A useful machine, which is a combination of power surfacing machine and hand planer, is designed to save the expense and space of two separate machines in furniture cabinets and coffin manufactories, wherever the separate machines have been found of valne. The cylinder is arranged so that planing may be done either under it, by feed rollers. or over it, by hand. When arranged to do the former it will surface long and short pieces up to 24 in. wide and 6 in. thick. The cylinder has three knives arranged at an angle FO as to give a shearing cut; thus, in connection with a self-adjusting pressure bar before the cut, avoiding tendency t-o tear in cross-grain lumber.
Heavy Planers.—lt is for some reasons best for planers working on doors, sash, and other articles having the grain of the wood at different angles, that the planer head be at an angle of 45°, a smooth surface regardless of knots or cross grained places in the material being worked.
The heavy planer and smoother shown in Fig. Ii, and made by the Egan Co., is made by reason of the desire of sash and door makers, and others producing similar classes of work, to put their work together in sections, and plane the latter after they are put together. This of course calls for a wide planer, in order to feed the stock diagonally, to preserve the edges when planing the cross rails. There are heavily braced double or cored sides to the frame. The table, which is • dove-tailed in the frame, raises and low ers in inclines by two screws and a cen tre hand wheel, and can be locked at the desired height. The feed consists of four large feed rolls, all driven by heavy gearing, the upper front one, which is fluted, being geared on both ends, giv ing it a parallel lift, and thus allowing two strips of any kind of stock to be fed through the machine. All four feed rolls are weighted. The feed of the machine is taken from the cylinder, so that if the speed of the latter in creases or diminishes. the feed will vary in the same proportion. The pressure bars each side of the cylinder adjust to the circle of the head, to prevent tearing out of wavy or knotty stock, and chipping of the ends. By feeding the stock in diagonally instead of having a diag onal planer, straight belts may be run to the cylinder, and short stuff may be planed. Such a machine is specially adapted for planing framed stock where straight and cross-grained wood are built up Planing Clapboards.—In the manufacture of clapboards, which are so important a feature in the make-up of homes in a new country, it is usual to employ double machines, through which two boards may be passed, each of these being dressed on one side and jointed on two edges. while passing through the machine. In some of these machines the bed is sta tionary, and the stock fed along by rolls; in others there is a travelling body; and in yet others there is a combination of these two: there being at first a travelling bed which extends to near the rolls, and then a short stationary bed just under the cutter head; then beyond the cutter head again there is another travelling bed for feeding out the material. Where
there is roller feed there is usually one set of rolls for feeding-in and another set for feeding out.
In designing, dimension planing machines and similar tools having heavy carriages curry ing large timber, it is not usually considered safe to control the carriage movement by clutches, and for such work shifting belts, or a friction feed, are employed.
Recent Improvements in Planing .iletehines.—Tn the construction of the planing machine of the present day makers seem to have arisen to the fact that such machinery should be massive in frame, and hence are giving them heavy plate sides with internal ribs ; they also plane the joints. ream the holes, turn the bolts, and in every other possible way design and construct the machine to do accurate work at high speed with heavy cut, without danger of breaking down or liability to lose accuracy of work. It is best that the cylinders of planers and matchers and surfacers be toads of steel, with the spindles drawn out from the body of the forgings, leaving the cylinders and the spindles in one solid piece.
In sonic planing machines the hover feed rolls are double the tliaineter of the upper, their surface speeds, of course, being the same. It is claimed for this arrangement that it gives the lumber a better base, and causes it to enter and leave each pair of rolls with greater smooth ness. In some machines the gears arc always placed on the "gauge" side of the machine, and the expansion gear on the front side of the roll, so that the driving pressure will be down ward and that there will be pressure on the gauge side, which is by some thought desirable.
In some machines for planing and matching. the matcher frames and spindles are dropped or swung down to change from working flooring to surfacing: in others the change is made by removing the matcher heads from their spindles, thus leaving the matcher frames and spindles always iu their working position. In operating planing and matching machines. good usage recommends running the side or matcher heads against the feed, as it takes less power than the opposite way, and the cutters are kept in order longer, not coming in contact with dirt or grit which may be on the edges of the lumber. In some machines the back part of the bits, which follows and supports the cutting edge, is of circular form, to conform to the radius of the cylinder which carries them.
A decided improvement in the way of safety of high-speed planing machinery consists in casing over the gears which drive the feed rolls by a casting conforming to their outline. and of course much less likely to damage than the sheet-iron or tin casing that is some times used, but which is not found often enough on machines of this class.
Planters : see Seeders and Drills.