28 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Power for Handle Plants 



BY H. B. ALEXANDER 



Among handle men there is generally more 

 or less discussion as to which is the more 

 desirable power for handle plants, steam or 

 electricity. Like all such discussions there is 

 a great deal to be said on both sides of the 

 question, the most influential point being local 

 conditons surrounding each factory. 



In our factory we use electric power and 

 find it quite satisfactory with one exception. 

 We use one motor only and this has to drive 

 the heavy line shaft and all the machines. This 

 gives an unnecessary load of several horse- 

 power required to overcome this friction. The 

 motor is a high-speed and the drive pulley 

 is too sniaJl for the load that it has to handle 

 and this requires that the drive belt should 

 be very tight in order to keep it from slip- 

 ping. 



People who visit the shop remark that it 

 is a great waste to pay for electric power 

 when there is so much refuse in the shape of 

 shavings and sawdust that could be used as 

 fuel in a refuse burner to produce steam. 

 There is plenty of fuel about the shop to feed 

 a refuse burner and steam up a hundred 

 horsepower boiler and keep it popping off all 

 the time — but even at that it is doubtful 

 whether it would pay. When it is remembered 

 that the expense of a first-class engineer to 

 look after the boiler would more than pay the 

 cost of the power used, to say nothing of 

 the fact that, as everyone knows, engines are 

 very liable to get out of order as well as 

 boilers and pumps, it will be conceded this is 

 a point in favor of electric power. It is re- 

 grettable that all this heat should go to 

 waste, but for a plant the size of ours it 

 would not pay to try to save it and run with 

 steam, as electricty can be had for about half 

 what steam would cost and furnish as good if 

 not better power. 



All these remarks refer to plants which 

 have to purchase power from a central station. 

 If a concern were building a plant that would 

 require from one hundred and fifty horse- 

 power up then the best plan would be to in- 

 stall steam equipment, using it, however, to 

 generate current only, and operating the ma- 

 chines by means of motors. 



Each machine which requires five or more 

 horsepower should be operated by a separate 

 motor, directly connected if possible to the 

 machine itself, or if this can not be done, to 

 the countershaft. 



On smaller drives a group of machines can 

 be arranged together and made very con- 

 venient. In broom handle manufacture, it is 

 necessary to have the shifting lever of the 

 countershafts convenient to the operator and 

 it is an easy matter to arrange the switch of a 

 motor in just as handy a position. 



By having separate motors the power cost 

 will be reduced to an appreciable extent if 

 payment is made by meter and even if on a 

 flat rate it will mean economy if only from 

 the lessening of wear and tear on the counter- 



shafts and loose pulleys, as well as saving all 

 the long belts from the main line shafts. 

 Should a lathe be put out of commission be- 

 cause of broken parts, while having the 

 knives sharpened or because of the absence 

 of the operator, then the cost of power and 

 the wear on the machine stops for the time 

 being; on the other hand, should it be 

 necessary to work part of the shop overtime, 

 the machine can be run independently. It 

 sometimes happens in a handle factory that 

 the sander has to be run nights part of the 

 time in order to keep up with the lathes, 

 and without individual motors the counter- 

 shafts on every machine in the factory must 

 be run or else someone has to go around the 

 shop and take off all the belts, which is a 

 serious waste of time as they must be put 

 on again in the morning. This same diffi- 

 culty would be met in a plant operated by 

 steam. 



One of the chief objections to the electric 

 plant is the initial cost of installing. A steam 

 plant of the size ordinarily used by a handle 

 maker can be put in for about the same cost 

 as a plant driven by one motor, but where a 

 motor is used for every machine, then the 

 cost mounts up rapidly. The factory owner is 

 then often scared out of the notion of an 

 clectrieaUy driven plant and, thinking of the 

 waste product which will have to be disposed 

 of in some way, he decides on the good old 

 steam power, which undoubtedly will cost 

 him more, but which he argues he is sure of, 

 understands perfectly and which he knows 

 will do away with the waste of his machines. 



Refuse burners undoubtedly have many 

 good points, but on the other hand, they re- 

 quire a good deal of watching to keep them 

 in shape, and to control sparks, and there is 

 always thin stuff that comes from the rip 

 saws that should not be allowed to go into 

 the blow pipes and which, being too small to 

 sell for wood, must in this way be wasted. 



The gas engine has some admirers among 

 handle men, but unlike steam or electricity, 

 with which a saving can be effecfed in pull- 

 ing an overload of some five per cent, at least 

 for short periods, it would not be safe to 

 try to do this with a gas engine, and with the 

 general run of them it would not be safe to 

 try to do this within five per cent of their 

 rating. 



When I first entered the handle business, 

 we had a very small plant — only one old- 

 style lathe and one dowel machine with a rip 

 and cut-off saw. These together did not 

 aggregate ten horsepower. A twelve horse- 

 power gas engine was installed to pull them. 

 For a short time all went well, and then the 

 gas engine began to buck. This was then 

 changed for a fifteen horsepower, which gave 

 fairly good service for a short time and 

 then it, too, commenced to buck. When we 

 came to our present plant, a twenty horse- 

 power gas engine was giving about as much 



trouble as we had had before. After con- 

 siderable trouble with this engine, we de- 

 cided to give it up and are now running a 

 plant just three times as big as it was, and a 

 thirty horsepower motor is driving the ma- 

 chines with power to spare. 



In the near future we expect to double the 

 capacity of our plant, which will of course 

 necessitate more power and we will un- 

 doubtedly adopt the separate motor plan, be- 

 lieving that it is unqualifiedly the handiest 

 and best. 



* * * 



Did you ever try keeping books on your ma- 

 chines? It pays. Each machine is charged 

 with its repair bills, labor, oil and all sorts of 

 supplies and is credited with the amount of 

 work turned out. Don't keep these figures se- 

 cret — let them be known — and then see if they 

 won't help get out more work. 



* # * 



If you have been thinking of building a 

 new plant, don't delay. Ample yard room and ' 

 private switching facilities are great con- 

 veniences and really money savers. A fac- 

 tory located so that a regular switching 

 track must be used to load and unload stock 

 might as well be half a mile from the rail- 

 road. 



^ * « 



Expert workmen in the various departments 

 of handle making are extremely hard to get, 

 and when you find one that suits, hang onto 

 him. It is uncertain, unsatisfactory and 

 troublesome work to break in new men and 

 oftentimes it is necessary to try a dozen or 

 more before a skilled and trusted man is 

 found. Of course the time lost in teaching 

 and the cost of stock wasted or spoiled is to 

 bt considered and it is really enough to make 

 up for the additional cost of an expert. 



Don't be stingy with tools. It's about aa 

 reasonable to expect a mason to build a 

 chimney without mortar as to think a work- 

 man can do good work when he hasn't the 

 right sort or enough tools to do it with. A 

 frequent diflSculty in most shops is that the 

 supply is so meager that a man has to hunt 

 all over the place for a hammer or a screw 

 driver, sometimes spending twenty minutes 

 looking for a tool with which to take care 

 of a two minutes' job. 



* ^* * 



Do you use sprocket chain? Some handle 

 men never keep extra parts of chain on hand 

 — it can easily be imagined what sort of a 

 scene takes place when the factory is rushed 

 with work and a link in the chain breaks, 

 and to make matters worse, it is very seldom 

 that the desired size can be obtained at local 

 supply houses. 



The Blair Veneer Company, one of the leading 

 manufacturers of North Troy, Vt., is planning 

 an extensive addition to its plant. 



Fire recently visited the mill of the Cypress 

 Shingle & Lumljer Company iocated near Old 

 Hardin, Tex. The mill was owned and operated 

 by Messrs. Waterman and Jackson and had beea 

 in operation for five or six months. 



