employed to cause it to swivel in
either direction upon the said carriage.
The adjustment of the tools may be roughly effected by sliding the
said carriages upon the said reciprocating bar, the finer or more delicate
adjustment being effected by the aid of the aforesaid screws, the action
of which has the effect of moving the point of the tool towards or from
the bolt head or the central axis of the vice. This arrangement is also
applicable in the setting of the tools in some other machines.
The bolts which secure each carriage to the reciprocating bar by
preference pass also through the tool holder, the holes in the latter being
elongated or being larger than the said bolts to permit of the swivelling
action of the tool holder. The said reciprocating bar is or may be
actuated in a similar manner, as in the case of a slotting machine,

page_text: and to simplify the construction I may dispense with gearing, and
actuate the said bar by means of a strap acting on a pulley of com-
paratively large size which is fixed on the crank shaft, the countershaft
receiving a quick or a slow motion from one or the other of two
straps running at different speeds.