Screw Blanks, Nails, and the like.
Year: 1888

page_text: Screw Blanks, Nails, and the like.
I CHARLES DAKE ROGERS, superintendent, of 21 Stevens Street in the City of
Providence, in the County of Providence, and State of Rhode Island, one of the
United States of America, do hereby declare the nature of my invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN POINTING AND CUT OFF DIES FOR MAKING WOOD SCREW BLANKS
NAILS AND THE LIKE," and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
In the manufacture of screw-blanks, wire-nails and other analogous articles which
are produced from a coil of wire, the usual practice heretofore has been, so far as I am
aware, to sever the blank from the wire by means of actuated dies which are so
formed that the end of the coil is left substantially square, the dies at the same time
producing a pyramidal-shaped point on the adjacent end of the blank. An objection
to such form of dies is, more especially in the case of blanks which are to be headed,
that the end of the wire upon being subjected to the action of the swaging-dies or
heading-hammers has a tendency to bend toward one side of the die, thereby
producing heads in which the metal is not uniformly distributed and resulting in
irregular formed heads. Another objection to said dies is that they produce on the
blank a point which (in case the point of the blank is to be screw-threaded)
necessitates subjecting it to the action of mechanism adapted to reduce it to a cone-
shape prior to being acted upon by the threading-dies.
The objects I have in view in the invention illustrated herewith, is to produce a
cutting-off die of such form that when two of them are suitably mounted and operated
the action of the dies in severing the blank from the wire forms a cone-shaped point
having a compressed surface; at the same time the dies produce a rounded or globular
form on the end of the standing wire, all as will be hereinafter more fully set forth
and claimed.
In the annexed two sheets of drawings, Figure 1 represents a plan view of a portion
of a machine for making screw-blanks, and having my improved cutting-off dies
mounted therein. Fig. 2 is a partial central sectional view, taken on line <<.

page_text: .
Fig. 3, sheet 2, is a horizontal sectional view, enlarged, showing the dies at the
termination of their movement and having the pointed blank between them.
Figs. 4, 5, 6 and 7 represent views of the die. Fig. 8 is a perspective view of the end
portion of the wire, showing the rounded end formed by the dies, and Fig. 9 is a
perspective view of the "fins" or waste stock resulting from the action of the dies in
pointing a blank and severing it from the wire.
In an application for Patent filed by me 10th, of July 1888, No. 10,040 I have
shown and described at length an organized machine for producing headed screw-
blanks, I make no claim therein to any specific form or construction of the cutting-off
dies which sever the blanks from the coil of wire.
By referring to the drawings accompanying my present application, it will be seen
that I have shown-in-sheet-one, a portion of a-machine-arranged more especially for
the manufacture of wood-screw blanks; the mechanism illustrated being introduced
to convey a better idea of the relation of my improved cutting-off dies to the heading
hammers, &c. In said drawings indicatos a bolder in which a series of heading-
hammers are mountod. The holder is adapted to be intermittingly inoved up and
down and also to reciprocate back and forth. The wire w is fed into the machine by
means of dogs d, then through the tubular guide c, mounted in the front frame B, of
the machine, past the gripping-clamp g, and through the adjustably mounted die D.
The faces of the said hammers h are made progressive, that is to say the first to act
upsets the metal in the die D and forms a preliminary head upon the end of the wire,
the next reduces the head nearer to form at the same time disposing the metal with
reference to the slot to be produced, and the third (when three hammers are used)
finishes the head including the slot. After the head is formed the feeding mechanism
forces the headed wire from the die (D) and feeds it ahead the desired distance to
produce the blank, after which the cutting-off dies A mounted on opposite sides of the
machine in guided carriers or holders b, are forced toward each other simultaneously
by operating mechanism, thereby, when the dies are brought together acting to point
the blank and sever it from the wire. The dies in retreating permit the blanks to
fall from them.
I would state in passing that the blanks produced are finished complete (with the
exception of the screw-thread) when dropped from the dies, no seam or fin being
visible; the nick or slot for the screw-driver is as before stated formed in the head by
the action of the heading-hammers.
I will now more particularly describe the novel features of my improved cutting-off
dies. In the drawings A designates one of the dies as a whole, which are used in duplicate.
The inner end or cutting face of the die A is provided with a central cone-shaped
recess (one-half being in each die) in which the end of the blank is swaged. The
lower side of the die is provided with a concavity v communicating with the apex of
the recess; the circumscribing edges n of the recesses r and are sharpened, the
metal being cut well back therefrom to afford clearance, as clearly shown in Fig. 5.
By means of this construction it will be seen that when the dies are brought together
upon a piece of wire, their action is not only to point and sever the blank a, but at the
same time they produce a rounded or globular form w' on the end of the standing
wire W, See Fig. 3.
In the process of making the blanks, the dies A are so set with relation to the solid
die D that à space s is left between the adjacent sides of the dies A, D, as indicated by
Fig. 3. This space corresponds substantially with the length of wire protruding from
the face of the die D to be upset into the cavity u to form the head i of the next blank. By
means of the rounded portion w' the wire is contralized and upset more uniformly by
the heading hammers h. Unless the rounded end be given to the wire the latter has
a tendendy to "cripple" or to bend toward one side of the die, thereby, producing
imperfect blanks, or in other words blanks in which the metal of the heads is
unequally distributed. The dies A in the operation of pointing a blank first act upon
the wire by means of the sharpened edges n which force a portion of the metal of the
wire outwardly from them and at the same time produces a preliminary point, the
continued and final action of the dies causes the conical cavity thereof to compress

page_text: and elongate the metal and form the cone-shaped point p upon the end of the blank
and also as before stated shaping the adjacent end w' of the wire, as clearly shown
by Fig. 3. The waste metal produced during the foregoing operation is represented
by Fig. 9, the relation of the blank and wire thereto being indicated by dotted
lines.
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. A cutting-off die of the class hereinbefore described, having its working face
provided with a point-forming recess and also having a cavity arranged to produce a
convex-shaped end upon the wire, substantially as set forth.
2. A combined pointing and cutting-off die having a cone-shaped cavity and a concave
recess communicating with said cavity formed in its working face, and having the
circumscribing edges of the die-cavities adapted for cutting, substantially as shown
and described and for the purpose hereinbefore set forth.
3. In a machine for making wood-screw blanks, the combination with wire-feeding
mechanism, a mounted heading-die and actuated heading-hammers, of a pair of
reversely mounted and actuate cutting-off dies having the working faces constructed
to engage the wire and reduce it to a cone-shaped form and at the same time sever the
blank and produce a convex shape on the end of the wire contiguous to the blank's
point, preparatory to upsetting the metal into the heading-die, substantially as
hereinbefore described.
4. The combination in a screw-blank machine, of a mounted solid heading-die and
two suitably mounted cutting-off and swaging dies, A, having the working or meeting
faces thereof provided with a cone-shaped recess or mould communicating with or
in close proximity to a concave recess formed in the lower edge of the dies,
substantially as shewn and described and for the purpose hereinbefore set forth.
Dated this 16th day of November 1888.