US2036411A - Lath machine - Google Patents

Description

N R. H. H. HATHAWAY ZAWWAM LATH MACHINE Filed July 30, 1932 5 Sheets-Sheet l AM T012 NEE 2M3 411 il Aprrfifi '7 WW H. H. HATHAWAY LATH MACHINE 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July so; 1932 April] 9 mw. H. H. HATHAWAY LATH MACHINE Filed July 30, 1952 Sheets-Sheet 5 M/E /Tae I W17 AWAY A TTOJBNE 1 [Zimao wooden member to buckle.

Patented Apr. 7, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1 Claim.

This invention relates to a method and means for breaking the grain in wooden members.

As set forth in my co-pending application Serial No. 306,137, entitled Building construction, filed by me under date of September 15, 1928, it has been found desirable to break the grain in wooden members such for example as plaster lath over which a coating of wet plastic material is applied and the absorption of the moisture from which will normally tend to cause the lath or other It will be evident that this will result in disturbing the plaster supported thereby causing it a crack or break away from the lath.

It is the principal object of the present invention to provide a. method and means of acting upon the wooden members, such for example as wooden lath, to break the grain of the member at suitable intervals throughout its length without appreciably weakening the member and whereby the lath resulting from the operation will be formed with a plurality of surface indentations or perforations which will break the grain of the lath and at the same time produce a surface with which the plastic material applied thereto will more satisfactorily bond.

The present invention contemplates provision of a machine formed with an arrangement for stacking material therein, such, for example as lath, and successively feeding the wooden articles from a stack to indentation means whereby indentations or perforations may be formed in the lath members as they are moved through the machine. It being further contemplated to provide the machine with cutters which may be readily adjusted to meet different requirements, and which are so designed as to insure that they will not readily clog with chips and dust from the wooden members or the resins of the wood.

The invention is illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings in which:-

Figure 1 is a view in side elevation showing the complete machine with which the present invention is concerned.

Fig. 2 is a view in plan showing the machine.

Fig. 3 is a View in end elevation.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary view in elevathm showing an indenting head.

Fig. 5 is a View in side elevation with parts broken away showing the arrangement of the removable cutter members within the indenture head.

Fig. 6 is a view in perspective showing one form of lath product with which the present invention is concerned.

Fig. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary View in plan showing a modified form of the invention as concerned with means for forming grooves in the edge of a lath.

Fig. 8 is a View in vertical section through the device of Fig. '7 as seen on the line 8-8 of that figure.

Referring more particularly to the drawings 10 indicates a bed plate formed with a plurality of upright staves l I spaced from each other to provide a stack space within which articles to be treated, such as lath, may be stacked one upon the other, and with their greater width disposed horizontally. A space I2 is formed in the bed plate l0 and accommodates an endless conveyor chain I3 which passes over sprockets l4 and at the opposite ends of the bed plate and which chain is formed with flights i6 properly "disposed and spaced to insure that the flights will engage the outer end of the lowermost lath in the stack and feed it from beneath the stack and into the machine.

The indenting machine comprises a table I! which is in substantially the same horizontal plane with the bed plate [0 and receives the laths as they are fed longitudinally from the bed plate onto the table. Moving longitudinally onto the table the lath encounters a yieldable guide member 18 which tends to hold the lath against a guide rail 19 and thus insures that the lath will move in a straight longitudinal line through the machine. If desired, a plurality of additional guide fingers I8 may be disposed along the path of travel of the machine. The lath upon leaving the bed plate Ill will move into engagement with an initial pair of rotary indenting heads 2|] and 2|. The machine shown in the drawings is formed with a plurality of pairs of the indenting heads which are indicated as being spaced equidistantly from each other along the path of travel of the lath and will be indicated by the same reference numeral since the description of one of the sets of indenting heads will approximately describe all of them in their essential details. The indenting heads here shown are formed by the use of a pair of collars 22 and 23 mounted upon the upper mandrel 24 or the lower mandrel 25 as the case may be. Clamped between these collars is a plurality of filler discs 26 and cutter discs 21. The cutter discs are formed with lateral slots 28 to receive cutting tools 29 which may be removably held in position. The filler discs 26 are formed on their opposite faces with a circumferential groove 30 to receive laterally projecting shoulders 3| of the cutting tools or bits 29 so that when discs of the composite cutting head are clamped between the collars 22 and 23 by a nut 32 the head will be ready for operation and by selecting the number of discs and providing them with an appropriate number of bit inserts it is possible to make a cutting head act upon a lath of any desired width and to properly break the grain in the lath. In the drawings three sets of cutting heads are shown. The sets of each pair of cutting heads as indicated at 20 the plaster to the lath.

The mandrel 24 of each of the cutting heads 26 is mounted in bearings 33 which are carried by radial arms 34. These arms are mounted to oscillate on shafts In this way it will be seen that the cutting heads 39 and 2! of each pair may move in a vertical plane, as swinging about the shafts 35, and as attached to the arms 34. The cutting heads 28 are thus held in position to act upon the upper surface of the lath by compression springs 3b which are interposed between lug 32 carried by the radius arm 34, and a Washer 33 secured at the outer end of a tension bolt 39 by a nut 46. The lower set of cutting heads 2| mounted on their mandrels 25 are supported in fixed journal boxes ii since the lower face of the lath as it travels through the machine will rest upon the upper face of the table ll. The lower mandrels 25 carry gears 32 which mesh with intermediate gears 43 driven from a gear 44 carried upon a central drive shaft 45. This drive shaft extends through suitable bearings and is here shown as fitted with a drive pulley 46 operated by a driving motor ll. It also may be desirable to positively drive the upper mandrels 24 in which event gears 48 are secured to the mandrels 2 2. and mesh with intermediate gears di? and i l previously described. In any event, it will be understood that the action of the indenting heads positively drives the lath through the machine after it has moved onto the table H, and as it is drawn away from the endless conveyor chain it.

In operation of the present invention, wooden lath of the conventional type are placed between the staves i i in a vertical stack with the greater width of the lath extending horizontally. The machine is then driven from the motor i'i through a belt 5! which passes around a motor pulley 52 and the pulley The flights E6 of the conveyor chain will engage the end of the lowermost lath in the stack and move it horizontally onto the table I! of the machine. Here its forward end will be forced between the indenting heads 20 and El and will be properly guided by the yieldable guide fingers 53. It is to be understood that the bits 29 are so spaced both laterally and circumferentially of the several heads as to insure that they will indent the lath at predetermined intervals throughout its length and that the aggregate width of the indentations will break the grain of the lath throughout the width of the lath although not at the same points, thus insuring that all of the grain of the lath will be broken at some point throughout the width and length of the lath. It is to be understood that various other types of indenting devices might be used if desired, but in any event the lath will be delivered to produce the substantial structure shown in Fig. 6 of the drawings.

It may be desirable to form the lath with a groove 56 along its opposite edges, in which event suitable milling cutters 51 may be mounted at points along the path of travel of the lath to engage the edges of the lath and form the groove 56 In some instances it may be desirable to interrupt the groove 56 along the edges of the lath and for that reason in lieu of each milling cutter 5? and in its place a milling cutter 8D is mounted upon a vertical mandrel 6i and driven by a motor 62. This motor is carried on a bracket 63. A saddle member 64 is mounted upon the mandrel shaft and carries rollers 65 and 66 which may ride on the edge of the lath. The roller 66 is formed with a protrusion 6'! which will swing the cutter away from the edge of the lath each time that the roller makes one revolution. During this swinging movement, the cutter Will be relieved from the edge of the lath and will interrupt the groove 56.

It will thus be seen that the device here disclosed provides a very simple means for repeatedly and automatically treating lath and the like in large quantities to break the grain of the lath and place it in condition where it will not buckle when used under conditions where it is subject to moisture.

It will be evident further that the device is quite simple in construction and not liable to get out of order and that its parts may be readily in terchanged for various purposes if desired.

While I have shown the preferred form of my invention, as now known to me, it will be understood that various changes may be made in combination, construction, and arrangement of parts by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of my invention as claimed.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A machine of the class described comprising a horizontal table, a pair of journal members disposed below the table in fixed spaced relation to each other, a shaft within each journal, a cutter head carried by each shaft, said cutter head comprising a plurality of circumferentially spaced cutting knives disposed in laterally spaced rows, said knives adapted to penetrate the undersurface of a piece of material moving along the table, complementary cutter heads disposed above the table, a shaft for each of said cutter heads, rigid bearing members secured to the top of the table in spaced relation to each other, corresponding in number to the shafts of the upper cutter heads, a pivot pin carried by each of said bearing members, a radial arm, one pivoted on each of said pins, each of said arms receiving a shaft of a cutter head, a spring member, one yieldably acting upon the outer end of each arm and urging it to its lowermost position, drive means simultaneously driving all of said cutter head shafts to move a piece of work along the table between said shafts and to be acted upon by the cutter heads, an independently driven rotary grooving cutter head, means mounting said grooving cutter head forwardly of the said upper and lower penetrating heads and for rotation upon a vertical axis at one side of the work, said grooving cutter head being bodily movable toward and from the work, and means for automatically advancing and retracting said grooving cutter head in relation to an edge of the work for cutting an interrupted groove.

I-IARBOW H. HATHAWAY.

Images