March 25. 1921 



Hardwood Record — Veneer 6c Panel Section 



31 



Saw Fitting in Woodworking Plants 



Comparing saw fitting in large sawmills with that in 

 small sawmills and wood-working plants, it is noticeable 

 that there is a radical difference in the character of the 

 fitting and the equipment for the work. The latter 

 is not so much in sawmills, but it is in the woodworking 

 factory. For while the up-to-date sawmill operator 

 recognizes that a good filer and a good filing room equip- 

 ment are alike desirable, the small mill man and factory 

 operator is less disposed to be critical in these respects. 

 But saw fitting as a mechanical employment, is relatively 

 just as desirable and advantageous to the operator of 

 small saws as to the lumber manufacturer, and I believe 

 more so, because the small saws have to do with the prep- 

 aration of the finished product. 



It is a well demonstrated fact that every mill or factory, 

 w^hether devoted to the manufacture of lumber, shingles, 

 staves, heading, veneers, etc., or to the production of 

 boxes, furniture, sash, doors, and blinds, or to general 

 planing, turning and wood finishing connected with any 

 line of manufacture — will find the use of finely fitted 

 saws a prime necessity to successful work. Factory saw 

 fitting deals with the different kind of work, and also a 

 different class of saws from sawmill work, in that there 

 are in use small bands, band resaws, circulars for ripping, 

 resawing and cross cutting, which are expected to cut 

 smooth and clean on a very small kerf to a line, and 

 stand good feed, also scroll saws and the great variety of 

 knives, cutters and bits that are found in the equipment 

 of every extensive plant. In the fitting of factory saws 

 there are the same essentials to first class w^ork as in the 

 sawmill; namely, the right hooks and pitch of teeth, the 

 right throat room, the right tension, the right fitting of 

 the cutting points, the absolute roundness of the saws, 

 the proper feed of the timber to just meet, but not ex- 

 ceed, the capacity of the saw^ and the construction of the 

 sawing machine itself. The most exact and up-to-date 

 fitting will fail to accomplish satisfactory results on poor 

 machines, neither will the very best machines give good 

 results on poorly fitted saw^s. 1 am not going into details 

 on how to fit the tension band resaws and round saws, 

 but I will, how^ever, give my opinion on a small scale on 

 round saw^s in connection with the rest of my article. 



I had the opportunity to go through a furniture factory 

 a short time ago, and while it seemed to have the very 

 best machinery for the work it was doing, I regret to 

 say that 1 found the filing room in connection w^ith the 

 engine and boiler room, and one man was engineer, fire- 

 man, and trying to be the filer. I wonder how many 

 extra five-inch resaws and scroll saws that company has 

 purchased since it started operations five years ago. By 

 the looks of the broken saws it certainly must be a large 

 number. 



Make Filing Room Convenient 



The location of the filing room should be as readily 

 accessible to the different wood-working departments of 



the mill as possible. The features of ample size, abun- 

 dant light, heating, and also ventilation, cannot be profit- 

 ably ignored, but it is in these respects that the majority 

 of wood-working plants are extremely lacking. These 

 defects work positive loss in time, and the practical fit- 

 ting of the saws, and 1 believe every hundred dollars 

 spent intelligently in the construction of a filing room 

 and its equipment will yield a larger per cent of profit 

 on the investment than double such expenditure in any 

 other department of the plant. The saw stretcher and 

 anvil bench where band resaws and circular saw^s are 

 hammered and tensioned should have a north light, with 

 no side lights that will mterfere with the filer's tests of 

 the saw with tension gauge or straight edge. In a good 

 many sawmills the use of skylights for admission of light 

 on sharpening and grinding machinery proves both satis- 

 factory and desirable, and why shouldn't it be just as 

 essential in the wood-working establishments where the 

 saws, as a rule, are of much finer nature? Spring set 

 and hand filing have no more place in a factory than a 

 sawmill, except on such saws as are used for crosscutting, 

 or which form the fine character of the teeth and cannot 

 be swaged successfully. A full swaged tooth is the only 

 tooth to run on any kind of a rip saw. A well-rounded 

 tooth, w^ith teeth swaged and properly side dressed, and 

 with proper pitch and clearance for the dust, is a com- 

 bination unsurpassed. Any kind of a round saw, such 

 as edgers, bolters, lath and shingle, barrel stave and 

 veneer saws, solid and segment rip and resaw^s, run with 

 a swaged tooth, will do more and much better work than 

 if fitted by hand with spring set. It may be claimed 

 that the hand filing and setting are simpler and require 

 less skill on the part of the filer than the use of an emery- 

 sharpening machine and a saw swage, and this is true to 

 a certain extent, but no one will argue that there is a 

 profit in crude, inferior saw fitting, or that the factory 

 saw filers are not disposed to progress and improve the 

 character of their work. If a higher grade of work is 

 demanded, there will be found men to meet the advanced 

 requirements, and a man of fair ability can do so if given 

 proper tools to work with. A few factory operatives 

 have considered that any kind of a roustabout could fit 

 their saws well enough, and really consider a cheap man 

 and a file to be a complete filing room outfit. Some have 

 furnished an upset, swaging hammer, a bench grinder, 

 and a T-rail for an anvil, and some still more progres- 

 sive, and quicker to see the advantage arising from the 

 use of finely fitted saws have furnished rooms of proper 

 size, well lighted and equipped with sharpener, swage, 

 hammering outfit, knife grinder, and other tools neces- 

 sary and adapted to the various requirements. 



A good saw fitting equipment well-suited to general 

 wood-working plants may be obtained for a reasonable 

 outlay, and it w^ill save its cost several times a year over 

 inferior tools or an absence of tools. 



