HARDWOOD RECORD 



-■'/ 



Machinery for 'Broom Handle Manufacture 



By H. B. ALEXANDER 



Success in (he broom handle business, like 

 every other phase of the woodworking indus- 

 try, depends to a large extent upon the type 

 of macliinery used. Years ago manufacturers 

 were forced to carry on this line of work in a 

 rather primitive way. Gauge lathes were 

 used, and these were not equipped with self- 

 centering devices or provided with any means 

 of carrying the cutter-head back without its 

 touching the pattern, as with the modern 

 gauge lathe. The stock was ripped uii to 

 proper sizes and lengths, and then the 

 operator would take the square and center 

 the front end on the point of the head stock, 

 and then center the other end on the tail 

 block. Then with a hand wheel he would 

 tighten up the tail blocks so as to drive the 

 blank, and by tripping the screw box on the 

 traveling cutter-head would turn a handle. 

 As the cutter-head passed over the end of the 

 handle, the operator had to release it and 

 get it out of the way in order to allow the 

 cutter-head to go back. This was a very slow- 

 way to turn out handles, but doubtless some 

 of the best broom handles ever made were 

 produced in this manner. The best feature 

 about handles made in this way was that they 

 were turned straight, and a good operator 

 could get a straight handle and a good one 

 out of a crooked square. The most unsatis- 

 factory feature about modern lathes is that 

 if the blank is erookeil the handle also is 

 crooked. Nor can it be said that this old 

 method of producing handles was such a slow- 

 process, for good men on piece work, in a 

 day of ten hours, could turn out as high as 

 eighteen hundred handles, which is really 

 quite as much as some operators can show as a 

 result of a day's work with an up-to-date 

 lathe. 



One of the most important machines used 

 in the handle factory is the cut-off saw. 

 There are a number of different styles of 

 this saw, but the one that is in most com- 

 mon use is the overhead swing. Doubtless 

 this saw has any number of good features, 

 but it also has some unsatisfactory ones, as 

 it is simply impossible to cut a true line with 

 it when the stock is of any considerable width. 

 The trouble seems to lie in the fact that the 

 saw is on one end of the arbor and the hand- 

 hold on the other. In cutting off a wide board 

 the saw resists and holds back, and as it is 

 pulled to make the cut it dodges and the 

 frame twists enough to permit a variation of 

 sometimes half an inch on a twenty-inch cut. 



In a certain factory there are two swing 

 Saws and both of them have as a counter- 

 shaft a shaft that is fastened to the supports 

 and all three of the pulleys are loose ones. 

 Kow there is an objection to this arrangement 

 right here. Instead of making the pulley 

 that drives to the arbor and the one that 

 drives this one separate, to save expense an 

 extension has been made on the small drive 

 on one side and a rim added and used to 



diive the saw arbor. Tlie result is that there 

 is an uneven pull on the stationary counter- 

 shaft and it has been necessary to replace 

 this shaft three times in the last year, as it 

 wears rapidl.v and almost breaks in two. 



The so-called railroad saw is perhaps the 

 most satisfactory one for handle men, for the 

 reason that it works from below and there 

 is a more even pull on it. It cuts stock al- 

 most perfectly square. Xow, I am well aware 

 that a good many of the would-be handle 

 men do not think that it is necessary to be 

 so particular, but after a season's try-out 

 they will j)robably have quit the business. 



Another important tool in handle produc- 

 tion is the rip-saw. This may be selected 

 fi'om any number of styles, according to what 

 suits the fancy, purse and business ability of 

 the operat(W. Here to quite an extent lies 

 the success or failure of a handle factory, 

 as it is a very easy matter for operators to 

 spoil enough lumber in an hour or so to oft'- 

 set an entire day's profit. Good rip-saw men 

 are scarce, and when one is obtained he should 

 be kept, as it will often be found next to 

 impossible to replace him in a short period of 

 time. 



I have used the plain single saw, hand rips, 

 the same with power feed, and also gang 

 saws ^vith power feed and out feed, and I be- 

 lieve that the best machine that can be bought 

 is none too good. There is much to be learned 

 about these high-class gang self-feed saws, but 

 a handle man must learn all if he expects any 

 degree of success. As a rule handle men start 

 out by putting on five or six saws and tiy 

 to rip dry hard maple at high feed. It does 

 not take long to find out that this will not 

 do at all, and when they have gained some 

 experience along this line they will run two 

 saws slightly speedier than the lowest feed. 

 They will also find that their saws have to be 

 iitted somewhat different from the way they 

 i\ere accustomed to fit tliem on their old 

 hand feed saw or they will soon burt up and 

 get fidl of cracks. When they have learned 

 all this and have found a good man for each 

 end of the work and have them broken in to 

 the proper way of doing things they will be 

 highly satisfied with their saw and wonder 

 how in the world thoy ever made handles 

 without it. 



The off-bearer on this kind of a saw nuist 

 be a verv- efficient man and hare a good eye. 

 To him comes the important duty of seeing 

 that there is no stock ripped up that will 

 not make handles, and yet he must not throw 

 out any piece that will produce a single good 

 Idank. He must notify his partner at once 

 if the guide slips so that the squares are off- 

 size, and he must pile the blocks on his truck 

 in orderly fashion. Such a man is a valuable 

 employe in a handle factory, one hard to find 

 and when obtained and trained into the right 

 way of doing things should be encouraged 

 to become a permanent fixture at the plant. 



When the cat's away the mice will play — • 

 this is as true of men as it is of mice, at 

 least of a great many men. To their dis- 

 grace it may usually be found in a shop that 

 there are a number of workmen who make 

 it a point to put in as much time dawdling 

 over their work as possible wlienever the fore- 

 man is away. The keen, watchful foreman 

 can usuall.v tell not only that work has been 

 neglected but also who the idlers are. The 

 day's work usually shows a sufficient falling 

 off from the average to make watchfulness in 

 this respect necessary and the idlers will un- 

 doubtedly find themselves without jobs and 

 without recommendations when they are least 

 expecting it. 



* « * 



Stockholders as ei:^.ployes — what is my opin- 

 ion of them? I have heard any number of 

 factory operators say that this plan is a good 

 one, but is it? The prevalent idea is, of 

 course, that if an employe is a stockholder 

 he will work to the interest of the firm more 

 assiduously, but what I have seen of this 

 does not entirely bear out this statement. If 

 the employe happens to be a foreman this 

 may be the case, but I have found that in a 

 numlier of instances the foreman has bought 

 stock merely, as it were, to cinch his job, and 

 then thinks he can't lose it, and so works 

 just when and how ho pleases. In other eases 

 Iho men work well enough but seem to think 

 that as stockholders the foremen have no con- 

 trol over them, and they also try to boss the 

 rest of the men, and an_v factory owner will 

 lealize what that means. The average em- 

 ploye expects to be direetetl by a foreman, 

 but he will not stand for anybody else as- 

 suming this right, and it is said that sev- 

 eral stiikes have been caused by this thing 

 alone. Stockholding employes also seem to 

 have an idea that they should receive more 

 pay than the other men doing the same kind 

 of work. A shop where all the men are stock- 

 holders might work well, but the success of 

 the one in which onl_v a few own stock would 

 be doubtful and it would seem wisest that 

 none of the workmen be stockholders with the 

 excejition possilily of the foreman. 



The handle business just now is prosper- 

 ous. Tlie usual crop of gi-eenhorns ()uit busi- 

 ness last fall and gave the regulars a chance. 

 However, from reports from various direc- 

 tions there are quite a few factories start- 

 ing up in this line, so that undoubtedly the 

 failures next year will be quite as heavy as 

 this. Some of these new factories arc send- 

 ing out reports that they are going to make 

 from five to six thousand handles a day on 

 one lathe! They might as well say that they 

 don 't know a thing about the handle business 

 and be done with it. There is not a lathe 

 made that will turn out anything like this 

 number of handles in a day. These concerns 

 max make sticks of some kind but not handles. 



