20 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



NoTcmlMT 2&, IDia. 



M!.'. ri:^-;;> r,. . SbrrldiiD. 

 ■ilti Hrnil 



.III lU-Dtl. 



;ij luj- Mfg. Co.. South 



Urua. 



i'i)r|»4tra(|itn. 



> II t li 



Willi •: rr ~ MfB I'.i . s-.iith Honil. 



n, 



J.,' Iiinil. 



Jdlin .. I.. .1. .■>..!,» ....h ..... T*!! 



nty. 



TVU I'lty .'Spoke Co., Toll nty. 



R. I>. UllklnioD ft 800, Trrrt- llnulr. 



O'ltrlin ft rcr.-.nnrtl, Tirrr I!ntit.- 



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I llloll I ll». 



I'm. .11 (II)' lliiily y<i., ITnloo Clt7. 

 fnl.iii niv Wli.-.-l Work., luli.ii 

 City. 



lioan rulling MarlilDe Co., 



lluri'D. 

 Ynrn.'ilp Lumber ft Coal 



Wal.mih. 

 Karl W. Conrnil, Wnmaw. 

 JiiliiKlon I.umbi-r (»., Waruiw. 

 II 1 Irani. Warsaw, 



Van 



Co.. 



/i=-Ja\ 



Experience Talks on Woodiuorking 



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 j.,-'^ 



Avoid runnini; belts too tij;bt, nii gront tension iiliortcns the life 

 of the belt, ocrasion* n waste of power, ami cnusoH much incon- 

 venience from hot boxes, broken pulleys and "sprung" shaftinf;. 

 The slacker th« bolt can bo run up to a certain point and do 

 its work satisfactorily, fho (;renter the economy. In iiisUillinc l)olt- 

 inj; and taking it up, consideration must bo given to the fact that 

 certain kinds of belting are affected by weather conditions, length- 

 ening and shortening according to the iiiiuuint of moisture in 

 the nir. 



There 1^ s:nisi:i.'tion in having a mill or mnchinc in proper con- 

 dition in which to operate a saw; there is also a contentment that 

 is worth while to the operator who has a saw adapted for the 

 logs he is cutting. A certain kind of saw may give excellent 

 results on some kinds of lumber in certain localities and prove 

 a disappointment in some other. There are many problems that 

 come up from time to time and it would seem that the best man to 

 whom to direct troubles is the saw manufacturer, who should be 

 able to help one out of all saw difficulties. To select a saw for 

 logs and for kiln-dried, mixed lumber, the two extremes, requires 

 considerable experience. 



A few dollars on 1,000 feet may seem a big difference wlien 

 buying lumber in car lots, but lumber that is not suitable for 

 the class of goods manufactured is really not a bargain at any 

 price. To know what kind of lumber to buy is sometimes a diffi- 

 cult proposition. There are many men on the road today selling 

 lumber who could and would solve some of the problems which the 

 buyer may se<!m too proud to admit. While on better grades of 

 lumber we have less initial waste, and also less during the process 

 of manufacture, there is the difference in the first cost, which 

 may offset this either wholly or partially. So it is a very im- 

 portant matter for every manufacturer to determine just what 

 grade is the most economical to buy. 



There are well-authenticated instances in the use of oil where 

 changes in the methods of lubrication and in the quality have 

 resulted in saving thousands of dollars per year in the cost of 

 operation, while the cost of the oil used was only a few hundred 

 dollars. 



preparation to prevent splitting or cracking. From the storage 

 sheds tho lumber may bo run into the drying and seasoning kilns 

 on the Maine truck on which it was first loaded, then into the 

 factory. 



If freshly sawed oak lumber be simply dried in an ordinary 

 dry-kiln and then used in the same work in which lumber sawed 

 several years is employed, it will be found that the finish on 

 the two pieces will not remain the same. The natural acids con- 

 tained in the recently sawed stock will affect the finish more 

 than the acids contained in the stock which has been air-seasoned 

 for several years. Therefore, the dry-kiln when dealing with oak 

 has two functions to perform. First, it must steam out or remove 

 as much as possible of the original sap with its contained acids, 

 and second, it must remove the moisture uniformly from all parts 

 of the wood. 



Many of the sawmill operators who considered a burdensome 

 waste in sawdust, slabs and triiiiinings are now selling this ma- 

 terial and actually realizing a profit. Indeed, some sawmills are 

 furnishing power to their neighbors and electric lights to towns 

 and cities. This burdensome waste is doing tho trick, and is a 

 question that deserves much thought and consideration. 



The storage sheds and the kilns should be laid out in such a 

 manner that the lumber is handled but once. The lumber should 

 be loaded from the car into the trucks. The trucks should move 

 on special trackage, and run into the storage sheds, where the 

 ends of the lumber may be painted or coated with any suitable 



The first and most important thing in the operation of a fast- 

 feeil machine is a good mechanic in charge. A machine that will 

 run on slow feed and do good work will not do satisfactory work 

 on fast-feed. .Anything which causes vibration will reduce quality 

 of finish, therefore all bearings, gears and pulleys should be 

 looked to and kept running smoothly. The bars and hold downs 

 should bo down .iust tight enough to answer their purpose and 

 not so they will bind or stop the boards and cause rolls to slip, 

 as this will cause knives to burn, resulting in poor finish. 



The standard of quality in tho matter of millwork has been 

 made higher in the last few years by the advent of improved 

 methods and the mills arc fast falling in line in regard to better 

 work, and the latest machines for dressing lumber have shown 

 themselves to be more profitable to the users in this respect than 

 in the matter of greater output per machine, although they are 

 capable of doing considerable more work than machines built a 

 few years ago. 



The superiority of thin, self-hardening steel knives for use 

 on matchers, niouMers and surfacers where an especially high 

 grade of work is desired, is unquestioned. The thin steel knife 

 has made the six-knife head and the fast-feed planing machine 

 possible. Tho thin knife is adapted to surfacing all kinds of 

 wood as the cutting angle may be quickly altered by back-beveling 

 to best suit tho texture of the wood being run. The thin steel 

 knife assures better finish at a faster rate of feed than is possible 

 with thick knives and eliminates much idle machine time, as the 

 knives may be quickly and accurately ground and jointed on 

 the head of the machine. 



In b.ind scroll saws it may bo taken as a general rule that the 

 more tooth jioints there are to an inch, the smoother will be tho 

 work, provided all the teeth are evenly set, but sometimes when 

 the teeth are too fine it is very difficult to set them evenly. Con- 

 sequently it is not always advisable to strive for such a great num- 

 ber of points to the inch. Smooth work is secured by having nar- 

 row blades and a rather close set, each tooth extended just the 

 same. By using, say, three points to the inch, or even four, one 

 can sharpen with an automatic machine, and this helps to smooth 

 cutting. 



A good foreman, who is ambitious to make a record for quality 

 in his work, must necessarily be critical and keep his men keyed 

 to the right pitch. If, however, he goes too far and becomes too 

 exacting continually, it is irritating, and the result is friction in- 

 stead of satisfaction. It is a wise foreman who knows just how 

 exacting to be. 



