US543847A

US543847A - Trimming attachment for sewing-machines

Info

Publication number: US543847A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1895-08-06
Anticipated expiration: 1912-08-06

Description

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

- H. CASE.

TBIMMING ATTACHMENT FOR SEWING MACHINES.

No. 543,847. Patented Aug. 6, 1895.

wwvwom (No Model.) 2 SheetsSheet 2.

H. CASE. TBIMMING ATTACHMENT FOR SEWING MAOH/INES.

No. 543,847. Patented Aug. 6, 1895.

I W/l/ll/l/l/l/l/l/l/l/l/ll/l/Il/ll;

UNI-TED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

' HENRY CASE, or GLovERsvILLE, NEW YORK.

TRIMMING ATTACHMENT FOR- SEWING-MACHINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 543,847, dated August 6, 189 5.

Application filed August 10, 1394- Serial No. 519,951- (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HENRY CASE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Gloversville,

in the county of Fulton and State of New York, haveinvented a certain new and useful Improvement in Trimming Attachments for Sewing-Machines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to the class of trimming attachments for sewing-machines forming the subject of Letters Patent No. 495,020, granted to me April 11, 1893; and the improvements herein consist in, first, a rigid hoodbracket in which the cutter-shaft and gearing are inclosed; second, means for raising and lowering the cutter to compensate for wear; third, a fastening for securely holding the attachment to the throat-plate or clothplate of the sewing-machine; fourth, a positively-rotated cutter-guard; fifth, a retainingspring to prevent reaction to the cutter, and, sixth, a sharpener for the cutter or knife by means of'which the said cutter may be reedged without removing from the machine, each and all substantially as hereinafter particularly set forth and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating my invention, in the several figures of which like parts are similarly designated, Figure 1 is a top plan view. Fig. 2 is a side elevation with the hood-bracket partly broken away and showing the sharpener in position to sharpen or grind the cutter. Fig. 3 is a sectional elevation of the opposite side of the attachment. Fig. 4 is abottom plan view. Fig. 5 is a sectional elevation taken in the plane of line a a, Fig. 4, looking toward the left. Fig. 6 is a sectional elevation taken in the plane of line b b, Fig. 4, looking toward the right. Fig. 7 is a top plan View of the throatplate and guard; and Fig. 8 is a cross-section thereof taken in the plane of line 0 c, Fig. 7, looking in the direction of the arrow. Fig. 9

is a sectional elevation, on an enlarged scale,

of the sharpening device.

As in the patent referred to, so here the object of the invention is to provide an attachment applicable to various kinds of sewingmachines for trimming the seams-of articles as they are'sewed, the primary application being to machines for sewing kid and other skin or leather gloves.

The attachment is designed to be driven from the main or other shaft of the sewingmachine by suitable interposed mechanism,

,such as an arm carried by the attachment and a cam or toe or other device on the shaft, the connection in any case being such that the attachment may be applied to and removed from the sewing-machine at pleasure without disturbing the mechanism of the sowing-n1achine proper.

1 may represent a portion of a cloth-plate of a sewing-machine, 2 the throat-plate having the feed-

dog slot

3, and 4 the main or driving shaft having a cam 5. The hood-bracket 6 is composedof the top 7, sides 8 8, front 9, rear 10, and flange 11, so as to inclose the cuttershaft 12 and its gearing and protect these parts from dust, fibers, and trimmings. The top of the hood-bracket is extended forwardly at 13 and inserted in its rear is a removable sleeve 14 to provide bearings for the cuttershaft, said sleeve being held in place by a setscrew 15. The cutter-shaft is provided with the rotary cutter or disk-knife 16, and said knife is held up to its guard 17 by a spring 18, which is interposed between its main gear-wheel 19 and some portion of the hood-bracket-as, for example, the sleeve 14. The cutter-shaft is retracted from its guard by means of a cam 20 journaled in the hood-bracket and provided with an operating device 21, said cam being in the form of a cylinder with a slabbed-off end 20, which acts against the gear-wheel 19 or its hub or other contiguous projection on the cutter-shaft. The mechanism for transmitting motion from the main shaft to the main gear-wheel19 andcutter-shaft is shown herein as comprising a gear-wheel 22, arranged upon a stud or journal 23, which is secured in block 24, the latter being supported by the bedplate of the machine. A ratchet 25 is attaohed to or formed upon the face of this gear-wheel 22, and is engaged by a pawl 26, carried by a swinging arm 27, also pivoted to the stud 23, and this pawl is held up to the ratchet by a spring 28 fast on said arm. The arm 27 is provided with a roll 29 to be acted upon by the cam or other projection 5 of the main shaft, thereby intermittently to rotate the ratchet and its gear-wheel 22. The gearwheel 22 meshes with the gear-wheel 19, and thereby there is imparted an intermittent retary motion to the cutter, such that the trimming will be effected only as the stitching proceeds. A retaining-spring 30 is secured to the block 24, and its free end presses against the back of the gear-wheel 22, thereby to prevent reaction of the cutter-shaft. The block 24: is provided with a vertical hole 31 to receive the post 32, which depends from the hood-bracket and has its end slabbed off and grooved to engage a plate or projection 33 on the block to permit the securing and removal of the attachment, as in the patent referred to. The cam 20, when rotated to compress the spring 18, carries the cutter-shaft rearwardly and throws the gear-

wheels

19 and 22 cut of mesh and permits the rotation of the hoodbracket upon its post within the block to dis engage said post from its detent 33, and thereby admit of the removal of the attachment from the sewing-machine.

The cutter-guard 17 is a positively-rotated disk, secured to a shaft 34, having a gearwheel 35, which meshes with a gear-wheel 36 on the cutter-shaft, and I prefer to use a smaller gear-wheel on the guard-shaft than its driving gear-wheel 86, so that the guard may revolve faster than the cutter and thereby remove the feather-edge thrown up on the face of the cutter by the action of the sharpener presently described. The guard-shaft 34: is mounted in a plate 37, dovetailed or otherwise slid in the throat-plate at right angles to the feed-dog slot and having an ear or plate 3Slapping over upon the top of the throat-plate and provided with a slot 39 and adjustingscrew .0, tapped into the throatplate, whereby the guard may be adjusted in the direction of the length of its shaftthat is to say, toward and from the needle-hole 41, in accordance with the distance the article is to be trimmed from its seam or line of stitching, the cutter-shaft being correspondingly adjusted by the yielding of its spring 18 under the pressure of the guard upon the cutter.

The hood-bracket is provided with one or more (I prefer two) screws 42, which bear upon the throat-plate and cloth-plate or either, in order to set the said hood high orlow, as the diameter of the cutter and the character of the work may require.

43 is a thumb-screw, also applied to the hood-bracket and tapped into a screw-hole 43* in the throat-plate or cloth-plate to hold positively and rigidly the attachment to its place at front. This thumb-screw passes freely through the hood-bracket, while the screws 42 are tapped into the hood-bracket.

In order to provide for sharpening the out ter without the necessity of removing the cutter and its shaft, I provide a sharpening device, which, in the instance herein shown, consists of an oil-stone or emery-wheel 44, mounted upon a vertical shaft 45. This shaft 45 has bearings in a head 46, and this head is provided with a lateral plate 47, resting upon the top of the hood'bracket and secured to said hood-bracket movably by means of a screw 48 passed through a slot 4-9 into the top of the hood-bracket, the other end of said plate being slotted at 50 to engage a guide-pin 51 projecting upwardly from the top of the hood-bracket. In the construction shown the shaft 45 is screw-threaded, and this screwthreaded portion engages the screw-threaded hub of a bevel gear-wheel 52, which is arranged within the head 46. This head 46 also has a bearing 53 for one end of shaft 5%, on which is a beveled gear-Wheel 55,which meshes with the bevel gear-wheel 52, and the other end of said shaft has a bearing in a tubular projection 56 on the top of the hood-bracket, the said shaft extending into the casing 57, extending out from one side of the hoodbracket and opening into the hood-bracket, and on this end of the said shaft is affixed a gear-wheel 58, which is adapted to be engaged with agear-wheel 59, fast on the cutter-shaft. Between the bearing 53 and the tubular projection from the hood-bracket the shaft 54 is exposed and is encircled by a coiled spring 65, which normally tends to throw the head outwardly toward the cutter. An L-shaped push-rod 60 is arranged in the tubular projection alongside of and parallel with the shaft therein, so as to bear against its gear-wheel 58, and the base 61 of this rod projects through an L-shaped slot 62 in the said tubular projection in such manner that when the said push-rodis moved toward the gear-wheel and its base comes into alignment with the vertical portion 63 of the L-shaped slot 62 and is pushed into the said vertical portion the said shaft, with its attached head and emery-wheel, will be withdrawn from the cutter, and so when the said base 61 is lifted out of the vertical portion of the L-shaped slot the spring encircling the said shaft will force the head out bearing the emery-wheel and cause said emery-wheel to come in contact with the cutter, thereby grinding or sharpening the cutter as it is revolved.

ICC

ITO

I have shown the cutter-shaft and the sharpening-shaft arranged at right angles to each other, since when the cutter and the emerywheel occupy these relative positions the best results will be obtained, but it is within my invention to arrange the grinder parallel with the cutter.

It will be observed that when the emerywheel is withdrawn from the cutter its gearwheel is thrown out of mesh with the gearwheel on the cutter-shaft.

I have thus described the best mode in which I have contemplated applying the principle of my invention, but I do notwish to be understood as limiting my invention to the details of construction, excepting as hereinafter'specifically claimed.

- What I claim is 1. A rotary cutter, a cutter shaft and means to rotate it, combined with a cutter guard, a rigid hood-bracket in which the cutter shaftis arranged, a post supporting the hood-bracket and cutter shaft, and a bearing applicable to I in which said shaft is arranged and supported,

and means whereby the said hood-bracket may be detachably connected to a sewing machine bed or cloth plate at one end and an adjusting medium applied to the other end of the said hood-bracket to adjust it so as to support the cutter at the proper height relative to the throat plate, substantially as described.

3. In atrimming attachment for sewing machines, a rotary cutter, a shaft therefor and means to support and drive the said shaft, combined with a rotary sharpener for such cutter, a cutter guard and gear wheels of different diameters interposed between said guard and the cutter shaft whereby the said guard is positively rotated, and the fin or feather raised on the cutter by the sharpener is removed, substantially as described.

4. In a trimming attachment for sewing machines, the combination with a rotary cutter, a cutter-shaft, means to support and drive the said cutter shaft, and a rotary sharpener for such cutter, of a cutter-guard, a shaft upon which it is mounted, a gear wheel on the cutter-shaft and a smaller gear wheel on the guard shaft in mesh with the said gear wheel on the cutter shaft to drive the cutter guard at a greater speed than the cutter and thereby remove the fin or feather from the cutter which is raised by the sharpener, substan .tially as and for the purpose described.

5. A seam trimming attachment for sewing machines comprising a rotary cutter, a shaft therefor, a hood-bracket in which said shaft is supported and having a detachable pivotal connection with the bed or cloth plate of a sewing machine, a driven gear wheel on said shaft, a driving gear wheel, a pawl and ratchet mechanism connected with the said driving gear wheel,ar1d a retaining spring 30 applied to said driving wheel, and means to impart mo tion to said driving wheels pawl and ratchet mechanism, substantially as described.

6. In a trimming attachment for sewing machines, the combination of a rotary cutter, a shaft therefor, means to support and drive such shaft, a rotary sharpening device, such as an emery wheel or oil stone, a 10ngitudinally slidable shaft to carry and drive said sharpening device, said shaft being driven from the cutter shaft, a spring to hold the sharpening device in contact with the cutter and means to retract the slidable shaft to throw out of contact the sharpening device and cutter and so retain positively the sharpening device out of contact, substantially as described.

7. In a trimming attachment for sewing machines, the combination of a rotary cutter, a shaft therefor, means to support and drive the said shaft, a rotary sharpening device such as an emery wheel or oil stone, a movable head in which the said sharpening device is supported, a shaft and interposed gearing for rotating the said sharpening device, and gear wheels connecting the said shaft and the cutter shaft to transmit motion from the latter to the former, substantially as described. I

8. In a trimming attachment for sewing machines, a rotary cutter, a shaft, a hood-bracket in which said shaft is supported and means to drive,said shaft, a movable head having a laterally extended plate movably supported upon the said hood-bracket, a sharpening device arranged within said head, a sliding shaft united with said head, a spring normally projecting the said head and its sharpening device toward the cutter, a push rod and means to lock it to retract said head from the cutter, and means to drive the sliding shaft and to communicate its motion to the sharpening device, substantially as described.

9. In a trimming attachment for sewing machines, a cutter, a cutter shaft, a support for the latter, means to drive the said cutter shaft, a slidable shaft provided "with a gear wheel which is adapted to be moved into and'out of mesh with a driving gear wheel on the cutter shaft, and a sharpening device carried on one end of the slidable shaft and adapted to be rotated by said slidable shaft, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 8th day of August, A. D. 189i.

HENRY CASE. \Vitnesses:

D. O. CHRISTIAN, WM. S. CAssEDY.