SASH MICHINES. Wood-working machinery includes not merely machines for cutting material, but those for clamping, bending, etc. Sash and door manufacturers make use of machines which clamp up sash, and, where they are glued, hold them while the glue is drying. One variety has heavy plate sides and guards, and on the top there are two heavy rails, in which are mounted corner bars for holding the sash. These are pivoted to traveling plates, through which pass right and left-hand screws, by which each corner can be moved an exact distance from the center, and at the seine time remain in a fixed rigid position. A pressure of the foot upon a treadle secures and clamps the sash. The arrangement of lever connections is on the toggle principle, by which the greatest power is applied just as the joint is closed, or where there is the greatest resistance. The same machine modified for door clamping has a supplemental treadle which releases the door, and allows the clamp to open.
In the door and sash clamping machine made by the IL B. Smith Machine Co. there are two draw-bars, and very short stiff compression members ; and the lever connections form a knuckle-joint, which in use just passes a central point, thus retaining the clamp in position until released. The fulcrum of the treadle which actuates this toggle and clamps the frames is adjustable so as to make more or less movement on the clamps, as may be required. Each receiving rail has long dogs for doors, and short ones for blinds. For sash clamping, there are employed four corner dogs, pivoted on iron plates which may be fastened on the machine.
In a relishing machine brought out by the II. B. Smith Co. there is a square main table, bearing a mandrel upon which there are two sets of saws, one at each end. There are attached to the main table two glued up wooden tables, borne by brackets, and having ver tical adjustment, as also sliding motion to and from the saws. The rail is first placed on the left-hand table, which is shoved back to the saws, making the angling cut. It is then placed on the right-band table, which is shoved back to the saws, and then by a treadle the right hand table bearing the stock is raised, to meet two small circular saws borne by horizontal mandrels at right angles to the main saw arbor. These cut the relish, and the wedges drop into a box or basket on the floor. The angle, width, and depth of the relish are regulatable by gauges and stop dogs.
A special machine. Fig.1, for sash boring and plowing. intended, as its name implies, for the preparation of window sash for the reception of a cord, does plowing in two ways.
In the first system. it is adapted to bore a hole of suitable size into the edge of a sash, and at an angle of about 30', and to plow a groove of suitable width and depth, connecting with this hole. Into this groove and hole a suitably knotted cord is placed ; a draft upon this cord draws the knot into the slanting hole, and holds it in position.
In the second system, a 30° angle hole and slot are formed, as in the first instance, but the slot, instead of` being cut to connect with the hole, is cut to within an inch thereof, and then by a hole bored by a second bit of suitable size and arrangement the slot and angular hole are connected, and the sash cord drawn through this latter hole, and knotted iu the angular hole. The one feature of this machine is that in making stock work, where it is uncertain whether the sash will he used with or without cord, the groove can lie discontinued at the meeting rail without cutting through it, and this part clone by hand if the sash is finally used with cord.
The increasing demand for sash and doors all ready to hang has brought out machines for preparing sash to receive the weight cord in a manner to suit the requirements of all markets ; the old method of a groove in the side of the sash, running through a hole that carries the knot on the end of the cord, often being very unsatisfactory. In the machine made by the II. B. Smith Machine Co. there is a table-like frame, bearing along one of its sides a horizontal boring spindle, and having a sliding frame to receive a sash and feed it up to the spindle. A double saw borne by a vertical arbor about the center of width of the machine, cuts a groove which extends into the top or first hole previously bored by the bit, and the work is then completed by the horizontal boring bit, making a hole between the two holes first bored, thus uniting the sec ond or lower hole to the groove. The cord may be very readily passed into this hole, with no chance of getting out after the knot is tied, The same machine may be used as a light saw table, with horizontal boring attachment for general purposes ; and by using a routing bit in the vertical spindle, blind-rails may be scored for the roller bar.