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Smooth Saw Work 



That smooth sawing is desirable with every mill or factory saw 

 is a fact that has long been acknowledged but it is only lately 

 that much attention has been given to developing the habit of put- 

 ting this knowledge into use. Now that we are cutting, trimming 

 and measuring carefully every bit of waste from tree to stump 

 the woodworking industry is beginning to appreciate the fact that 

 there is in the aggregate considerable unnecessary loss through 

 rough cutting saws, from long cornered teeth and uneven setting, 

 making heavy dressing necessary to get a smooth surface which in 

 turn adds to the waste pile and increases the burden of work at 

 the planers. 



Aside from occasional instances of millmen riding the hobby of 

 smooth work, the widest interest developed in smooth sawing has 

 been found in the factories and among the users of rip and cross- 

 cut saws. The interest there has been so strong that a number 

 of machines have been developed with the special point in view 

 of doing straight, smooth sawing and making joints at times that 

 are smooth and true enough for glue joints without any dressing 

 or further work. 



The first really practical effort at making rip saws do their work 

 so true, and so smoothly as to make glue joints, that came under 

 the writer's notice, was several years ago in a column factory 

 located between Jeffersonville and New .\lbany, Ind. (This plant 

 has since been moved nearer the timber supply of the South.) In 

 this factory were made stave columns from cypress lumber, and 

 the stave joints were simply straight sawed joints held in place 

 with dowel pins. The only work done on the lumber after it was 

 ripped into staves at the saws was the boring of the dowel pin 

 holes. .The saws were made to run so true and cut so smoothly that 

 the work of ripping the staves to dimensions also constituted the 

 work of jointing them ready for gluing up. There was involved 

 the use of patterns and jigs for getting the right shape and angle 

 but this had nothing whatever to do with the ripping other than to 

 make it a little more complicated and dillicult to rig and maintain 

 the machines. 



There was nothing remarkable or unusual about the machines 

 being used. The smooth sawing was being accomplished by care- 

 ful attention to the details of operations and this after all is the 

 big secret in smooth sawing, whether it be with the rip saw in the 

 factory or with the big mill saw. 



In the instance referred to an examination of the saws showed that 

 they like the machines were of regular or ordinary type; the teeth 

 were typical of many other rip saw teeth and the filing was similar 

 with merely the difference that the man doing the filing took great 

 pains in setting his saws and inside filing to keep all corners even. 

 If the writer's piemory is not at fault, the filer used a combination 

 of spring and swage set — possibly it was all swage. The whole 

 matter so far as the saw itself was concerned consisted of getting 

 just the right amount of set and getting every tooth corner the same 

 length. 



Care was used in setting and filing the saws primarily and the 

 set was made as close as practical to prevent heating of the saw 

 blade. Then when a saw was put on the machine and started up 

 the filer examined its work carefully and if it lacked in smoothness 

 he went over his saw to locate the long corner or the cause of the 

 roughness. He never let the saw go to work until it was cutting a 

 smooth joint with no plainly visible saw marks about it. 



In addition to careful attention to the fitting of the saws them- 

 selves, this kind of work also called for careful adjustment of saw 

 mandrels to prevent end play, and proper attention to fences and 

 slides on the saw table. Thus one operation was made to do the 

 work of two, and thousands of feet of lumber was put through 

 regularly and ripped into column staves with glue joint edges re- 

 quiring no finishing other than that of boring dowel pin holes and 

 inserting pins when they were glued up. Moreover the result was 

 good and some of the best stave columns the writer ever saw were 



produced in sizes from six inches to two feet iu diameter in that 

 factory by the methods described. 



From time to time during the past few years attention has been 

 centered on doing glue joint work with rip saw machines, and 

 many have found it both possible and practical. Moreover, saws 

 have been used for jointing face veneer and in many instances the 

 learning to do glue joint lipping with saws has enabled manufactur- 

 ers to reduce the cost by eliminating the work of dressing or jointing 

 after the rip saw. 



There is a bigger field and broader idea to smooth -work than 

 simply that of making glue joints in certain kinds of work. It is 

 the saving in lumber, time and power that may be effected by 

 making smooth sawing the regular order of every woodworking 

 institution. Smooth sawing reduces the saw kerf which of itself 

 is an important consideration. The reduction is not so much in that 

 you can use a thinner saw or take a smaller kerf, but it is in the 

 fact that the smoother the saw work the lighter will be the planing 

 work and the less lumber or timber it will be necessary to cut away 

 in finishing off the stock. 



There was a time when a certain machinery man prominently 

 identified with resaw work had a dream of eliminating the necessity 

 for planers on certain lines of resawed work. He discussed this 

 dream with the writer at a convention some years ago and said 

 that he believed that if we could secure some improvement in sand 

 paper, something that would hold stronger and stand up under heat 

 better than glue and use a stronger backing than paper it would be 

 practical by careful attention to the fitting of resaws to send lumber 

 directly from the resaw through the sander. 



There is some lumber turned out with resaw work that is de- 

 cidedly smooth as compared to the practice of old times, and some 

 of it is used for back panelling and box shooks without going 

 through planers. Possibly some day if we can get the art of resaw- 

 ing down to as fine a point as some have reduced the art of rip- 

 sawing we may be able to turn out cabinet panels so smoothly cut 

 that they can be finished oS with a scraper or with sand paper and 

 not be required to make a trip through a planer. This would mean 

 a saving of not only one operation but a saving in lumber. Smooth 

 sawing is not a finely drawn impossible theory, but a practical 

 proposition that simply calls for careful skilled attention to the 

 details of saw fitting and machinery adjustment. .1. C. T. 



Violation of Anti-Trust Laws 



A combination between resident and non-resident lumber companies 

 to restrict competition in their business in a state is not taken out of 

 the anti-trust law of that state on the theory that interstate commerce 

 is involved, nor is it any defense to a claim that the law has been 

 violated that prices fixed by the companies are reasonable. When an 

 association of lumber manufacturers is organized for legitimate pur- 

 poses, a member is not responsible for a violation of the anti-trust 

 law of a state based upon a combination in restraint of trade entered 

 into by other members of the association. (Missouri Supreme Court. 

 State vs. Arkansas Lumber Company, 169 Southwestern Reporter 

 143.) 



Quantity of Logs Required Under Contract 



That one party to a contract estaiilishes a mill to manufacture 

 products from logs to be furnished by the other party does not 

 involve an implied agreement on the part of the latter to keep the 

 mill busy, he being merely required to deliver logs as they are cut in 

 conducting his logging operations. (Washington Supreme Court, 

 Kanaskat Lumber & Shingle Company vs. Cascade Timber Company, 

 142 Pacific Eeporter 15.) 



The value of farm buildings in the United States is big but when 

 \ve divide it by the number of farmers it makes the average farm house 

 look so much like thirty cents that it is evident that the farmer ought 

 to be doing more' building. 



