US121963A

US121963A - Improvement in the manufacture of belt-knives

Info

Publication number: US121963A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1871-12-19
Anticipated expiration: 1888-12-19

Description

BENJAMIN F. RADFORD.

improvement in the Manufacture of Belt Knives.

- Patented Dec 19, 1871.

UNITED STATES PATENT FF IGE.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BELT-KNIVES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 121,963, dated December 19, 1871.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN F. RADFORD, of Hyde Park, in the county of Norfolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in the Manufacture of Belt-Knives; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawing which accompanies and forms part of this specification, is a description of my invention sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

My invention relates to an improved method of forming a straight edge upon a belt-knife or knife-blade or blank, which straight edge is to be subsequently beveled and sharpened to constitute the cutting-edge.

Before my invention such knives, made up of one strip of steel having its ends j oined, or of several strips joined together end to end, have been brought to straight or approximately straight edges by first making a line near the edge to be trimmed with a straight-edge rule or scale, and then shearing ofl' the edges of the plate up to this line. This method, besides involving exceedingly laborious and careful manipulations, is at best very imperfect, or but imperfectly attains the edge desired,'it being impracticable to produce a continuous straight line entirely around the belt. To produce good work with such a knife it is indispensable that the cutting-edges should be straight, and the greater the degree of perfection in such edges the better does the knife operate.

In my invention I obtain such straight edges (from which to form the straight cutting-edge) by mounting the beltknife or knife forming band or blade upon pulleys formed with crowning peripheries, the apexes of which will cause the belt to run truly upon the pulleys; and to operate upon the edges of the belt thus mounted, I apply a stationary cutting-tool held in a suitable head or stock, and at the side of one of the pulleys, and so that the cutting-edge or point shall be at a distance from the center of the adjacent pulley equal to half the width of the knife. As the driving-pulley is rotated the belt is actuated, and the tool cuts the belt to a perfectly straight edge. It is in this method of trimming the belt-knife or band, and in the combination with the crowning pulleys of the cutting-tool, that my invention primarily consists.

The drawing represents a machine for trimming a belt-knife or band in accordance wlth my invention. A shows a plan of the machine. B i

is a side elevation of it.

a denotes a bed, upon which are the housings for the journals of two shafts, I) c, carrying pulleys d 0, upon which pulleys the belt is mounted and by which pulleys it is driven. Each pulley is formed with a crowning or angling periphery,

as seen at A, the angle f being at the center of V the pulley. As the belt is driven its inner side rides upon the crown or angle of the pulleys, and the tension causes the center of the band to travel truly upon the angle, or without any lateral movement. The bearings of one or each pulley may be made adjustable, to increase or lessen the tension of the belt. At one end of the bed is a head-stock, g, in which is clamped a tool-stock, It, carrying a cutting-tool, i. The tool is clamped in suitable position for its point to out either at the side or edge of the band, or into the surface thereof; but in either case the point is fixed as regards a vertical plane running through the apexes of the two pulleys, and cuts the band to an edge parallel to this plane, or, in other words, to an edge perfectly straight, the entire continuous or endless length of the band. The tool-stock may be arranged to slide in the head-stock, and the latter may be a slide-rest, adjustable on a rest or slide, it, and this slide may be adjustable upon another rest, 1, so that toward or from the pulley, and laterally with respect thereto, the tool-stock may be freely slid to bring it to a cutting position, and the rest I may swivel upon a pin, m, to throw the tool up toward or away from the pulley. By moving the tool-stock from one side of the pulley to the opposite one, either edge or both edges of the band may be straight edged. In connection with the belt-driving pulleys and edgetrimming tool, grinder-wheels no may be employed to grind the opposite surfaces of the knife-blade.

I claim- The described method of trimming the edges of endless or belt-knives or bands.

BENJ. F. RADFORD.