The American corresponding with what the English call a "general joiner," is a machine which can be used by hand. In this the material is passed over a revolving cutter-head, the latter working between two tables, each having proper vertical adjustment to suit the depth of cut, and each being on a level with the finished and unfinished surface of the material worked, the arbor and bearings being so arranged that heads for various work can be put in. What are known in America as "variety wood-workers" have a heavy arbor running in long bearings; the rear one, with the arbor, is arranged to move end-wise, so as to give greater accuracy in special work. The tables and platens are of extra length and have both a simultaneous and an independent vertical and horizontal movement on inclines, constantly retaining the proper dis tance from the periphery of the cutter. The tables can be separated, the outer bearings removed, and heads put on for gaining, moulding, etc. In one type of variety moulder the mechanism for raising and lowering the spindle is within the upright that supports the table, and is operated by a hand-wheel.
The Universal as best known in America, consists prac tically of two machines—a variety wood-worker and a four-side moulding machine (pi. 16, fig-. 9). On the wood-worker side material can be planed straight or out of wind, etc., the opposite side being a moulding- or planing-machine, on which the material is fed by power under a revolv ing cutter-head over a bed or platen by feed-rolls, for reducing it to a thickness or for moulding, etc. The most elaborate form of universal wood-worker is really a double machine with two independent arbor- and cutter-heads, one, upon what is known as the wood-worker side, working below the line of the bed or platens and operating on the under side of the material, and the other or moulding side having its main cutter head acting upon the top of the material, other heads dressing the sides and the under surface. Either side may be started or stopped independ ently. Upon the moulder side the work is fed by power-driven rolls, while upon the wood-worker side the material is passed along by hand over a cutter-head revolving between two horizontal tables. The under head has independent adjustment, to suit the thickness of the cut, and, with the side heads, raises and lowers vertically with the platen or bed. A hand-planer has its cutter-head and arbor solid and turning in station ary bearings between two tables having vertical adjustment to and from the path of the cutters.
Work of the Universal of the various kinds of work that can be done on the universal wood-worker (pt. 16, fig. 9) are exhibited on Plate r7—namely, planing out of wind (fig. 6); tapering (fig: 7); box chamfering (fig. 8); cornering (fig. 9); ordinary chamfering (fig. ro); squaring up newels or balusters (fig. r r); angle gaining (fig. 12);
rabbeting (fig. 13); ploughing (fig. 14); hand-matching (fig. 15); join ing and mitring (fig. 16); raising door-panels (fig. 17); circular mould ing (fig. 18); making heavy mouldings (fig. 19); and ripping- (fig. zo). The positions of the machine, of the material, and of the hands in such work are also illustrated in the Figures.
Outside have the bed, with two or three heads, outside the frame; inside moulders have all the heads and table inside the frame. Outside moulders are the kind most frequently used, and can be adapted for other work than moulding, as flooring and ceiling stuff. The universal wood-worker in its best forms is a combination of the outside moulder with a machine for planing out of wind, grooving, etc., and for all kinds of straight work.
ilfackines have their heads placed vertically in a table and are designed for moulding the edges of carved work. These machines arc made with one or two spindles; single-spindle machines should be made to reverse their cutting direction while in operation.
Carving and Afachines are for face moulding or work ing forms of panels in the surface of the work. They can be adapted to general use in edge moulding.
Safety for life and limb to operators of variety moulders is very largely increased by a device for holding the work on the table. The stuff is held down by a wood block forming an arc or segment of a circle and attached to two arms of spring steel, which are fastened at the other end to the ends of a cross-head, which may be moved up and down in vertical ways by a screw and hand-wheel, the frame in which the cross-head slides being bolted or clamped to the machine-table.
homing is the removal of material by a bit which is somewhat like a boring-drill, but which cuts both with edge and with bottom, and is given, relative to the work, a motion of translation. The analogue of the routing-tool is found in the cotter-drill, referred to under metal-work ing machinery (p. 118). Routing proper is done only in routing-machines and in sonic varieties of mortising-machines (p. 88), although many kinds of carving and panelling are really only routing.
Turning is the removal of material from the external surface of a rotat ing piece or from the interior of a hole therein; it is principally employed for the production of objects of cylindrical sections, although elliptical and irregular objects may also be turned. Turning is done only with machines called lathes, or in special machines which combine the functions of the lathe with those of other machine tools, and these may be automatic or not. They are described in full detail under the head of metal-working (p. to5). The same general principles arc employed in wood-working lathes as in those for metal, but the gauge- or copying-lathe has for its special design the duplication of objects of a definite outline.