IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CUTTING AND DRESSING STAVES FOR CASKS, BARRELS, AND OTHER WOODEN VESSELS
Year: 1859

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Colin Mackenzie at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 5th November 1859.
I, COLIN MACKENZIE, of Stornoway, in the County of Ross, North Britain,
Barrel Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CUTTING AND DRESSING STAVES
FOR CASKS, BARRELS, AND OTHER WOODEN VESSELS," to be as follows, that is to
say:―
This Invention relates to various mechanical arrangements to be used for
cutting, dressing, and jointing staves, for the manufacture of casks, barrels,
and other wooden vessels. In these mechanical contrivances the cutters with
their appurtenances, and the bed upon which the staves slide, are so arranged
and constructed, that the operator can adjust and arrange all the parts
necessary for dressing staves of different widths in the same barrel with both a
bulge and bevil proportionate to the width. The improvements also provide,
that in the same or a single machine correspondingly adjusted, staves for
casks and barrels of all sizes and forms may be dressed, the staves being
properly proportioned by the machine. The whole of the improvements
embodied in this Invention, with the exception of a V guide employed for
guiding the stave being cut, refer to the arrangement and combination of
parts by which a variety of bulges, bevels, and cuts off the side of the staves can
be made of uniformly accurate proportion, and the staves thus suitably pre-
pared at once to suit the work required. In this way the same machine is
adjustable to suit all kinds of cut required for large or small, narrow or wide
staves. The machine consists of an open rectangular cast-iron frame, on which

page_text: are disposed the whole of the operating parts for dressing and otherwise
treating staves. The first motion belt pulley shaft is in connection with a
pair of horizontal rotatory cutters, one above and one below the flat side of the
stave being dressed. The same shaft also drives a cone pulley, for the purpose
of varying the feed, and an arrangement of toothed gear for working a set of
frictional pressing rollers for guiding the staves as they pass through the
machine. Other intermediate gearing conveys a movement to a shaft carrying
a variable or adjustable cam, which cam gives motion to a pendant lever hung
upon a stud in the framing, and terminating at that part in a broad plate. In
this plate are slots for adjusting the connections which hold and operate the
slide bearings forming the bearings for the upper part of the vertical shafts, to
which vertical cutters are attached. Attached to the variable cam is an
adjustable cam, which operates a stop means of a lever, the object of the
stop being to retain the stave from passing into the feed rolls until the proper
moment. By the arrangement of the slots and connections, as the connections
are moved within the slot nearer the centre or fulcrum on which the pendant
lever turns, proportionally less variations will be given to the vertical cutter
shafts by the action of the lever and cam wheel, and consequently a less bulge
or more nearly straight stave will be produced, the variation being in all cases
in a ratio to the distance of the adjustment on the connections from the said
centre or fulcrum, the slots in which the change is made being set at an angle
of forty-five degrees to the line of the connections. A variety of bulges may
be produced by adjusting the variable cam by means of the set screws pro-
vided for the purpose. To change the stave level to correspond with a different
head diameter, another adjustment becomes necessary. There is an adjustable
stud which represents the centre of the barrel, and the edges of the vertical
cutters upon the shaft are inclined to this centre, so that by lowering or raising
the stud, the cutters are adjusted to dress the bevel of the stave to suit casks
of a greater or less diameter. A difficulty has been experienced in keeping
the stave in a direct line in its course through the machine; to provide for this
difficulty, there is inserted in the bed plate a V-guide beneath the pressure
rollers, which effects the object in a very efficient manner. The cutters for
dressing and curving the surfaces of the staves are of the ordinary construction,
aud may be varied in curve and cut in the ordinary manner. There is a
tightening pulley, which may be adjusted in any convenient manner.