An automatic spoke-lathe brought out by the Egan Co., and shown in Fig. 2. combines the principal features of the Blanchard lathe with new ones. The bed or frame is wider than is usual, and the " V" is placed some dis tance back of the center line of the cutter head, allowing the belt to press the front of the carriage down to the " as it travels along. The construction of the bed is such that chips are not liable to accumulate on the top to obstruct the rollers. There is a sliding-carriage having four rollers, with their journals held in position by collars on the outside ; the carriage has adjustable gibs to the main frame. to prevent side play. The standards carrying the cutter head are bolted to the carriage on planed surfaces. The head has a combination of hook and gouge knives. The vibrating frame is cast hollow, and is connected at the top by hydraulic lupe, to give strength and lightness. There are adjustable trunnion-boxes to change the size of the spoke. The gearing is cut from the solid, and the center gear has double width of face, to permit the operator to change the shape of the spoke. The back center gearing is so constructed that various lengths of spoke may be turned from one pattern.
An improvement recently added is for automatically lifting into the cut the frame carry ing the spoke, so that all the operator has to do is to remove the finished spoke and put in the stick for it new one—not even leaving his position, but merely pulling a lever, which sets the vibrating-frame into the cut ; then the carriage, with the cutter-heads attached, travels along the bed. completing- the spoke, the vibrating frame throws forward, and the carriage and head return to the starting-point to cut another spoke. This is, of course. much noire convenient than lifting the frame into the est every time a spoke is turned. One of these lathes has a record, made in a spoke-factory in Mississippi, of 9,695 spokes per day of 10 hours, which is claimed to be the greatest record ever made on a spoke-lathe. The average capacity claimed for the new lathe is 2,900 to 9,400 per day—more than double the ordinary calamity of such maehines.
The automatic spoke and handle lathe, shown in Fig. 3, is for turning and squaring wagon and carriage spokes, a t liong,11 it has adjustments for turning co11111101), SarVell, or sharp-edged shapes, making either light hickory spokes or hea vy. ones for wagon. truck, or artillery Wheels, up to .14 in. hang and 5 in. diameter There is a rotating horizontal cylinder composed of rotating knife eutter-heads pineed side by side to make up I he length of the spoke. each head
having three cutters of 3-in. fine lapping over each other so as to form a continuous emitting edge over the entire length of the cylinder. There is a table in two parts, gibbed and sliding on the triune in angular ways, being moved to and from the cutters by either a hand or a foot lever. The miller part or t his table supports the turning centers, and is pivoted to the lower half near the tail center by it steel pivot, in one of several holes in the table, on which it vibrates for oval turning. AI the opposite end of the head-renter spindle is a east-iron cam of the shape that it is desired to turn, this cam riding against an upright shoe extending up (mil the lower table, and held sung against the shoe by a culled spring. When the table is moved toward the cylinder to where the turning is begun, an automatic feed slowly rotates the object to be shaped, and the cam rotating against the shoe oscillates the table in a path corresponding with the shape of the cam. When the pivot is placed directly opposite the tail center the machine will turn the work round at the tail end, gradually changing in sec tion toward the other end, where it will correspond with the shape of the cam. For long, oval, or irregular turning, where both ends must correspond in section with the cam, the vibrating part of the table is locked fast with the lower part, and the earn rotates against a shoe fastened to the frame, thus vibrating both tables alike at each end. The diameter of turn ing is regulated by screws. The tail-center can be adjusted at any desired distance from the spur center for short or long turning, or at right angles for straight or taper turning. The swinging eutter-head is made to advance and retreat from the work automatically, its position being regulated by the move ment of the table, the section turned being governed by a cam upon the live center table. It will turn square, octagonal, or any other section desired.
A desirable attachment to any ordinary wood-lathe, that is suf ficiently strong for turning rake-handles and similar pieces, is a concentric slide, shown in Fig. 4. It consists essentially of a circular plate having through it a number of circular hules of graded sizes, the centers of all of them being the same distance from the center of the disk itself, which rotates on a horizontal axis. The article turned is finished to eorreet form by a knife on a swinging arm, which passes over a pattern fastened to the lathe-shears in front.