1883 



GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



237 



being cut up, we found trouble after we got 

 through. 



There is away, however, in which a board 

 can be cut up into accurate lengths, even if 

 its sides are not straight. Fix a straight- 

 edge of steel (nice hard wood may do) back 

 of the saw just far enough away to get the 

 length of board wanted. Hold "it hard up 

 against your figure 4 and cut off a board once, 

 squarely across. When you have done this, 

 hold the square cut hard up against the steel 

 straight-edge. Now push the board along 

 on the top of the table up against the saw, 

 watching carefully to see that the end is a 

 perfect fit against this steel straight-edge. 

 In this way you can cut up a whole board and 

 have the, pieces exactly of the same length. 

 But woe betide you if you are so careless as 

 to leave a crack on either edge, even if it be 

 not more than a hair in thickness. You see, 

 we want the boards so accurate that where 

 there are two stood up together on a smooth 

 surface, neither eye nor finger can detect 

 any difference in the length. In making 

 frames for the hives, this is a most important 

 matter; indeed, I have had nothing in the 

 whole department of hive-making that has 

 caused me so much trouble as this matter of 

 getting hands who would cut stuff perfectly 

 accurate. JNIany times I could have cried 

 about it (if you will excuse a little exagger- 

 ation), had I thought it would do any good. 



We are now ready to consider what may 

 be done by the use of machinery, for en- 

 abling even unskillful hands, or, perhaps, 

 hands who have never been shown the im- 

 portance of accuracy in mechanical work, so 

 that they may do work and be exact. When 

 at the Exposition at Cincinnati, last fall, I 

 saw some beautiful iron tables having a pair 

 of saws. These saws could be adjusted at 

 any required distance from each other ; and 

 to cut olf the board it was pushed against 

 the saws while moving on a carriage of iron. 

 This, you will see, made it next to impossi- 

 ble to have boards cut either too short or too 

 long ; but the two cuts every time, made a 

 small waste of lumber. 



Below we give you some engravings of 

 the cut-off tables we use in our own factory. 

 I don't know whether exactly the same de- 

 vice has ever been used before or not. 



A S.\.W-TABLE FOR CUTTING OFF STUFF. 



THE SAME WITH TOP KAISED. 



No. 1 shows the table ready for work, and 

 No. 2 the same with top elevated, which can 

 readily be done to take off saws, etc. It oc- 

 curs to me just now that our artist has made 

 a mistake, and drawn a rip-saw where he 

 should have shown a cut-off or cross-cut 

 saw, as it is sometimes called. The lable is 

 made of 4x4 seasoned maple. On the top 

 are placed three cast-iron V-shaped tracks. 

 The slidingtoprunson these tracks on 6 cast- 

 iron wheels having a V-shaped groove in 

 each. This, you will observe, makes the 

 sliding top of the table so that it moves to 

 and fro with great ease, yet without a bit of 

 end shake. At a first glance one would al- 

 most think this sufficient ; but if you were 

 to lay a 16-foot plank on this sliding table- 

 top, and take hold of the end, you would find 

 it would have a considerable twist, or " wig- 

 gle," on its center. This twist would, of 

 course, prevent cutting off the boards ac- 

 curately. ]Sow to make the table rigid 

 Avhere ft stands, and still bear sliding to and 

 fro, we have what is termed a rocking-shaft. 

 This is a cast-iron shaft about 2* inches in 

 diameter. Don't make it any smaller, 

 thinking it will do. Better have it larger, if 

 any thing. On this shaft is a pair of rigid 

 cast-iron arms, as you see in the cut. At 

 the top of each of these arms, short iron bars 

 are bolted ; and these bolts are attached to 

 the movable table -top. Now, providing 

 these bolts all work closely, we have secured 

 our table so that no twist is possible, unless 

 the shaft should twist. But a 2i iron shaft 

 can not be expected to do this very much. 

 A handle is attached to the sliding top, as 

 you will see in the cut, for drawing it back 

 easily. We have two of these tables in use 

 —one about 10 feet long, and the other 

 about 8, and they are in use almost constant- 



