IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS USED FOR PLANING AND SURFACING METALS
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Clement Walker, of Lilleshall, in the County of
Salop, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS USED FOR PLANING
AND SURFACING METALS."
Sealed the 1st December 1876, and dated the 7th June 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Clement Walker at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th June 1876.
CHARLES CLEMENT WALKER, of Lilleshall, in the County of Salop. "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS USED FOR PLANING AND SURFACING METALS."
These improvements have for their object the production of planed surfaces, more
particularly in gas purifiers, tanks, and other vessels, with greater facility and at
less cost than heretofore obtainable.
One part of my Invention consists of a planing machine having a bed and a
table reciprocating in the ordinary manner of planing machines, but in lieu of
a V groove, in or on which the table slides in its reciprocating movement, I use a
flat surface with adjustable securing slides, whereby I obviate a defect to which the
ordinary apparatus is liable, vizt., as the work to be planed has often vertical cuts
standing very high from the table, the force required to effect the cut is so great as
to lift the table of the V bed off the ordinary planing machine, thereby injuring
the operations of the planing.
My next improvement consists in the fixing in the top of the table of the
machine a pin or stud projecting above the table, and on it carefully fitting a table
plate sufficiently large to receive the plates or other objects to be planed, and also
having grooved holes or other usual means to attach bolts or fastenings for the work
to be planed. This table plato is maintained in a certain position on the plate by a
well fitted adjusting pin passing through the table and table plate, and this table
plate is allowed to revolve on the pin or stud, carrying the work with it. In
operating with the machine, the same having (for example) planed the two sides of
a square plate, the pin passing through the table and table plate is removed and the
plate or plates revolve with the table plate through an arc of 90°, when the
adjusting pin is passed through another hole in the table and there retained while
the two sides of the plates at right angles to the previous planed sides are planed;

page_text: by this means a perfectly square plate is obtained and the troublesome operation of
rechucking is avoided.
My next improvement has for its object to enable the two opposite sides of plates
to be planed by what are termed front planing tools in vertical slides at one
operation, by which there is not only a saving of time but these two opposite sides
are perfectly parallel without a separate chucking, and that this may be done for
any width of plate without extending out the planing tools too far I make the two
vertical slides to be moved wider or narrower on beds by screw or other usual
means, and when so moved to the requisite distance to be secured to the beds by
the usual appliances. The tool holders are made to hold one or more cutting tools,
so that, if desired, several cuts can be taken simultaneously, thus abbreviating the
operations. These vertical slides are made sufficiently high to take in many plates,
piled one above the other, and planed together, so that they shall be all exactly the
same size every way, a matter of great importance in producing perfection of work
for purifiers, tanks, and other vessels; these tool holders are also inade to revolve so
as to take cuts at any angle to each other, simultaneously or separately.
My next improvement consists in fixing across the table a slide with cutting tools
to plane across the table, so that, without removing the work, the sides of which
are planed parallel, the plate may be planed across at right angles in any way in
the most accurate manner without any rechucking, by which improvements a saving
of time and expenses in producing planed joints is effected.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Charles Clement Walker in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 7th
December 1870.
CHARLES CLEMENT WALKER, of Lilleshall, in the County of Salop. "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS USED FOR PLANING AND SURFACING METALS."
My said Invention has for its object the production of planed surfaces, more par-
ticularly in gas purifiers, tanks, and similar vessels with greater facility and at less
cost than heretofore obtainable, and it consists,―
First. Of a planing machine having a bed and a table reciprocating in the ordinary
manner of planing machines, but in lieu of ' grooves in or on which the table slides
in its reciprocating movements, I use flat surfaces with adjustable securing slides,
whereby I obviate a defect to which the ordinary apparatus is liable, videlicet, that
as the work to be planed has frequently vertical cuts extending to a considerable
height from the table the force required to effect the cut is so great as to lift the
table of the V bed off the ordinary planing machine, thereby injuring the operations
of the planing.
Secondly. In fixing in the top of the table of the machine a pin or shed projecting
above the table, and on it carefully fitting a table plate sufficiently large to receive
the plates or other objects to be planed, and also having grooves, holes, or other
usual means for the reception of bolts or fastenings for the work to be planed. This
table plate is maintained in a certain position on the plate by a well fitted adjusting
pin passing through the table and table plate, but the table plate is free to revolve
on the pin or stud, carrying the work with it when the securing pin is removed.
In operating with the machine, the same having, for example, planed the two sides
of a square plate, the pin passing through the table and table plate is removed, and
the plate or plates revolve with the table plate through an arc of 90°, when the
adjusting pin is passed through another hole in the table, and there retained while
the two sides of the plates at right angles to the previous planed sides are planed.
By this means a perfectly square plate is obtained, and the troublesome operation of
rechucking is avoided.
Thirdly. In constructing the apparatus so as to enable the two opposite sides of

page_text: plates to be planed by what are termed front planing tools in vertical slides at ouo
operation, by which not only is a saving of time effected, but these two opposito
sides are planed perfectly parallel without a separate chucking, and this may be
carried out for any width of plate without unduly extending the planing tools. I
make the two vertical slides to be moved towards or from each other on beds by
screw or other usual means, and when so moved to the requisite distance to be
secured to the beds by the usual appliances. The tool holders are made to hold
one or more cutting tools, so that if desired several cuts can be taken simultaneously,
thus abbreviating the operations. These vertical slides are made sufficiently high
to operate upon a series of plates piled one above the other, which are planed
together, so that they shall be all exactly the same size in all directions, a matter of
great importance in producing perfection of work for purifiers, tanks, and other
similar vessels. These tool holders are also made to revolve so as to take cuts at
any angle to each other simultaneously or separately.
Fourthly. In fixing across the table a slide with cutting tools to plane transversley
to the table, so that without removing the work, the sides of which have been
or are to be planed, the plate may be planed across at right angles in any way in
the most accurate manner without any rechucking, by which improvements a saving
of time and expence in producing planed joints as effected.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood I shall now proceed
more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose shall refer to the
several Figures on the annexed Sheets of Drawings, the same letters of reference
indicating corresponding parts in all the Figures.
Figure 1 (Sheet 1) of the accompanying Drawings represents a front end elevation
of an apparatus for planing and surfacing metals constructed according to my
Invention; Figure 2 is a plan; Figure 3, Sheet 2, a side elevation; and Figure 4,
a back end elevation of the same; Figure 5 is a detail to be hercin-after referred to.
Referring to the first part of my Invention a, a, are the beds of the machine; bis
the table reciprocating after the usual manner of planing machine tables; in lieu
however of employing V groove, in or on which the table b slides in its recipro-
cating movements, I use flat surfaces, as shewn at c, c, with adjustable securing
slides d, d, such slides being attached to the table by screws or bolts passing through
oblong holes in the slides, so as to admit of the slides being adjusted or set up by
means of screw pins 1. By means of this arrangement I obviate a defect to which
the ordinary apparatus is liable, videlicet, that as the work to be planed has fre-
quently vertical cuts extending to a great hoight from the table the force required
to effect the cut is so great as to lift the table b of the V bed off the ordinary
planing machine, thereby injuring the operations of the planing.
The second part of my Invention consists in fixing in the top of the table b of
the machine a pin or stud e projecting above the table, and on it carefully fitting a
table plate f sufficiently large to receive the plates or other objects to be planed,
and also having grooves, 2 holes, or other usual means to attach bolts or fastenings
for the work to be planed. This table plate is maintained in certain determined
positions on the plate by a well fitted adjusting ping passing through the table
and table plate, but the table plate is free to revolve on the pin or stud c, carrying
the work with it when the pin g is removed. In operating with the machine the
same having (for example) planed the two sides of a square plate, the ping passing
through the table and table plate fis removed, and the plate or plates under
operation revolve with the table plate through an arc of 90°, when the adjusting
pin g is passed through another hole g' in the table, and there rotained while the
two sides of the plates at right angles to the previous planed sides are planed. By
this means a perfectly square plate is obtained, and the troublesome operation of
rechucking is avoided. The hole g¹ is placed in the position shown when the plates
to be planed have their surfaces at right angles, but holes may be drilled in the
revolving table plate fin any other position when it is required to plane objects
with surfaces at any other angle to each other.
In carrying out the third part of my Invention, which has for its object enabling

page_text: the two opposite sides of plates to be planed by what are termed front planing
tools in vertical slides at one operation, I employ two vertical standards or slide
frames h, h, which are arranged opposite to each other and fitted so as to be capable
of being removed towards or from each other on beds i, i, as more fully herein-after
explained in describing the mode of carrying out the fourth part of my Invention,
and when so moved to the requisite distance are secured to the beds by the usual
appliances; k, k, are the tool holders attached to plates l, l, which are capable of
being rotated, and are secured on the travelling slides m in the usual manner. The
vertical cuts are advanced by the screws n, n, and the angular cuts are advanced
automatically by rods o, o, working wheels at the back which operate the crows p
when the revolving plates l, l, are turned round so that the slide frames q, q, are set
to the required angle of cut. The slides with the tool holders are moved up or
down for vertical or angular cuts by levers, rods, and wheels 8, t, v, and connections
to the reciprocating table after the usual modes of planing machines, the depth of
the cuts when cutting vertical cuts being adjusted by the screws P, P. r, r, are
plates attached to the revolving plates 1, l, the purpose of which is to enable the
tool holders to plane horizontally, in order to effect which, taking one of the
holders as an example, the revolving plate is turned half round to the position
shewn in Figure 5, and the tool holder k removed and fixed on the plate r, when
the screw p is moved by hand or by the self-acting motion rod o, the depth of cut
being regulated by the screw n. The self acting or feed motions are so arranged
that they are independent of each other, so that one side may be taking vertical
cuts while the other is taking horizontal or angular cuts. The tool holders k, k,
are made to receive one or more cutting tools, so that, if desired, several cuts can be
taken simultaneously, thus abreviating the operation; and the vertical standards
or slide frames h, h, are made sufficiently high to operate upon a series of plates
piled one above the other, which may be thus planed together, whereby an exact
uniformity in their size is ensured.
In carrying out the fourth part of my Invention I employ a cross slido frame W
connected to the upright standards a, which frame forms slide ways for a slide D,
herein-after referred to, and is provided with T or other shaped grooves y, y, which
permit of the upright standards a, a, with the vertical slide frames h, h, being drawn
out or in along the beds i, i, in order to admit of a wider or narrower object being
planed, whilst the cross slide frame W remains fixed. The upright standard x, x,
carry bolts, the heads of which slide in the grooves y, y, during the adjustinent of
such standards, which bolts serve to secure the standards in any adjusted position
by the act of tightening the nuts with which they are provided. The cross slide
frame W is raised or lowered to suit the height of the object to be planed by the
screws Z having worn wheels 3 on the top which are actuated by the worm A and
spindle B driven by power through the intervention of the pullies C, C, one of
which is a fast pulley and the other a loose pulley. The beds i, i, have grooves in
them similar to those in the cross slide frame W, and similar bolts to fix the
upright standards to the beds. D is a moving slide which is moved along the cross
slide frame W by a screw I. E is a screw for moving the tool holder F up and
down to adjust the depth of cut, or to take a vertical cut across the object. G is a
slide which has a screw H attached to it to allow a horizontal cut to be taken, or
to adjust the cut of the tool holder F when planing vertically. K, K, are bevel or
mitre wheels which impart motion to the screw I in order to effect the traverse of
the moving slide D, the said bevel wheels receiving their motion through the inter-
vention of the shaft L, mitre or bevel wheels M, shaft N, from the pullics O. These
pullies are driven by cross and open leather belts which are moved alternately on
to the fast pulley in order to drive the screw to the right or left and thus obtain a
reciprocating motion of the moving slide D carrying the tool holder F so as to take
fresh cuts upon the object which is being planed. P is a pair of spirals which
travelling with the moving slide D come in contact with adjustable stops Q, Q, and
move the levers R and forks S and thus shift the straps in order to reverse the
motion of the pullies O.

page_text: For the purpose of explaining the mode of operating the machine I shall describe
the preparation of the plates of a gas purifier of the description for which Letters
Patent were granted to William Thomas Walker dated the Twentieth November,
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, No. 3988. According to this con-
struction of purifier the whole of the plates composing it have all their joints
planed in lieu of employing iron or other cement, joints being employed as in
the ordinary system.
As the plates forming the bottom, and shewn in Figures 1 and 2 of the Drawing
forming part of the Specification of the said Letters Patent, No. 3988-%, may
be made of a uniform sizo, a pile of them may be placed on the revolving table
plate f; the pin is passed through the table plate into the reciprocating tablo b
below, to keep the table plate f in position, the pile of plates is then adjusted and
bolted down by well known modes to the table plate f, one or more cutting tools is
or are fixed in the tool holders, and the reciprocating table bis sett in motion.
The flanges on two opposite sides of the whole of the platos are thus planed as the
table reciprocates, after which the pin g is drawn out and the table plate f revolved
until g¹ is brought opposite the hole which the pin g occupied, the pin g is then
inserted therein and the two sides at right angles are similarly planed.
If the bottom plates round the poriphery of the purifier have the side plates
resting on them then each bottom plate of the periphery is fixed to the table plate f
in a similar manner, the two opposite sides which have vertical flanges are first
planed, and the pin g is then withdrawn and the table plate f turned through an
are of 90°, after which the pin g is again fixed and the other two flanges, one of
which is vertical and the other horizontal, are planed simultaneously, one by a
vertical cut, as before, the other (horizontal) cut by the tool / in the position shewn
in Figure 5; or, if prepared, the slide D can be arranged so as to take the horizontal
cut before the table plate f is removed from its first position.
In planing the corner bottom plates, which have two vertical flanges at right
angles, an two horizontal flanges also at right angles, one of the tool holders k
is fixed in the position represented in Figure 1, the other in the position shewn in
Figure 5, so that both vertical and horizontal flanges are operated on simultaneously.
The side plates, examples of which are shown in Figure 5 of the Drawings forming
part of the said Specification, may be operated on similarly; the vertical sides can
both be planed at the same time, and if the bottom edge has a
of the plate
flange on its face as it lies on the table plate ƒ it is planed by the tool in the
holder F on the slide D without rechucking.
In planing corner side plates, examples of which are shewn in Figures 5 and 6
of the Drawing forming part of the said Specification, No 3988-, if the corner
has a return flange, as shewn at g in Figure 6 of the said Drawing, it is operated
upon at the same time as the opposite flange, either by the tools in the tool holder k
in the position shewn in Figure 5, or by the slide 1 subsequently. If the corner
side plates have flanges at 45° to bolt to each other then one of the tool holders
with the revolving plate is turned through an arc of 45° and the flange at 45°
planed simultaneously with the opposite flange. If the bottom plates are polygonal
the opposite sides may be planed simultaneously and the angles planed perfectly
true, by having holes similar to those at g, g, arranged in the table plate to suit
the angle required. If the bottom or side plates are shaped as the frustum of a
cone they may be planed in a similar manner. If the tank is circular the side
plates may be planed at right angles in a similar manner to right angled bottom
plates, and the under bottom plates, if in circles, with their side flanges planed as
for the sides of a frustrum of a cone; the other sides, by moving the reciprocating
table 6 backwards and forwards while the slide D planes, or if the bottom is com-
posed of square plates, except the filling-in plates at the circumference, the inner
plates can be planed as bottom plates of a square tank and the filling-in pieces by
having the pin g inserted in suitable holes on the moving table.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into

page_text: effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel and original,
and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent is,-
First. Fitting the reciprocating table of a machine for planing and surfacing
metals to the beds, along which it slides, with flat surfaces in substitution
for V grooves, and securing such table by means of adjustablo slides, substantially
as herein-before described.
Secondly. The combination with the reciprocating table of a machine for planing
and surfacing metals of a rotatory table plate pivotted thereto, and so arranged as to
admit of the several sides of a plate or plates being accurately planed to any angle,
without the necessity for rechucking, substantially as herein-before described.
Thirdly. Constructing machines for planing and surfacing metals with two vertical
standards placed the one opposite to the other, and made adjustable towards and
from each other along the beds of the machine, and also carrying slides fitted with
rotating tool holders, the whole being arranged and combined in such a manner as
to admit of two parallel or angular sides or surfaces being planed simultanceusly or
without a separate chucking, substantially as herein-before described.
Fourthly. The employment of a cross slide frame vertically adjustable and
carrying a cross slide fitted with cutting tools, the whole arranged in such a manner
as to admit of a plate being operated upon transversely to the direction of motion
of the reciprocating table, so that without removing the work, the sides of which
have been or are to be planed, the plate may be planed at right angles without
rechucking, substantially as herein-before described.
Fifthly. The combination of two vertical slides with an intermediate cross slide, all
fitted with cutting tools, and arranged so as to operate substantially in the manner
and for the purposes herein-before described, and as illustrated by the accompanying
Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Clement Walker, have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of December, One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
CITADT TA
II YTZAD דרכו AT