of destruction when handling billets at a white heat. The height has been designed to conform to that of the furnacedoor and to top of the bottom die on the steam-hammers in use. A heavy hot slab may be pulled from the furnace and wheeled over to the anvil of the steam-hammer with greatest ease. The construction is very simple and inexpensive. The axle is made of 3 x 3-inch wrought iron, and the two wheels are 24 inches in diameter, 31⁄2-inch thread, and made of cast iron. The slab rest A is made of 3 x 34-inch wrought iron, supported by the 3 x 34-inch braces B, with a piece of 1 inch wrought-iron pipe C acting as a strut. The whole is bolted down through the axle by a %-inch bolt passing through the pipe, and each end riveted over. The support D is of 34 x 2inch wrought iron made in U-shapes, and is very rigid. The UU b FIG. 144. Hand-vise handle before and after "closing." handle is of 11⁄2-inch round wrought iron, welded to a 34 x 3inch yoke. The hand bar is 1 inch in diameter by 24 inches long for the accommodation of two men. The truck, as a whole, has been found very useful and substantial, and since its trial many others have been constructed. The Possibilities of Planing-Tools for Finishing Forgings We have had occasion a number of times in manufacturing to do work with special shaving or planing tools. This has proven a much more accurate and a cheaper method than the usual way of milling. We ask ourselves, has the milling cutter so much advantage over the planing-tool in removing stock and machining a true surface? We all know that a cutter, to work free, must have sufficient rake to allow the chips to be removed without too much breaking up, and there must be enough metal backing up the cutting edge to withstand the strain of the cut. This is the case with all cutting-tools, whether a drill, a milling-cutter, or a planer-tool. The planertool has the big advantage, in that it can have ample rake for free cutting, and at the same time have plenty of backing to support the cutting-edge. Now, why not give the planing-tool more cutting edges? Give it a wider cut, and make it in series, to first break up the surface with serrated tools and then follow with tools to remove the stock and make the finishing-cut. The question that presents itself is: what is the limit of size of cut that can be taken? Given a machine of sufficient strength and proper FIG. 145.-Hand-vise forgings "before" and "after," with shavings. tools, may not a surface be machined in one stroke that in the old ways takes hundreds? Work on Hand-Vise Forgings With a profiling fixture, the hand-vise jaws shown kept a man comfortably busy to turn out 150 in ten hours. With the set of dies illustrated, a boy easily finished, in three operations, 400 in 91⁄2 hours. With a stroke of sufficient length, and by building the die in series, this could as well be increased to 1,200 pieces in the same time. The length of the cut around the vise is about nine inches, and it was made at about 15 feet per minute. If a 9-inch cut is possible and practicable, why not 18-inch or 36-inch? Another example is the checkering and V-grooving on the face of the jaw. These operations were both done on a 14inch Hendey shaper. The checkering was done at the rate of 1,000 per day, and we did not think the most exacting would find fault with 300 in the same time on the milling-machine. The grooving went easily at 1,500 per day. The work will, we think, compare favorably with the average milling-work. We find that with proper rake on the tools there is less tendency to spring the work than in milling. In some instances we have found it possible to use as much as 20 to 30 degrees of rake. Another point in favor of this form of tool is that it does not need relieving on the return-stroke, as the work can be FIG. 146.-Punches and dies for trimming hand-vise forgings. removed before that occurs. Should the cutter return over the work, only the last cutting-edge would touch. This is not a serious fault where the tool is strong and heavy and the material soft. This practise allows the cutter to be fastened solidly to the ram of the machine, making it less liable to spring or chatter. In the photograph, Fig. 145, are shown some of the forgings in different stages. At the left are the rough forgings, showing the slot or gutter in the handle before it was closed. It was necessary to forge the slot with considerable draft to the sides, as at a, Fig. 144, which is an enlarged section across the middle of the straight part in order to get the required depth. They were put through a drawing or closing-die to bring the sides parallel, as at b, before putting them through the shaving-dies. At the center of the picture is a forging after it has been through the roughing-die, showing the serrations, where the cut was heaviest. At the right are shown some of the forgings after the finishing operations. The dies shown in Fig. 146 were made the reverse from the usual way. The punch was fitted to a die-block on the bolster-plate, and the dies to a holder in the ram. This arrangement made it easy to place and to hold the forgings in position, by cen FIG. 147.-Tools for "checkering" and grooving vise jaws. tering the slot on the projection on the punch. The work was flooded by pumping oil through a tube connected with the die-holder, shown at the right in Fig. 146. The dies were 11⁄2 inches thick, made straight on the inside and with a 30 degree rake on the cutting-edge. The cut was taken by roughing-dies and varied from .005 to .040 inch, being heaviest around the boss where the die was serrated. The second die was enough smaller than the first to clean up the serrations. The third, or finishing-die, had a uniform cut of about .002 inch. The tool for doing the checkering on the face of the jaw is about 21⁄2 inches wide and was made to fasten direct to the clapper-block. The cutting-part of the tool projected back of the center of the clapper-block, under the ram. The cuttingedges of the tool were made by a series of steps of about .005 |