Improvements in Machinery for Cask and Barrel Making.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 6th Apr., 1892
Complete Specification Left. 24th Jan., 1893-Accepted, 18th Mar., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Machinery for Cask and Barrel Making.
THOMAS GEORGE STEVENS Esther Villa Swanscombe Engineer do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
It relates to chamfering and crozing the heads of casks and barrels :
It consists of a cap in which the chamfering and crozing knives revolve.
When the cap is brought down upon the cask, the cask is first chamfered or
jiggered, then crozered by pressing a stud or lever which is placed in a suitable
position on the outside of the cap.
The cap is also employed in keeping the cask in a true round shape while the
operations of chamfering and crozing are being performed.
The cap is raised or lowered upon the cask or barrel after it has been trussed by
means of various mechanical contrivances.
Figure 1 of the drawings annexed is a front elevation of a machine in accordance
with my invention some of the parts are in section, and the trussing bands are
removed.
Figure 2 is a side elevation of the same; in this figure portions of the gearing are
removed.
In the machine here shown my chamfering and crozing cap and mechanism is
mounted for use in connection with the trussing apparatus to which a former
Patent No. 13842" granted to me and another applies.
This trussing apparatus consists of the following parts:-
A is a rectangular frame free to turn about the shaft B but, normally prevented
from turning by the latch C. The frame A carries two right and left hand
screws DD, having nuts E E¹ working upon each of them. The nuts E E
and E El are connected together respectively by angle iron bars F F. The
screws D D have at one end pinions G G gearing with a pinion H upon the shaft B
D
011
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"

page_text: to which motion can be given from the shaft K and pulley K¹.
As will be seen an
ordinary arrangement of bevilled wheels connects the axes B and K, and a lever
handle is provided by which the gear can be made to drive in either direction or
can be disconnected. The shaft B can also be turned by the hand wheel L.
When the frame A is prevented from turning by the latch C, the effect of
turning the shaft B is to cause the nuts E E' to traverse along the screws, and thus
they may be made to recede from each other, thus tightening the loop in the
band M, whose ends are fixed to the nuts. When however the latch is unfastened
the frame A will turn with the shaft B.
The chamfering and crozing mechanism consists of the following parts.
NN are caps of conical form mounted on square shafts N' N free to move up
and down in guides in the frame of the machine but when out of use held up out of
the way by counterbalance weights as is shewn. There are racks N upou the
shafts and pinions O, gear with the racks. The hand wheels P are fast upon the
axes of the pinions O, and by turning these hand wheels the cones and parts in
connection therewith can be brought down upon the cask beneath. Mounted in
bearings inside each square shaft N' is a spindle Q; 'this spindle is driven by the
belt pulley R, to which it is connected by a groove and feather so that the spindle
can move freely up and down through the pulley.
At the lower end of the spindle Q two arms are fixed and at the extremities of
these arms
are the steel cutters Q'Q' for bevilling the ends of the staves.
QQ are cutters for crozing or cutting the groove in the staves, which is to
receive the head of the cask.
The cutters Q' can slide radially through holes formed to receive them in the
arms which carry the cutters Q' and the heads or inner ends of the crozing tools
are beld in guides upon the inclined face of the block Q. The block Qabuts on
a plate which has stems projecting upwards from it, and these pass through guide
passages in the top of the cone Q, and on the outside can be operated upon by the
lever handle Q. When this handle is depressed the crozing tools protrude into a
position to cut the groove required. Q³ is a spiral spring which lifts the block Q'
when the handle Q is released.
The cask is brought to the machine with the staves set up in a single hoop. The
cask is placed on the platform of the machine and it then rests against the supports
or friction plates S S. These plates are shaped to the curve of the exterior of the
finished cask. The bands bear against the backs of the plates and press them up
against the cask, and the plates serve to prevent the gathering of the staves where
the bands cross, and keeps the staves from being unduly pressed together at this
point. These supports are carried by arms from a boss on the axis B, in which
however the axis is free to turn. The two bands M. M. encircle the cask and the
supports S. S. By turning the axis B the bands are tightened until the staves are
tightly pressed together. Then the cone above the cask is forced down on to it
and so the accurate placing of the upper ends of the staves is ensured. Whilst the
cone is in this position the bevilling tool Q' is caused to revolve, thus bevilling the
upper end of the cask. Then by depressing the handle Q the crozing is performed.
When this has been done and the work at one end is complete, the cone N
with its tools is raised, the latch C is withdrawn and a half revolution is
given to the shaft B by means of the hand wheel L. The shaft carries the frame A
round with it, thus turning the cask over and bringing it again down upon the
platform of the machine, but now beneath the other cone. This cone is then
lowered, and the other end of the cask is bevilled and creused as before described.
Whilst it is still in the machine, the heads are put into the cask; for this
the bands M. M. are slackened. The heads are inserted and supported in position,
purpose
the lower one resting on the platform of the machine and the upper one being held
up by the hand. The bands M. M. are then again tightened up. At this stage it
is advantageous to prove the cask which is done by attaching a steam hose at the
bung hole. If all appears tight, hoops are put on, first at one end, and then at the
other and the cask is released. The cones N may be used to aid in forcing on

page_text: the hoops. If on proving the cask leakage is discovered, it is made good by
inserting strips of rush in the usual manner.
In the use of the machine great advantage will be found to result from the
simultaneous tightening of the bands around the two ends of the cask and from the
facility which the machine offers for finishing and proving the cask before it is
released.
The machine may be made adjustable for making casks of different sizes, by so
arranging the standards, which carry the cones N, that they may be set somewhat
nearer together or further apart, and the bands M. may be shifted and set to the
distance apart which the size of the cask may require.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In cask and barrel making machinery, the combination consisting of the cap
or cone N; mechanism for forcing the cap or cone on to the end of the cask, the
rotating axis Q concentric with the cap or cone and bevilling and crozing tools
carried by the axis inside the cap or cone.
2. Cask and barrel making machinery substantially as herein described.
1802