Tool chest

“ It may thus readily be seen that it is the little bar of metal from which the small tool is made that needs our care and attention.
This is particularly true of the expensive milling machines, where the little saw, if not in perfect order, and not properly set, will not only do improper work, but injure the machine itself.p. 27 More lathes are ruined from using badly ground tools than from any other cause.
In the whole line of tools which the machinist must take care of daily, there is nothing as important as the lathe cutting-tool, and the knowledge which goes with it to use the proper one. ”

“ Their tools are made of the bones of men, generaly the thin bone of the upper arm; these they grind very sharp and fix to a handle of wood, making the instrument serve the purpose of a gouge by striking it with a mallet made of a hard black wood, and with them would do as much work as with Iron tools was it not that the brittle Edge of the tool is very liable to be broke. ”

“ A file is the most ready tool to cut these teeth. Forge the steel carefully, temper equally, and do not leave too hard. When properly made it will last for an untold amount of work.
The number of cuts or teeth to the inch may be about ten. There must be sufficient depth between the teeth to receive the cuttings, and they must be made strong enough to withstand the hammer blows. In driving use oil on the teeth, and be careful to keep it upright, so as to form a hole that will enable the gun-hammer to stand properly on the tumbler. ”

“ It is a semi-circular double-edged knife, made fast into a double wooden handle. Other forms of the fleshing-knife edge are also used. They are sharpened by a steel. The workman seizes the tool in his two hands, so as to place the edge perpendicularly to the skin, and pressing it carefully from above downwards, removes the fleshy excrescences, and lays them aside for making glue. He now turns round the herse upon the wall, in order to get access to the outside of the skin, and to scrape it with the tool inverted, so as to run no risk of cutting the epidermis. ”

“ Before using, the faces of all tools must be rubbed bright on the flesh side of a piece of leather. It is impossible to tool [204] brightly with dirty tools. A tool should be held in the right hand, with the thumb on the top of the handle, and steadied with the thumb or first finger of the left hand. The shoulder should be brought well over the tool, and the upper part of the body used as a press. If the weight of the body is used in finishing, the tools can be worked with far greater firmness and certainty, and with less fatigue, than if the whole work is done with the muscles of the arms. ”

“ Thus when we employ it as a hand tool its direction of motion, under hammer blows, is governed by the inclination of the face which meets the strongest side of the work, while it is the weakest side of the material that moves the most to admit the wedge and therefore becomes the chip, cutting, or shaving. In Fig. 2177, for example, we have the carpenter’s chisel operating at a and b to cut out a recess or mortise, and it is seen that so long as the face of the chisel that is next to the work is placed level with the straight surface of the work the depth of cut will be equal ”

“ The Cutting Angle.—Wrought iron, or mild steel, will form a ribbon when the tool wedges its way into the material. Cast iron, on the other hand, owing to its brittleness, will break off into small particles, hence the wedge surface can be put at a more obtuse angle to the work.
In grinding side-cutters the clearance should be at a less angle than 10 degrees, rather than more, and the top rake should also be less; otherwise the tendency will be to draw the tool into the work and swing the tool post around. ”

“ To reëquip the maimed physically, an indispensable prosthesis (an addition of an artificial part to supply the missing member of the body) is made, the dynamical prosthesis—not the kind which replaces the member, but that which reëstablishes or repairs the functions. What the wounded man needs is not an admirable imitation of the missing arm or leg, ingenious and often fragile appliances, but a practical working tool,—a socket into which a variety of tools can be fitted. ”

“ The radial faces of wrought iron must be finished as smoothly and true as possible, because being harder than cast iron the emery acts less rapidly upon it. For radial faces on brass the surfaces should be finished as smooth as possible with the slide rest tool, which should be round nosed, with the round flattened somewhat where the tool cuts, and the tool should not, under any condition, have any rake on its top face, while the feed should be fine as, say, 32 revolutions per inch of tool travel. ”

“ By having such a tool as this, the necessity of laying one tool down and picking up another, is obviated, for the two are combined in one. For iron work, it is customary to use a heavier and thicker tool for finishing. As in Fig. 10, the front edge is slightly raised or concave, to make it sharp and hold a cut well. All turning tools for finishing iron are made thicker than those for brass, and should have lips, or curved cutting edges. Such tools cannot be used for brass, as they are too sharp; the edges jump into the metal and spoil the work. ”

“ If it be attempted with steel tools to take a very fine cut, as, say, one of sufficient depth to reduce a diameter, say 1⁄500 inch, the tool is apt to turn an uneven surface. There appears, indeed, to be a necessity to have the cut produce sufficient strain to bring the bearing surfaces of the rest into close contact and to place a slight strain on the tool, because under very light cuts, such as named above, the tool will generally momentarily leave the cut or take a reduced cut, and subsequently an increased one. ”

“ The heel tool is used on heavy work, and the object of it is apparent, namely, to hold on the rest, and so impose but little labor on the workman to retain it in place, or prevent it from receding. It is generally forged from half inch or five eighth steel. The steel is held in a handle twenty inches long, grooved on top to fit the steel, and furnished with a handle at right angles. This handle has a square eye in the top that the tool passes through. A nut at the end of it screws up the eye and binds the tool fast in the groove, so that it cannot slip. ”

“ As stated elsewhere, the whole energy of the lathe is concentrated on the bit or cutting tool, hence, in order to get the most effective work out of it requires care; first, in grinding; and, second, in setting
p. 38
Machine Bits.—It does not always matter so much whether you use a square, pointed, or a round-nosed bit, provided it is properly ground and set in the tool holder. As a rule, the more brittle the metal the less the top rake or angle should be. ”

“ A better kind of tool is made like a wheel about two inches in diameter, and three-quarters of an inch thick. A hole of the size of the rod is made through the diametrical centre, and one side of the circumference is cut away so that a tool partaking of the nature of the gouge and finishing chisel is so held by [221] a screw, that the gouge portion advances and roughs out the rod, while the chisel shaped part following it shaves the roughness and leaves the work smooth and nice. ”

“ The lower handle enables the workman to have great power over the edge, and to direct it from or to the work without danger of catching. The tool is used by resting the end on the shoulder, as in Fig. 8, and turning the lowest handle. Since the heel holds the tool from slipping, there is no occasion to bear against it. In fact, there is no occasion, at any time, to force the tool from the workman, but it must be turned sideways, back and forth. A piece, properly centered, may be cut in any way without destroying its truth. ”

“ Nos. 303 and 304 (page 64) show an apparatus useful in all kinds of labor for persons who have undergone a partial amputation of the hand. It consists of a leather sheath, laced to the forearm. Attached to the under surface of this sheath is a steel plate, which extends downward under the stump, turning up slightly at the end. At the end is an aperture through which it is possible to slip the handles of tools and implements, passing them beneath the stump, where they are securely held in place by pressure of the stump. ”

“ With regard to the harder veins which are tractable to iron tools, and likewise with regard to the harder and hardest kind of hangingwall rock, they generally attack them with more powerful iron tools, in fact, with the fourth kind of iron tool, which are called by their appropriate names ”

“ The first tool is known as a right side-tool because it operates on the right end or side of a shaft or collar, whereas the left side-tool E is used on the opposite side, as shown in Fig. 2. Side-tools are also bent to the right or left because [55] the cutting edge of a straight tool cannot always be located properly for facing certain surfaces. A bent right side-tool is shown at F. A form of tool that is frequently used is shown at G; this is known as a parting tool and is used for severing pieces and for cutting grooves, squaring corners, etc. ”

“ They are, therefore, the griping chuck; the supporting rest preceding the cutting tool; a cutting tool having the reciprocating motion to wards and from the axis of the piece to be operated upon, under the control of a guide cam or former, so organized as to be also under the constant control of delicate adjusting apparatus, by which the required diameter of a piece to be operated upon may be constantly preserved without disturbing the functional performance of former and cutting tool, substantially as set forth and described, all operating together for the purpose set forth. ”

“ The end of a brass tool is sometimes ground with a straight cutting edge for turning large rigid work, such as brass pump linings, etc., so that a coarse feed can be used without leaving a rough surface. The tools at N and O are for boring or finishing drilled or cored holes. Two sizes are shown, which are intended for small and large holes, respectively.
The different tools referred to in the foregoing might be called the standard types because they are the ones generally used, and as Fig. 2 indicates, they make it possible to turn an almost [58] endless variety of forms. ”

“ Insert the projecting end of the pin in the hole A, drilled for the joint, and by means of the lathe or bit-stock, cut down each half of the mould to about half of its thickness. The outer circle or cut of the tool will be a guide to which to file the circle of the joint. If the cutting end of the tool be made a little convex it will form the surface of the joint a little hollowing, and a better fit will be the result. ”

“ He saw her whirled round and round with the shaft—he heard the bones of her arms, legs, thighs, &c. successively snap asunder, crushed, seemingly, to atoms, as the machinery whirled her round, and drew tighter and tighter her body within the works, her blood was scattered over the frame and streamed upon the floor, her head appeared dashed to pieces—at last, her mangled body was jammed in so fast, between the shafts and the floor, that the water being low and the wheels off the gear, it stopped the main shaft! ”

“ The boring tool is, upon cast iron and brass, exceedingly liable to chatter, but this may always be avoided by making the angles forming the cutting edge less acute: thus, in Fig. 1110 are three boring tools, a, b, c, operating in a piece of work d. Now the lateral pressure of a cut is exerted upon the tool at a right angle to the length of the cutting edge ”

“ Iron and steel are sometimes smoothed with a tool called a flatter. This tool is struck on with a sledge, and should not be used to stretch iron. Its purpose is only to give the work a smooth finish. Figure 13 shows a flatter, and Figure 14 a set-hammer. The set-hammer is always used to smooth and draw stock. All of these tools are made from tool-steel.
A heading tool is made from a flat piece of soft steel with a hole in one end. Sometimes a carbon steel face is welded on. ”

“ Chasers are also preferable to a single-pointed tool when the work does not require to be cut to an exact diameter, nor to have a fully developed thread clear up to a shoulder; but when such is the case a single-pointed tool is preferable, because if the leading tooth should happen to run against the shoulder the whole of the teeth dig into the work, and more damage is done to it than with a single-pointed tool. ”

“ To pull these superfluous hairs by the hand, the person sits with the skin laid over the knee, strapped down to the foot, and with a dull-edged knife in hand, the thumb being covered with a soft shield, the obnoxious guests are dextrously uprooted. If done by machinery, they are pulled out by being nipped between two revolving slender rollers. The skin is drawn over a sharp-edged board, which causes these hairs to project, and the rollers placed in the proper position and distance, frees the fur of its deteriorating associates with great facility, without disturbing the fur. ”

“ At each machine sat a human being working with hand, foot, and eye, watching the flashing needle, guarding the margin of the seams, jerking the cloth hither and thither quickly, accurately, watching the spool to see that the thread ran freely, oiling the gear with one hand while the other continued to push the garment rapidly under the needle, the whole body swaying, bending, twisting this way and that to keep time and pace with the work. ”