Harness maker

“ The tools are very numerous, but the amateur may dispense with many of them; for though all of them may have to be employed by a [Pg 10] tradesman in turning out finished work, an amateur may be content with a much smaller outfit. The tools are not bulky, however, and all that are necessary for making a double set of harness could be carried in a small handbag, excepting, of course, the mallet and collar-iron. ”

“ The quantity of harness and machinery is reduced in a pressure harness by drawing two or more warp threads into each mail in the harness. Suppose we take 60 in. of cloth with 100 threads per inch = 6,000 threads, and allow 3 threads to each mail in the harness, or each hook of the jacquard, 2,000 hooks, or four 500 jacquards, would be required to work the pattern. As many as six 600 jacquards are sometimes required on this description of work when very fine; but three or four 500 or 600 machines are more commonly used on either hand or power looms. ”

“ The Harness.—When about to mount a loom the first process is to prepare the harness. A harness is built up of several parts, the methods of preparing and building varying in different districts. A few of the best methods will be given. Fig. 46, Nos. 1, 2, and 3, show a complete cord of the harness in three methods of preparing it—A (Nos. 1 and 2) are the tail or tug cords looped to the hooks of the jacquard; these cords are only necessary on double-lift machines, and are usually put on by the machine-makers. They are made of twisted cotton, and are soft and pliable. ”

“ After drawing from front to rear once straight through the entire set of harness, draw from rear to front and repeat. The only difference between harness-work and Jacquard work is in the fact, that with harness we commence to draw in from the first harness straight through to the last, A to B, and back again, B to C; but with the Jacquard tie-up on this method this is arranged through the threading of the comber-board, having a straight-through leasing of the heddles and drawing in of the warp. ”

“ The number of neck twines that are to be tied to each hook is regulated by the tie of the harness. For each time that any repeat or portion of a pattern is to be repeated on the cloth there must be a twine attached to those hooks of the machine that are to work this repeat. For instance, if a 400 machine is used, and the pattern consists of a simple repeat on these 400 hooks, and this has to be repeated six times on the cloth, then six neck twines must be tied to each hook of the machine. ”

“ All the cords constantly dancing up and down causes an unsteadiness and swinging that is not to be found in the ordinary jacquard harness. These machines have sixteen rows of needles in them, which are much closer set together than those in this country, and give a large number of hooks in a small-sized machine, which is a great advantage when extensive patterns are required. ”

“ In some methods of mounting the neck twines are first tied to the tail cords; perhaps this is the plan most commonly adopted with double-acting machines. Sometimes they are tied to the sleepers first, and fastening them to the tail cords is the last process. This is called ‘beeting’ the harness. When single-acting machines are made with the hooks resting on a perforated board, they have tugs on the hooks; but when the wire hooks pass down through a perforated grating, tugs are unnecessary, and the neck twines are fastened to the hooks. ”

“ In a double-scale split harness every hook lifted takes up two ends, and thus the bindings in the figure will appear in twos, and will therefore appear rather coarse. In the ground every end is woven separately by the shafts, and these will require to be lifted to give the required ground weave. All that is required, therefore, is to put the lifting dots on the point paper in the position required to operate the hooks which lift the shafts. Except for the limit with regard to the ground weave, designs for the split harness are prepared in the same manner as for an ordinary harness. ”

“ Straps are always cut along the hide and not across it, the hide being much stronger lengthways.
The first cutting from the hide is suitable for reins, and then in order come traces, back-bands, bridging-straps, [Pg 43] hip-straps, and hip-strap tugs; then crupper billet, shaft tugs, name tugs, bellyband, bridle head-strap, cheeks, etc.; and from the belly part or third quality in side of hide may be cut linings and layers for folds. In making cart harness, cut bridge-band, crupper, and bridge-band carrier or hip-straps and bearers, and then cart-saddle bellybands and bridle ”

“ One row of hooks of a 400s double-lift single-cylinder machine are shown, and it will be noticed that the hooks are not joined together by a [Pg 167] neck cord as in the ordinary machine, but the harness threads are taken singly from each hook as in a single-lift machine. The knives work as in a double-lift, one up, one down. By cutting the cards in a certain manner the whole of the 800 hooks may be operated by the 400 needles so as to produce ordinary brocade or damask figures with a repeat of 800 ends. ”

“ Knife-bar guide ways and the guide slot for the back gage are made with adjustments for taking up wear, for which the maker will give correct instructions on request. The knife-bar pull-down connections are not so easily corrected for wear, and the simpler and more direct these connections are, and the fewer slots and rolls, pins, etc., the better. The general design of the machine also affects its value, especially if it is not adapted for the addition of improvements or attachments for increasing its production. ”

“ The lining being ready, make a four-cord thread of black-wax, cut it in two, and thread a harness needle with half. Having a suitable awl, whip the lining in all round through the leather rim above the stitches inside the forewale; the stitches of course must be inside, and should be well rubbed. Everything is now ready for making the body. Wax some strong twine or make a long beeswax thread, with four or five strands, 31⁄2 yds. ”

“ Tying-up of Jacquard looms with extra compound harness, consists in applying two separate systems of harness in the loom. The warp-threads, after having passed through the Jacquard harness, are passed through harness in front. Each system of harness performs special duty, although they are both working the same warp. The Jacquard harness is used for forming the general design on a large scale ”

“ Here is a huge planing machine travelling to and fro over a copper bar. A crank shaft has been cut out of solid steel by boring holes close together through a thick plate, and the two sides of the plate have been broken off, leaving the rough shaft with its edges composed of a considerable number of semicircles. The shaft is slowly rotated on a lathe, and tiny clouds of smoke arise as the tool nicks off pieces of metal to reduce the shaft to a circular shape. [138] Other machines, with high-speed tool steel, are finishing gear shafts. Fly-wheels are being turned and worm shafts cut. ”

“ The sheave merely serves as a guide to the tool in its path, and the lens may either be worked on the turn-table or upon a chuck attached to the tool rod. The work upon the lens is thus to a great extent independent of the error of the machine through shaking, or bad fitting, or wear; and the only part of the machine which requires really first-class work is the axis of the turn-table, which (in this machine) is a conical bearing at top, with steel centre below,—the bearing turned, hardened, and then ground up true, and run in anti-friction metal. ”

“ In a full harness each thread in any part of the tie can be lifted independently of the others; in wide fabrics, or in order to reduce expense in narrow ones, recourse is had to gathering or repeating the tie, and like threads in each repeat must be lifted together; but in a single tie any one thread can be lifted independently of any other. In full harness there is one thread of warp drawn into each mail or eye of the harness, and one shot is given to each change of card. ”

“ When the two rolls are moved towards each other, the friction on the board causes the hammer to rise; and when again separated the hammer will fall. The back roll is keyed to a shaft, on each end of which is a driving-pulley; and thus by the use of two pulleys on the same shaft, equal wear comes on the bearings in which it revolves. The front roll turns freely on its shaft, and is driven by the back roll being geared to it. To secure to the gears both strength and durability, they are made with wide faces, are geared at both ends, and the teeth are of peculiar shape. ”

“ In the absence of the bevels there would be a sharp corner that would soon become dull. For finishing purposes the corners need not be so much bevelled as in figure, but may be very slightly relieved at the corners a and b, in Fig. 948, the width of the flat nose being slightly greater than the amount of feed per lathe revolution. Such tools produce the quickest and best work without chattering when the conditions are such that the work and the tool are held sufficiently rigid, and in that case may be used for the harder and tougher metals, as wrought iron and steel. ”

“ VAN AND CAB HARNESS. The making of a set of gig harness is described in the companion volume “Saddlery.” Van harness for heavy work requires a set of furniture, including buckles, hames, and chains, and a van saddle-tree. The furniture should be of brass, nickel, or silver. Burgess’s patent tug buckles (Fig. 163, p. 121) can be recommended for shaft tugs.
A pair of winker plates of any pattern (see Figs. 180 and 181) are necessary to make the winkers. Beginning with the winkers, cut the leather about 1⁄4 in. wider than the plate all round, except at the back, where it must be 7⁄8 in. wider. ”

“ The operation of the alleged infringing machine is such that when the power is applied for moving the stretcher bar, it is carried forward to the revolving brush, and after the brush has separated the fur from the hair, carried upwardly, to be acted upon by the cutting knives. The reciprocating motion of the stretcher bar from the brush to the knives is produced by the action of the crank (operating with the cam) on the main shaft, as shown in the photograph. At the same time the mechanism for feeding the machine is in operation, actuated by the same application of power. ”

“ The thread-carrier and the cams are made to revolve together by the turning of the machine handle, or in the case of power machines this motion proceeds from the drive of the frame. The machine may be worked without the dial, using the cylinder needles only for knitting, in which case plain stitch fabric is produced as would be required for a plain hose article. When ribbed work is needed the dial or ribber needles are set in connection with the upright cylinder needles and are made to rotate with the cylinder so that the dial needles share the thread with the cylinder needles. ”

“ Some machinists, when cutting a double thread, simply remove the work from the lathe and turn it one-half a revolution by placing the tail of the driving dog in the opposite slot of the faceplate. This is a very simple method, but if the slots are not directly opposite or 180 degrees apart, the last thread will not be central with the first. Another and better method is to disengage the idler gear from the gear on the stud, turn the spindle and work one-half, or one-third, of a revolution, as the case might be, and then connect the gears. ”

“ The extended use of the milling machine, which is an especial feature of modern machine shop practice, is due, in a very large degree, to the solid emery wheel, which provides a simple method of sharpening the cutters without requiring them to be annealed and rehardened, it being found that annealing and rehardening reduces the cutting qualifications of the steel, and also impairs the truth of the cutting edges by reason of the warping or distortion that accompanies the hardening process. ”

“ The principal advantage of a babbitted bearing is the ease with which it can be renewed, and the fact that the metal will soon bed itself to the journal. This is of great advantage in the case of solid bearings in the framing of fast-running machines, and in situations where it would be awkward or difficult to take brasses or bushes out to fit them, or align them to the shaft, which in many cases would also require to be taken out to remove the brasses. ”

“ In single-pointed tools, such as are used upon lathe work, this has but little significance, because it is the work of but a minute or two to grind up the tool to a full point again, but in taps and solid dies, or in chasers in heads (as in some bolt-cutting machines) it is highly important, because it impairs the fit of the threads, and it is difficult to bring the tools to shape after they are once worn. ”

“ Operation in metal would, of course, demand variations in organization, but not necessarily anything more than would result from the experience of the intelligent mechanic. The Springs did not claim a combination of a slotted guide cam, an adjusting screw, a spring, guiding rods, etc., with a fr mer, a cutting tool, a rest, and a griping chuck, and, as it stands, the claim was, in the existing state of the art, for an analogous or double use, and not partentable. ”

“ First, work to be bored must be held (by bolts, plates, chuck-jaws, or similar appliances) with sufficient force to withstand the pressure of the cut taken by the cutting tool, and this pressure exerts more or less influence to spring or deflect the work from its normal shape, so that a hole bored true while clamped will not be so true when released from the pressure of the holding clamps.
To obviate this as far as possible, expert workmen screw up the holding devices as tight as may be necessary for the heavy roughing cuts, and then slack them off before taking the finishing cuts. ”