US64228A - Arza b - Google Patents

Description

tait@ tsts @anni @fitta ARZA B. KEITH, OF N ORTH BRIDGEWATER, AND T. K. RED, OF BRIDGEWATER, MASSACHUSETTS.

Letters Patent No. 64,228 dated, April 30, 1867.

IMPROVEMENT IN CUTTING OUT LEATHER.

TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

`:Be it known that we, ARZA B. KEITH, of North Bridgewater, and T. K. REED, of East Bridgewater, all in the county of Plymouth, and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Cutting vOut Leather; and we do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification, is a description of our invention sufhcient to enable those skilled in the art to practise it.

This invention is applicable in boot and shoe factories, wherever rim or hoop knives or cutters, sometimes technically, dies, are 'used to cut out of a side of leather, or a skin, or a strip of either, a shaped sole, a vamp, or a counter, or other piece, the perimeter of which is entirely formed by one cut. It has been customary to use such cutters by placing them on the leather and then striking a heavy blow with a mallet or hammer; but this process is very laborious and rapidly deteriorates the cutters so used.

Our invention consists, primarily,'in a process or mode of-operation for cutting out pieces of leather, the perimeters of which are formed by one cut. Said process is found in making use of hoops or continuous knives, provided with vertical handles, in connection with a press, so that the knives may, by the hand of the operator, be placed anywhere, as desired, on the surface of the leather, which rests on the bed of the press, and may be held and steadied there by the hand during the vcutting operation without the least danger to the operator, the

handles of the knives being of such length as to afford sulcient room for the hand between the follower of the press and the tops of the knives when the follower is in its nearest position to the bed of the press.- The bed and follower of the press are best made of considerable area, though the follower may be of less size than the bed, as the handles of the cutters are centrally located upon them.

In the practice of. our process the area of the bed should not be so large as to prevent the operator from easily reaching from one side all -parts thereof. The position of the leather. may be shifted upon the bed so as to bring thereupon those parts which have overhung the bed. In cutting out leather ny our process, the operator has a bench or table beside him, on which he has his handled hoop-cutters, of such different sizes and forms as he may desire to make use of. The leather being then properly located on the bed of the press, a cutter is taken and placed on the leather where it is desired to cut out a piece, the location of the cutter being such that when the operator causes the follower to descend it will abut upon the handle of the cutter and-will drive its edge through the leather, and thus, by moving the cutter and the leather when necessary, and changing the cutters when desired, and causing movements of the follower, the leather is cut as and where desired, with the least possible wear or vdamage of the cutters, and with so little call for muscular exertion on the part of the operator that women or children may take the place of strong men. The drawings illustrating this process show, inl Figure I, in side elevation, a press, which we find well adapted to its practice; and 1n Figure 2 a front end view thereof.

a is the frame of the press, b thebed, and c the follower, which is attached to a slide, d, which is moved vertically in the ways e whenever the eocentricfon the shaft g is rotated. The bed is faced with suitable soft material, preferably close hard wood with the grain vertical, so as to save the edges of the cutters from harm as they are forced through thc leather upon or into the material of the hed; and a screw adjustment, as seen at h, is provided, by which the face of the bed can be adjusted relatively to the lower face of the follower, so that when this is in its lowest position, the distance between the Ysaid faces shall be equal to the distance from Ythe edges of the cutters to the tops of their handles. A stud, z', is fixed in the rear of the frame, Von which stud are placed, so as to rotate freely thereon, the pinion j, and one part of afriction-coupling arrangement thereon, and the belt-pulley 7c, and theother part of said friction-clutch. By means of' the yoke l, lever m, link n, and bent treadle-lever o, theoperator can, by depressing lever o, by foot, slide pulley .7c towards pinions j, so that by the contact of the two parts of the friction-coupling the rotation of pulley 7c will be communicated to pinion j, which meshes into and rotates the gearp and shaft g on which said gear is xed. When the treadle o is released from the foot of the operator the spring t tends, by its contraction, to restore the treadlc toits normal position, and when the treadle is moved by the spring the parts of the'friction-conpling will vbe Sundered by movement of the pulley c outward on stud z'. There is a lever, q, pivoted to the frame, one end of which has an adjustable connection to the link n, the other end extending to a flange, 1', fixed on shaft g. In the face ot' said ilange there is a recess formed, as seen at s, with inclined sides. The purpose of this lever and the flange with its recess, as arranged and connected, is to cause the follower Ato stop automatically at the highest point of' its movement, which result is brought about as follows: The arrangement of parts is such that when the follower is fully raised the recess in the flange is opposite the upperk end of lever where the spring t, acting through the lever o and link n, keeps it, so that said lever g acts as a stop to prevent accidental movementV of the follower.

But when the treadle is depressed by the foot, then, as pulley c is brought toward flange r, the upper end of lever g is thrown outward from the faceof said lange, and as shaft g begins to rotate the yupperend of lever g, hea-ring against the face of the ange r, keeps the parts of the friction-coupling in contact, even after thelfoot of the operator 'is released from the treadle, and this condition of things remains till, in the rotation of"l the flange, the recess therein comes opposite the aforesaid end of lever g, when the contraction of spring t will at once cause the entry of the upper end of g into said recess, moving the pulley lc outward at the saine instant and releasing the parts of the friction-coupling from contact.

It is in the combination of the parts, when arranged substantially as described, by which movement of the follower is arrested automatically, that Athe second part of our invention consists'.

We claim the described process of press cutting with handle-dies, substantially as described.

Also, the combination, with a treedle-lever, of a. stop-lever and a, friction-coupling, arranged to operatesub stantially as described.

ARZA B, KEITH,

T. K. REED. Witnesses:

J. B. CROSBY, F. GOULD.

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