Ar IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF CUTTER APPLICABLE TO THE SQUARING, PLANING, GROOVING, AND RABBETTING OF WOOD
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Llewellyn, of Great Portland Street, in
the County of Middlesex, Machinist, for the Invention of "Ar
IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF CUTTER APPLICABLE TO THE SQUARING, PLANING,
GROOVING, AND RABBETTING OF WOOD."
Scaled the 8th February 1870, and dated the 18th November 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Llewellyn at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th November 1869.
I, THOMAS LLEWELLYN, of Great Portland Street, in the County of
Middlesex, Machinist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF CUTTER APPLICABLE TO THE SQUARING,
PLANING, GROOVING, AND RABBETTING OF WOOD," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to provide a rotary tool that will
produce a rapid and clean cut, whether acting as a surface cutter or as
a rabbetting or grooving cutter. To this end I provide a steel disc of
sufficient thickness to ensure a proper amount of stiffness, and this disc
I reduce in thickness somewhat from the edge towards the centre for the

page_text: purpose that will be hereafter explained. On the edge of the disc I
form radial pointed teeth. Every alternate tooth I thin off towards the
point on one side by grinding or filing, while the other teeth are similarly
treated on the opposite side. This arrangement serves to throw out of
action one-half of the teeth when the tool is used for planing, and it
allows of the work being applied indifferently to either side of the tool.
The tool may also be rotated in either direction. When the tool is
intended also to be used for rabbetting and grooving I leave some two or
more of the teeth of the full thickness to ensure the clearing out and
squaring of the angles of the cut. The tool may be mounted in a
machine fitted with an automatic feed, and it may work either in a
vertical or a horizontal plane, or the work may be fed to the tool by
hand. The reduction of the thickness of the tool from the edge inwards
ensures, the contact of the tool with the work only in the orbit of the
cutting surfaces, and thus the friction is diminished to the minimum.
It will be understood that in planing the operation is wholly due to the
action of the side edge of the tooth in contradistinction to the apex edge,
the shape therefore of the tooth admits of considerable modification so
long as an acting side edge is retained.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Llewellyn in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 17th May 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, TпоMAS
LLEWELLYN, of Great Portland Street, in the County of Middlesex,
Machinist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty. Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Thomas Llewellyn, Her special licence that
I, the said Thomas Llewellyn, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Thomas Llewellyn, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,

page_text: within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION
OF CUTTER APPLICABLE TO THE SQUARING, PLANING, GROOVING, AND RABBETTING OF
WOOD," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas
Llewellyn, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Llewellyn, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawing here-
unto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is
to say):
The object of this Invention is to construct a rotary tool that will
produce a rapid and clean cut, whether acting as a surface cutter or as
a rabbetting or grooving cutter. To this end I provide a steel disc of
any convenient size, say fourteen inches in diameter, and of sufficient
thickness to ensure a proper amount of stiffness, and this disc I reduce
in thickness somewhat from the edge towards the centre for the purpose
that will be hereafter explained. On the edge of the disc I form radial.
pointed teeth. When the tool is used for planing I thin off every
alternate tooth towards the point on one side by grinding or filing, while
the other teeth are similarly treated on the opposite side. This arrange-
ment serves to throw out of action one-half of the teeth when the tool is
used for planing, and it allows of the work being applied indifferently
to either side of the tool. The tool may also be rotated in either
direction. When the tool is intended also to be used for rabbetting
and grooving I leave some two or more of the teeth of the full thickness
or width to ensure the clearing out and squaring. of the angles of
the cut.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 is a plan view at full size of a
portion of the rotary tool or cutter; Fig. 2 is a partial edge view of the
same; and Fig. 3 is a section through the centre of the tool showing the
mode of mounting the same. This tool may be mounted on a machiné
fitted with an automatic feed, and it may work either in a vertical or-a

page_text: horizontal plane, or the work may be fed to the tool by hand. In Fig. 4
I have shewn the tool at A as carried by a hollow spindle B. The tool
is made fast to this spindle by a screwed rod B¹ which passes through a
central hole in the tool, see Fig. 3, and extends upwards and projects
through the hollow spindle above which it receives a nut which secures
it in position. The lower end of the screwed rod expands laterally,
forming a conical head which binds against the tool as the nut is
tightened, and holds it firmly up to the spindle B. To prevent the tool
from turning in the grip of the rod and spindle a hole is made in the
tool to receive a stud which projects from the end of the spindle. This
spindle B turns in bearings in a standard C bolted to a table D. This
table is fitted with adjustable guides E, between which the wood to be
operated upon is passed under the cutter. Keyed to the spindle B is a
band pulley F which receives motion from any prime mover for giving
rotary motion to the cutter. The spindle B at its upper end carries a
metal strap or link G between two fixed collars, which strap or link is
pierced vertically to receive a fixed screw H projecting upwards from
the standard C. The strap or link is loose upon the spindle and screw,
and it is embraced by adjusting nuts on the screw as well as by the
collars on the spindle. By turning these nuts up or down the spindle
will be raised or lowered, and the tool may consequently be thereby
adjusted to suit the work in hand.
Referring to Fig. 1 it will be seen that the alternate teeth a, a, are
bevilled on their upper faces, whilst the teeth b, b, show no bevil. The
under sides of the tecth a, a, are similar to the upper sides of the
teeth b, b, and the under sides of the teeth b, b, are bevilled at their
edges like the upper sides of the teeth a, a. When the tool is made to
suit all kinds of work, as is the case with that shewn at Figures 1 and 2,
it is furnished with, say, four teeth unbevilled; these teeth are shown
at c, c, and they are arranged at equal distances from each other, and by
preference I make them rather shorter than the other teeth. The use of
these teeth is to square the angles when a groove is being cut, in which
case the tool acts as a rotary saw and cuts at the point of the teeth, and
it will be seen that by the action of the tool the desired work is per-
formed gradually, and by successive operations which first prepare and
then complete the desired result, and so render the mechanical action of
the tool analogous to the manual action of the skilled workman. By
reference to Fig. 3 it will be seen that the steel disc from which this

page_text: tool is formed is reduced in thickness towards its centre. This reduction
of the thickness of the tool from the edge inwards ensures the contact of
the tool with the work only in the orbit of the cutting surfaces, and thus
the friction of the tool against the work is diminished to the minimum.
It will be understood that in planing the operation is wholly due to the
action of the side edge of the tooth on contradistinction to the apex edge;
the shape therefore of the tooth admits of considerable modification so
long as an acting side edge is retained.
Having now explained the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which it is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I claim, the
improved cutter or cutting tool constructed and applied in the manner
and for the purpose above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Llewellyn, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Fourteenth day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
THOMAS LLEWELLYN. (L.S.)