HARDWOOD RECORD 



33 



soon the pipe would loe clogged up. With 

 proper care in installing the blower system, 

 being careful that it is large enough, it 

 should give no trouble, and more than this 

 should insure the operator a nice clean fac- 

 tory, which means greater facility of opera- 

 tion, and in the long run greater profits. 



Did you ever try to babbitt an e.xhaust 

 fan shaft? The boxes on our fan went out 

 on us the other night, and the next morning 

 we found that we had to re-babbitt both 

 of them. This was no easy task as none 

 of us had ever before done work on this 

 kind of a fan, which has an oil reservoir 

 and rings, and each half of the box is made 

 in two parts so that each bearing consists 

 of four sections. One of the men insisted 

 tlial it would be necessary to take the fan 

 down (in the floor or take out the shaft in 

 order to get at it and get it level. How- 

 ever, we secured a shaft that was the right . 

 size and took the supports of the boxes off 

 the fan frame and used them to carry the 

 shaft off to line up with. After melting 

 out all the old babbitt, we put the lower 

 box on the supports and filled the ring 

 groove with waste, and on top of that we 

 put nuul. We made a liner of leather just 

 the thickness that the babbitt should be, 

 and put one on each side of the ring groove 

 and rested the shaft on these. Then we 

 proceeded as usual in closing up the end 

 of the shaft and pored the babbitt. For 

 tlie caps we made liners for the sides to 

 suit the thickness of baljbitt needed, and 

 then used mud in (he ring groove to divide 

 the metal, filling it up full and pressing 

 down the cap on the shaft and cutting away 

 all the mud mot needed. This made the 

 boxes in separate halves, and it made a very 

 smooth job. This task took the greater part 

 of a day, as none of us had ever done this 

 sort of work before, and of course we had 

 to figure out every process and we made 

 some few mistakes which we would not 

 make again if we ever had to undertake a 

 similar job. 



In running babbitt bearings in cold 

 weather, or in fact almost any time, it 

 pays to warm up the boxes or caps before 

 pouring in the hot metal, being sure how- 

 ever to heat them enough to dry out the 

 moisture that gathers if they are only just 

 slightly warmed. 



* * * 



Factory men should look carefidly to the 

 shape of the teeth of their saws, and see 

 that they are kept well rounded. A saw 

 out of rounds runs as badly as a dull saw, 

 and neither should be tolerated. Such saws 

 cause a waste of lumber and a more serious 

 one in the time of the operator. 



* * * 



The main bearing- on the line shaft should 

 be kept in good condition, well oiled and 

 tight on its supports, and the distance be- 

 tween them should be carefully regulated, 

 as it is far better that there should be one 

 or two more than necessary rather than not 

 enough, which would render the line shaft 

 insecure. Nothing looks worse in a factory 

 than the line shaft out of line and looking 

 as if it were trying to make a snake out 

 of itself; it not only looks bad, but it is 

 unsafe and wears out the shaft in a short 

 lime. 



There are so nuiuy belt fasteners on the 

 market today that it is a difficult matter 

 to decide which is best. A great many of 

 these fasteners, however, are of little or no 

 value, .ind in fact injure the belts so seri- 

 ously that they are really worthless. A 

 largo number of mill men still advocate the 

 old-time leather lacing belt, which really 

 possesses many advantages over some of 

 the so-called quick lacing styles. There are 

 of course a great many good laces on the 

 market, in wire, hoops, plates, studs, etc. 

 This feature will be discussed in a coming 

 article in this department, the writer giv- 

 ing his experience along this line which may 

 be of help to someone that is having tron- 

 lile with belt fastenings. 



Important Vhilippine Woods 



Lumbermen in the United States possess 

 very little definite information about Phil- 

 ippine woods. Most of them realize that 

 the Philippine Islands are rich in forest 

 growth, but the nature of the timber, the 

 various species, their uses, etc., are not a 

 matter of general knowledge. The informa- 

 tion contained in this article was furnished 

 Hardwood Record by the Bureau of For- 

 estry of the Department of the Interior at 

 Manila and is therefore reliable as well as 

 most interesting. 



The idea seems to be prevalent in this 

 country that Philippine forests are im- 

 penetrable jungles, but this is not so. In 

 many places there is frequent need of a 

 bolo to make one's way through the masses 



of vegetation, but such conditions are 

 usually not encountered in mature virgin 

 forests. The thickest tangles are found in 

 abandoned eaingins where the soil is mak- 

 ing an effort to reach the condition which 

 [)revailed before the virgin growth was cut. 

 Through virgin forests a person can 

 make his way easily in any direction witli 

 out deviation. Dense undergrowth is 

 usually encountered in regions remote from 

 settled districts. Along the edges of these 

 forests there is often a veritable breast 

 work of vegetation, but when this is passed 

 the interior is very different. Here the 

 large vines, bejucos, and climbing bamboos 

 have lifted their tangled masses to the tops 

 of the trees for the obvious reason of seek- 



ing the light, leaving the ground compara- 

 tively free. There are often heavy growths 

 of small trees that seem to thrive in the 

 dense shade, but these are not so close to- 

 gether as to prevent passage between them. 

 The large trees are usually covered with 

 vines, birds ' nest ferns are seen here and 

 there, and orchids grow on tlie branches or 

 trunks of the trees. Sometimes palm trees 

 are common, but in other forests they are 

 entirely absent. Without the palm tree 

 Philippine forests are more like those of 

 temperate regions than they are different 

 from them. They are composed of tall 

 trees, from loQ to 200 feet in height, with 

 .-straight regular trunks, often for HID or 

 /nore feet without a single limb. 



Sometimes there are many kinds of trees 

 in a forest, but in many instances the ma- 

 jority are of five to ten members '>f the 

 >arae family. This family, known as the 

 Dipterocarps, is to the Philippines what the 

 oak and pine families ax'c to temperate 

 •/.ones. They are found in all parts of the 

 Islands and constitute the greatest bulk 

 of tlu' timber, and without them the Pliilip- 

 jiines would have to depend on other coun- 

 tries for cheap construction wood. 



The timbers of the Dipterocarp family 

 may be divided into three general groups, 

 viz: the Yacal, Apitong, and Lauan groups. 

 The Yacal group yields such woods as 

 yacal, mangachapuy, and narig, all heavy, 

 durable timbers used for construction pur- 

 poses where contact with the ground is 

 neccssarv. 



The Apitong gi-oup contains apitong, 

 hagaehac, panao, guijo, and others, all of 

 which are good heavy construction timb.ers 

 when contact with the ground is not neces- 

 sary. These woods compare favorably in 

 mechanical properties with the hard pines. 

 The Lauan group embraces a large num- 

 ber of timbers under various names suit- 

 able for lighter construction purposes and 

 of much the same structural characteristics 

 as white pine. It is estimated by the Bu- 

 reau of Forestry that 75 per cent or even 

 more of the forest growth of the Islands 

 belongs to these three groups of timbers. 



First Group Trees 



Philippine forests contain a vast wealth 

 of woods useful not only for durable con- 

 struction work, but also for the most beau- 

 tiful furniture to be found in any of the 

 world's furniture factories. 



In the early days these woods were so 

 I)lentiful that the Spaniards and wealthy 

 Filipinos did not think of using in' bujJding 

 their houses and furniture anything but 

 these superior or so-called first group woods. 

 Now, as a result of this indiscriminate cut- 

 ting, these trees have become scarce gen- 

 erally and have even disappeared in easily 

 accessible forests where thej- were once 

 found in abundance. 



The most frequent and important of 

 these trees are molave, ipil, and yacal for 

 construction, and acle, narra, tindalo and> 



