IMPROVED MACHINE FOR CUTTING (TOOTHED WHEELS AND RACKS,) THE WHEEL BLANKS BEING TURNED
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Antone Peer, of the City and County of
San Francisco, State of California, one of the United States of
America, for the Invention of an “IMPROVED MACHINE FOR CUTTING
(TOOTHED WHEELS AND RACKS,) THE WHEEL BLANKS BEING TURNED AND THE
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said John Antone Peer at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 29th April 1874, pursuant to the 9th Section of
the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
ANTONE PEER, of the City and County of San Francisco, State of
California, one of the United States of America, send greeting.
" IMPROVED
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for an
MACHINE FOR CUTTING (TOOTHED WHEELS AND RACKS,) THE WHEEL BLANKS BEING
TURNED AND THE TEETH CUT WITHOUT REMOVING FROM THEIR CENTER," and have

page_text: petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made
solemn Declaration that I really believe myself to be the first and true
Inventor thereof.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Antone Peer, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and
seal, fully describes the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, that is to say:-
My Invention relates to a machine for cutting gears of all sorts,
whether bevél, spur, crown, mortice, face, or spiral, and also rack bars,
either in metal or in wood, for pattern purposes; and it consists in a
novel construction and arrangement of adjustable cutters and guides,
whereby all classes of gears can be cut with but few sizes of cutters,
thus giving the proper draft to the pattern gear for moulding
purposes.
Each cog is cut with one adjustment, which also cuts out the wedge-
shaped space between the teeth at the same time. All of its lines are
thus cut radiating to the center with one operation of the cutter.
The work or gear to be cut is chucked in the lathe, turned up, bored
out, and cut, without removing it from its center upon which it is 2
turned, using one pitch line to complete the tooth or cog. It also
consists in so constructing the different parts that they can be mounted
upon an ordinary lathe bed, and the usual head block and pullies can
be used with slight additions.
Referring to the accompanying Drawings,
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of my machine.
2

page_text: The dividing or spacing plate a for the teeth of the gears may be
placed within the frame B, close to the pullies, when a machine is to be
newly built; but if applied to an old lathe this dividing or gauge plate
may be secured to the end of the spindle, where it projects through the
head block frame. The frame E, which carries all the operating
mechanism, is fitted to slide upon the ways A of the lathe, so as to
adjust its position longitudinally; this being done by means of a longi-
tudinal screw Y. Within this frame, and supported by the boxes F, F,
upon the vertically sliding frame J, is the swinging frame G, which can
be set at any desired angle to cut any bevel or spur gear.
A set screw H passes through the curved guiding slot in the
segment I secured to the frame J and enters the swinging frame G,
so that by setting the screw up tight it can be made to secure the frame
at any desired angle.
In the case of mitre gears it will be manifest that the center of
motion of this swinging frame G must be in the same horizontal plane
with the center of the arbor D and of the gear to be cut.
If a spur gear or a rack bar is to be cut the frame G must be elevated
sufficiently to allow the cutter to swing horizontally above the gear or
bar to be cut, and other degrees of bevel will require a proportionate
variation of the angle of the frame G.
The inclination is effected, as above described, by turning the frame G
in its journal boxes F. These boxes are situated upon a slide or guide,
which is moved up and down upon the frame E by the screws K and
miter gears L, operated simultaneously by the shaft M in a similar
manner to the device for raising and lowering the head upon a planer.
Upon the swinging frame G is a slide N, which is moved up and down
by a screw O passing through a nut P upon the slide and operated by
a hand wheel, as shown.
Two boxes Q are mounted upon the slide, and in these the shaft or
arbor R of the cutter turns.
The cutter S is of peculiar construction, and is made by turning it
up, so that one side is of the exact shape desired for the teeth of the
proposed gear, as shown in Figs. 5, 6. This cutter is then cut in two
across its centre, and the two halves are reversed upon the shaft R,

page_text: being suitably secured by flanges or otherwise; Fig. 5 shows the con-
struction of a cutter to be used for making patterns and wood gears;
and Fig. 7 shows cutters for metal work; but in each case the principal
of turning up one side and then reversing upon the shaft, in order to
secure absolute accuracy in both sides of the cut, is preserved.
In order to finish the tooth with one cut and one adjustment, giving
it the proper taper in a bevel gear or the necessary draft, if it be a
wooden pattern of a spur gear, the two halves of the cutters must be
made so as to approach each other as they pass across the face of the
gear, that is, beginning at the outer edge of the face of a bevel gear;
the space between the teeth must be of a certain width, and at the inner
edge of the face it must be narrower, depending in every case upon the
particular size and bevel of the gear and the number of teeth to be cut
in it. Heretofore solid cutters have been used, and three adjustments
have been necessary to make the cut and give it and the tooth the
proper taper.
In my present construction I employ the divided cutter as before
described, and the two parts are each mounted upon a sleeve T, which
is fitted to the shaft R; and a pin in the sleeve passes through a slot in
the shaft, this slot being made of a sufficient length to allow the sleeve
to slide a short distance along the shaft, which at the same time causes
it and its cutter to rotate by acting on the pin. Two guides or ways U
arc adjustably secured to the frame G, and these guides can be brought
together or separated at the top or bottom, so as to stand at any desired
angle with each other.
A sliding box V is fitted to move up and down upon each guide, and
through this box the shaft R passes, so that the sleeve T lies within
the opening in the box.
The sleeve is made with a swell on its center, as shown, and two pins
or trunnions W serve as pivots, about which the sleeve has motion in
the box; and this allowes the guides U to be inclined to each other
while the shaft R passes straight through the box V. These pins also
ensure a longitudinal movement of the sleeve upon the shaft as the
boxes move up or down upon the inclined guides when the latter stand
at an angle. By this means the gradual approach or separation of the
cutters is produced as they pass across the face of the gear to be cut.

page_text: one end.
The operation of my machine will be as follows:-The metal blank
from which the gear is to be cut is chucked, and bored, and turned,
by means of the pullies C and arbor D of the head block, as in the
case of any lathe. The frame E with its cutters is then moved up to
the proper position by means of the screw Y, the gear blank meanwhile
remaining in its position just as it was finished. The frame G is then
turned about its journals until it stands at the proper angle (depending
upon the bevel to be cut) so that when the slide N is moved up and
down it will carry the cutters over the face of the gear. The guides U
are then set, so as to have the proper inclination to each other; and
the boxes V which slide on these guides (and through which the cutter
shaft R passes) will then be caused to approach cach other, when the
slide N (which carrics the cutter shaft) is moved downward by its
feeding apparatus. As the cutters are secured by flanges to the
sleeves T, and these sleeves are moved along the shaft R by the move-.
ment of the boxes V to which they are pivoted, it is manifest that if
the cutters are set so as to make a cut of a certain width at the outside
of the face of the gear they will be moved towards each other as the
slide N moves downward on the frame G, making a tapering cut, and
thus the cut will be finished upon one pitch line and at one operation..
It will be seen that any taper can be given to the cut and tooth by a
simple adjustment of the ways or guides U. If a spur gear is to be cut
the blank will of course be turned with a face parallel with the axis."
The sliding frame J carrying the swinging frame G will then be moved
along the frame E by means of its screws K until the frame G can be
turned so as to lie horizontally, when the cutters will be fed directly
across the face and cut the teeth. In this case the guides U would
be set parallel, as the teeth need no taper unless a pattern is being made,
when the guides could be inclined just enough to give the pattern the
proper draft for moulding purposes in casting. The head block B can
be turned to one side or the other on the lathe bed, and a screw Z serves
to secure it. By this means the gear blank can be set at any angle for
the purpose of cutting an inclined or spiral gear. The spacing or
dividing plate a is constructed as shown, and is not especially different
from those hitherto employed for such purposes.

page_text: The sliding frame. E can be removed from the lathe bed and give
place to the ordinary tail block when the lathe is employed for turning,
or it may simply be moved back towards the rear end of the bed.
When straight rack bars are to be cut it will be found more con-
venient to remove the usual head block and substitute for it the device
shown at Fig. 9, which simply clamps the bar in place, and by means
of its spacing plate 6 feeds it along as it is cut. The bar is held in a
groove in the clamp c, which moves transversely across the guide din
front of the cutter, and thus furnishes a convenient means of cutting
rack bars. When it is necessary to cut large bevel gears much more
attention must be paid to the curves upon which the teeth are cut, as
the depth of the outer end of teeth is considerably greater than that of
the inner end, and the pitch line would therefore be tapering towards
the centre, about which the gear is described; Figs. 6, 7, show enlarged
views of the cutters for this purpose.
In Fig. 6 the curve e of the cutter will cut out the shape of the
bottom of the tooth while the curve f will form the top, beginning at
the outside; but as the cutter moves towards the inside it will be
manifest that only the bottom of the tooth will be formed from its least
depth. After the cut is finished therefore the cutter is reversed, and
the edge g is employed to complete the top of the tooth down to the
pitch line.
In the form shown at Fig. 7 only the bottom of the tooth is finished
by the curve e, the whole of the remainder being completed by the
curve g at the second operation.
.
Fig. 8 shows another slight variation, which may be used in cutting
gear wheels and pinions with one adjustment where unusal accuracy is
needed, and consequently a slight difference is made between the shape
of the teeth of the wheel and those of the pinion. The curve h, i,
shows the cutting edge for the pinion, which must be made fuller at a
the base and lighter at the point than the teeth of the wheel. These
latter are made by the cutting edge m, n, which, as will be seen by the
dotted lines are somewhat fuller at the top and thinner at the base.
Having thus described my Invention, what I claim and desire to
secure by Letters Patent is,-
-

page_text: First. The divided cutter S, formed upon one pitch line and having
its halves reversed upon the cutter shaft for the purpose of making both
sides of the cut exactly alike, substantially as herein described.
Second. The sleeves T, each carrying one half of the cutter and
mounted upon the cutter shaft R, so as to be capable of adjustment to
and from each other while rotating, substantially as herein described.
Third. The guides U, made adjustable so as to incline to each other
and provided with the sliding boxes V, within which the sleeves T are
pivoted; so that as the boxes move on the guides the sleeves and cutters
will be caused to move to and from each other for the purpose of giving
the proper shape to the tooth and cut at one operation, substantially as
herein described.
Fourth. The cutter shaft R, sleeves T, and guiding boxes V, mounted
upon the sliding frame N, which is moved up or down upon the frame G,
while the guides U are secured to the frame G for the purpose of causing
the cutters to approach each other while making a cut, substantially as
and for the purpose herein described.
Fifth. The frame G, supported by axis turning in the boxes F and
provided with the graduated segment I and holding screw H for
adjusting the frame to any bevel or angle, and holding it while the gear
is being cut, substantially as herein described.
Sixth. In combination with the swinging frame G, adjustable as
described, I claim the sliding frame J made adjustable vertically, so as
to allow the frame G to be set in any position for cutting different gears,
substantially as and for the purpose described.
Seventh. The head block B, so constructed as to be turned from side
to side and held by the screw Z or equivalent device, in combination
with the adjustable cutter S for the purpose of cutting spiral gear, sub-
stantially as herein described.
Eighth. In combination with the lathe bed A I claim the frame E
with its screw Y for supporting the cutters S and their operating
mechanism, and adjusting them with reference to the head block B and
the gear blank, substantially as herein described.

page_text: Ninth. In combination with the cutter S, slide N, swinging frame G,
slide J, and adjusting frame E, I claim the transverse guided and
sliding clamp c for cutting racks, substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Antone Peer, have. hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of March, in
year of our Lord A.D. One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.
Witnesses,
GEO. H. STRONG,
C. M. RICHARDSON.
JOHN ANTONE PEER.. (L.S.)