CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR PLANING, SAWING, AND CUTTING WOOD AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
Year: 1844

page_text: year
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWIN
SHEPPARD, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Joiner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Eighth day of February, in the seventh year of Her reign, and in
the
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-four, did, for Her-
self, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Edwin Sheppard,
Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Edwin Sheppard, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others
as I, the said Edwin Sheppard, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
shall at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
OR APPARATUS FOR PLANING, SAWING, AND CUTTING WOOD AND OTHER SUBSTANCES ;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Edwin
Sheppard, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Edwin Sheppard, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereto annexed, and the following
explanation thereof (that is to say):-
My Improvements in Machinery or Apparatus for Planing, Sawing, and
Cutting Wood and other Substances, consist principally in the application
and employment of rotary cutters or cutting tools, revolving in the plane of
the surface operated upon, in combination or conjunction with an ordinary
planing machine (as used for planing iron), for performing such or similar
operations upon wood. And in order that my improvements may be per-
perfectly understood, I have attached to these Presents a Sheet of Drawings
representing their application in the several operations of planing, sawing,
and grooving or cutting mouldings. And by way of more distinctly illustrat-
ing the same, the parts claimed as novel in their application and use under
these Letters Patent are represented as shaded with color, the ordinary parts
of the well-known iron planing machine or engine being drawn in outline
only. The Figures in the Drawing are made upon a scale of about one
inch to the foot, and have similar letters of reference marked upon correspond-
ing parts of the mechanism in all the Figures.
Fig. 1 is a plan or horizontal view of an ordinary iron planing machine
adapted to perform such operation upon wood, with my improvements attaclied
or applied thereto.
Figure 2 is a side or longitudinal elevation of the same.
Figure 3 is a front or end view of the machine taken in front of the cutting
apparatus;
And Figure 4 is a back or end view of the machine taken behind the
cutting apparatus.
As the ordinary planing machine is well known and understood, it will be
unnecessary to describe its operations here in detail, I shall therefore confine
myself to the illustration of my improved apparatus only as applied thereto.
A, A, is the bed of the planing machine. B, B, the table upon which the work
or timber to be operated upon is placed. C, C, the side standards or upright
framings for supporting the upper planing or cutting apparatus and vertical
slides D, D, and cross slide E, E. F, F, is the tool slide for supporting the
side cutting or grooving apparatus. G, G, is the ordinary driving gear and
reversing apparatus for working the table, being driven by the strap H, pro-
ceeding from any primary moving power. The board, plank, or timber to be
operated upon is to be placed upon and secured by clamps or other convenient

page_text: fastenings to the table B, as represented at a, a; and as the table travels upon
its bed, the board a, a, is passed under the upper cutting or planing appa-
ratus. This apparatus is attached by brackets or bearings b, b, to the cross
slide E, E, and consists of an upright spindle c, having a driving pulley dat
the top, and a circular disc or tool holder e, e, below, which is provided with
any suitable number of cutting tools, blades, or plane "irons" ff. f, f, which
are set or adjusted to accommodate the quality of the cut to be made. A
driving strap g, g, passes around the fast pulley d, and will thus cause the rotary
planing apparatus to plane or smooth the surface of the timber upon the
table as it passes through the machine, one passage of the table being gene-
rally sufficient for ordinary work, when the planed work may be removed,
the table reversed, and returned at a quicker speed as usual, and another
board supplied ready for the next passage of the table. In order to cut or
plane the sides or edges of boards, &c. at right angles to and simultaneously
with the surface, or to cut grooves or "feathers" or "tongues" in the same
for jointing, there are similar bearings h, h, capable of adjustment, and
attached to the tool slide, which support other upright spindles i, i, also fur-
nished with cutters or tools k, k, below, and a driving pulley 1, 1, and as the
driving strap g is also passed around these pulleys, it is evident that the cutting
tools k, k, will be made to plane or otherwise cut the sides or edges of the
boards, &c., at the same time and speed that the surface planing is being
accomplished by the means above described.
Fig. 5 shews a modification of this arrangement of the apparatus, in which
circular saws *, 1*, are employed for grooving in connection with the ordinary
planing machine instead of the rotary tools or cutters k, k. This machinery
may also be readily adapted for the purposes of cutting mouldings, &c., or
other similar devices in wood, by a suitable form or arrangement of the rotary
cutting tool, and is exhibited in Fig. 6, which is a side or end view, and
Fig. 7, which is a front view, of an apparatus adapted for this purpose, and
shewn as applied to the common planing machine by means of other bearings
or brackets m, m, also cast or attached to the tool slides n, n, being the shaft
(in this instance placed horizontally). o, o, the cutting tool shaped to the
form of the moulding intended to be cut, and p the driving pulley, which must
be so speeded as to cause the cutting tool to revolve at a greater velocity.
It remains only to remark in conclusion, that the boards, &c. must be suit-
ably guided in their progress through the machine by guide rollers, as at q, q;,
and that each cutting tool shaft may also be provided with a loose pulley, as
at r, r, r, to facilitate the stopping and starting of the working parts.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature and object

page_text: of my Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I
desire it to be understood that I claim as my Invention the application and
employment of rotary cutters or cutting tools in combination or connexion
with the ordinary (iron) planing machine, or engine for planing, sawing, and
cutting wood, as shewn and described in the Drawing attached to these
Presents, and above particularly set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edwin Sheppard, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Seventh day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.