158 



FOREST PRODUCTS 



In the manufacture of heading, the same general method is followed 

 as described in the chapter on slack cooperage heading except that the 

 machinery is much more specialized and expensive. The power required 

 at one of these portable heading mills is about 25 to 30 h.p. It is esti- 

 mated that at each location of the mill about 200,000 sets of heading are 

 turned out. About 8000 to 10,000 headings are completed per day of ten 

 hours. 



Most of the heading turned out for tight barrels is doweled to insure a 

 tighter fit and to prevent loosening of the joints in any way. These 

 dowels are customarily ^ of an inch in diameter. Many plants have 



FIG. 40. Stave jointer in operation in a large cooperage assembling plant. 



their own machines to make dowel pins. One machine in common use 

 splits the material into proper thickness for the pins, then forces it through 

 the dies and delivers the pins separate from the waste. The machine 

 makes 3 pins at a stroke and will turn out several bushels of about 5000 

 pins each, in a day of ten hours. 



The final finishing of staves and heading, including dressing, dry- 

 kilning, bending, packing, etc., is accomplished at large plants which are 

 chiefly centralized in large centers within or contiguous to the producing 

 regions such as Memphis, Louisville, Peoria, St. Louis and other points 

 on the lower Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. 



