HARDWOOD RECORD 



39 



Tips to the JMillman. 



It often takes but a little thing to start 

 a box to heating, and conversely it takes but 

 a small thing to stop the process when the 

 small thing is applied in the right place. In 

 the ease of the readjustment of the cap of a 

 box that has been removed for inspection or 

 for work on it it sometimes happens that the 

 cap will be replaced in a slightly different 

 position, from that in which it had been run- 

 ning, and the result is a hot-box directly, 

 even though care had been exercised in re- 

 placing it. A ease in point happened to us 

 recently. The moulder journals had worn 

 the middle box down to a point where there 

 were no more liners to take out and the work 

 was ' ' wavy, ' ' so the box had to have a new 

 lining with babbitt. 



The work was done successfully in a few 

 minutes on the middle box and on the small 

 journal on the outside of the machine, but 

 for want of more time it was decided to let 

 the outside or grooved journal run as it was 

 for the present. When the machine was 

 started there was no longer any wavy work, 

 but there was a decided hot-box on this out- 

 side journal. The floor man was in for stop- 

 ping, taking off the cap, readjusting the 

 liners and possibly adding some more. Here 

 was a ease that looked to me like simply a 

 case of cause and effect; the cause of the 

 heating was that some adjustment of the cap 

 had been disturbed from its former position 

 and was binding. What was the remedy? It 

 was a small one, that was evident, so instead , 

 of stopping the machine I took a hammer 

 and tapped a few sharp blows on the cap to 

 settle it to its former position and put in 

 enough oil to help carry off the heat. The 

 box has run cool ever since without any 

 extra care or attention. 



It does not pay to do too much ' ' fooling ' ' 

 with every little thing that happens in the 

 mill. Decide what is the trouble and apply 

 the remedy at once. A Ught tap of a ham- 

 mer in settling the cap of a box will often 

 save stopping and losing time. As I learned 

 ■\vhen a boy a threat is as good as a licking, 

 sometimes, and a bluff is good as long as it 

 works. 



If every machinist who gets hold of a 

 planer cylinder would only think for a mo- 

 ment before he tries to straighten it up — 

 "How was it done? Where was it made?" 

 — it would save planer men a vast amount of 

 trouble and give its a chance to do some de- 

 cent work on machines without having a con- 

 stant fight on our hands to keep tight boxes 

 on a cylinder out of balance. It always 

 happens that this sort of trouble is on a 

 machine that is as old as Methuselah's cat, 

 and all have the old time straight cap and 

 four bolts to hold it down. Of course there 

 is a partial dismantling of the machine to 

 get at the lower head, and it is this lower 

 head, with the driving spool standing out six 

 inches from the end of the box, that is sure 

 to cause the trouble. The old time designers 

 did not seem to have any idea that a shaft 



driven from away out on the end would be 

 likely to spring, and most of the old ma- 

 chines have this same fatal defect. 



The fact that implement makers and other 

 users of different kinds of woods cannot be 

 so particular now as they were as to the kind 

 of timber they use brings to mind the fact 

 that the time is not so far past when noth- 

 ing but the best Indiana white oak would do 

 for wagon work, and then the oak had to be 

 without a flaw after it was worked out. It is 

 no trouble now to find a market for the once 

 despised Louisiana red and white oak, for 

 there is a place for it all. Necessity is the 

 mother of invention, and we can now find 

 many graces in a timber once despised and 

 cast aside. When we read of maple being 

 used for ash, and Cottonwood taking the 

 place of poplar it is time to expect any sort 

 of a change without any surprise. Even the 

 tupelo gum, that is so plentiful and formerly 

 so neglected is coming into its own, and is 

 gradually proving itself one of the useful 

 woods. 



Most belting salesmen seem to have a spe- 

 cial desire to sell belting made without rivets, 

 claiming that it will last as long without 

 rivets as with them. Perhaps this is so, but 

 just the same many prefer the rivets; one 

 small lot that came to me without rivets, 

 through an error in ordering, did not last as 

 long as the proverbial snowball in a hotter 

 place than this, and I will take good care 

 that the error is not repeated, at least with 

 that brand of belt. Perhaps I am assum- 

 ing too much when I say ' ' most belting sales- 

 men," but all of them with whom I have 

 dealings recommend belting run without 

 rivets, and I infer that the balance of the 

 fraternity do the same thing. 



This suggests the fact that many traveling 

 salesmen have rather unpleasant experiences 

 with us millmen, as I know from three years' 

 experience on the road, and a fellow feeling 

 for their lonesome state, always among 

 strangers, or at best only chance acquaint- 

 ances, has made me careful to welcome their 

 coming and speed their parting. 



When laying out holes in the belting for 

 lacing do not locate them so near together 

 that the strength of the belt will be im- 

 paired. It is better to have the lacing a lit- 

 tle wider to strengthen the joint than it is to 

 use narrow lacing with a greater number of 

 holes. A few extra strands drawn through 

 the holes after making the lace will serve to 

 protect these strands which are doing the 

 work. 



A sight-feed qiler mounted over the pisto.u 

 rod of the engine to drop oil on it while at 

 work will save packing and reduce friction on 

 the rods to a minimum. Lubricating oil is 

 sometimes used for this purpose, but as the 



When an injector "kicks off" and refuses 

 to work well do not try jarring it with a 

 hammer, but look for sediment or scale in 

 some of the valves. The feed pipe to the 

 boiler will sometimes accumulate enough scale 

 to seriously interfere with the working of an 

 injector, and for this reason should be ar- 

 ranged so it can be examined. 



Compression couplings that can be at- 

 tached without keys are convenient for small 

 powers, but for larger sizes of shafting these 

 couplings should be pinned and keyed, thus 

 affording all the convenience of adjustment 

 of the smaller sizes. When made this way 

 they may be easily removed whenever re- 

 pairs or changes are necessary, a thing that 

 is usually very difficult in the case of a flange 

 coupling. 



A Canadian mechanic has brought out an 

 ovra-head guide for a circular saw. The guide 

 is to be used on the periphery of the saw in 

 the same manner as the lower guide with the 

 difference that the top guide is to be ad- 

 justed to the different thickness of the cut, 

 iMing made by lever adjustment, after 

 the method in , use on the guides of 

 a band mill. One of the most successful 

 mill operators in this country was a firm 

 believer in using more than one guide on his 

 circular saws. Besides the front guide he 

 used one on the back of the saw and one on 

 the bottom, the purpose of the three being 

 to give strength and stability to the larger 

 and thinner plates then in use. The guide 

 now being put on the top is for the same 

 purpose, but in a position where it will be 

 more effective than on the bottom of the saw. 

 With a 10-inch collar and the three guides 

 it is claimed to be possible to use twelve 

 gauge saws 72 inches in diameter. 



As a rule cheap tools are not good, neither 

 are good tools cheap. The statement is only 

 true, however, so long as it is confined to 

 the question of first cost, as after that the 

 cheap tool becomes expensive, while the good 

 tool repays its expense. How difficult it is 

 to bring this home to the mind of the buyer, 

 especially those who buy from paper speci- 

 fications without any regard to the reputa- 

 tion of the maker, only those who sell tools 

 know. Two quotations, each given by differ- 

 ent makers, but to the same specifications, 

 frequently vary as much as from 50 to 100 

 per cent, and yet as much is expected from 

 the low-priced tool as from the higher-priced 

 one. Given work to do a good tool soon pays 

 for itself and will last longer, besides turn- 

 ing out work far superior to the cheap one, 

 since the defective tool produces defective 

 work, and at the same time demoralizes the 

 operator. 



It is always a good plan to watch a new 

 engine carefully for a few days for loose 

 pins, nuts or set screws, as an ounce of pre- 

 vention in the way of finding these things 

 quantity needed is small it is preferable to 

 use cylinder oil. 



