Abstract: A tree pruning machine which has a body for vertically elevating on a standing tree through a wheel driven by an engine, a rotary device for turning on the periphery of the body, a cutting unit provided in the rotary device and having a detector for detecting the cutting resistance effected from the cutting branch, and a rotating speed reduction unit of the rotary device, wherein the rotating speed reduction unit is controlled by the detector of the cutting resistance. If a branch having a large current resistance such as a thick or hard branch makes contact with the cutting unit, the detector detects the contact of the cutting unit with the branch having large cutting resistance, the contact is detected by the detector to decelerate the rotating speed. Thus, the pruning machine can cut branches of a standing tree having large cutting resistance such as thick or hard branches.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for delimbing a plurality of elongated tree stems includes at least a pair of vertically mounted, longitudinally offset flail members with flexible impact members mounted on rotatable drums. The drums rotate in the direction of stem flow through the flailing station and limbs and other debris can be collected within a defined area. A housing is structured to define a feed slot through the flailing station. In an alternate embodiment infeed rolls are provided to vertically orient the plurality of stems so that debarking as well as delimbing can be efficiently performed at the flailing station.

Abstract: A curved wood bending machine for bending solid, veneered or laminated wooden members has a support frame with a generally planar top member on which a plurality of guide rails are connected in predetermined circumferential relationship and radial planes from a common counterpoint on the top member so that clamping assemblies slidably mounted on the guide rails can be moved by suitable associated actuating means on the guide rails to predetermined positions relative each other. The clamping assemblies have a fixed vertical shoe and a coacting movable shoe which is activated by a suitable fluid pressure device such as a pneumatically operated cylinder and plunger arrangement so that a desired curvature can be established to fit and bend an elongated wooden member therein.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for shaping the inside corner of slabs of material comprised primarily of polymethyl methacrylate filled with alumina trihydrate. The process involves fastening a connecting slab between horizontal and vertical slabs and shaping the connecting slab with an arcuate shape which meets the flat surfaces of the horizontal and vertical slabs. The tool for the process has cutting surfaces to create the indicated inside corner shape and is used in conjunction with a base for a rotary motor router. The resulting product has a rounded inside corner which appears molded as a single piece, rather than a combination of pieces or slabs.

Abstract: A debarking device comprising a debarking arm with a debarking tool mounted to the end thereof. The debarking tool has a curved bearing surface and the debarking arm is provided with a curved recessed seat for receiving the debarking tool. The bearing surface of the debarking tool and the recessed seat of the arm are provided with guides for allowing guided adjustments in the orientation of the debarking tool relative to the debarking arm. Further, the debarking device includes a fastener for retaining and locking the debarking tool at a desired adjusted orientation with respect to the arm.

Abstract: Tractor mounted rotary cutting equipment of a type suitable for use in grinding down tree stumps to below surface level is provided. The cutting disc of the equipment is driven by an hydraulic motor through a flexible coupling and the hydraulic motor is, in turn, driven by an hydraulic power pack which is activated by the engine of the tractor. Preferably an over-run device is embodied to allow the cutting disc to continue rotating when the tractor engine is slowed down. The cutting disc preferably has cutters secured thereto by bolts or the like passing through a part of the disc and into co-operating screw threaded holes in the cutters.

Abstract: A reedmaking system is disclosed that includes a device for thickness sizing by sliding a cane segment along a guide surface past a cutting edge that is spaced apart from the guide surface a distance slightly greater than the thickness of a conventional finished reed. An adjacent length sizing tool on a common base member enables cutting to length with a blade spaced apart from a stop member a distance slightly greater than the length of a conventional finished reed. A separate hand held tapering tool includes a tapered bar on a handle for tapering by trimming to the taper of the bar as a rough reed blank is retained against the tapered bar with a single clamp member attached adjustably to the distal end of the tapered bar, while a duplicator mounted on a separate base member includes a cutting assembly with a follower that follows the shape of the pattern reed as a blade shaves the reed accordingly.

Abstract: A large diameter nose bar roll apparatus for a veneer lathe is disclosed including an automatic knife gap adjustment means. The knife gap adjustment means reduces the knife gap between the nose bar roll and the knife blade during peeling in response to decreases in the log diameter and/or changes in the knife pitch angle. This knife gap adjustment maintains the nose bar roll in contact with the log at the proper contact pressure as the diameter of the log decreases during peeling. This is necessary for nose bar rolls having a large diameter of at least 1.5 inches and 15 times the thickness of the veneer such as, for example, a nose bar roll of 3.75 inches diameter. An electrical control means is employed for automatically controlling the knife gap adjustment means by moving the nose bar roll toward the knife in response to decreases in the log diameter and changes in the pitch angle.

Abstract: An improved apparatus is described for chipping a resilient material such as layers of scrap wood veneer of the type that includes feeding the resilient material across an anvil into contact with a rapidly moving chipping blade. The apparatus includes a crush roll for holding the material down as it approaches the anvil surface. The crush roll is journal-mounted on a pair of support arms swing-mounted on a framework to respond to variations in level of material received by the apparatus. Hold-down fingers are pivotably supported upon a finger shaft and their fingertips hold the veneer onto the anvil as close as practicable to the knife blade. A compensating linkage carries the finger shaft and is pivotally connected to the support arms and to the frame to which the support arms are pivotally connected. The compensating linkage compensates for the horizontal amount that the fingertips would otherwise travel as a horizontal component of the swing arc of the crush roll as it responds to varying material levels.

Abstract: A double-drum wood chipper for obtaining wood chips of uniform thickness from logs. Each one of a pair of oppositely rotating, hollow, open ended drums is provided with cutting knives. An aperture through the drum walls is located near each knife for reception of the wood chips. Two knife patterns on the drums are disclosed. The parallel-cutting edge of each knife makes an angle of about 150.degree. with the cutting edge of each of two laterally positioned, integral cross cutting knives.

Abstract: An improved stump grinding apparatus wherein the design and location of the components encourage the operator to stay at the handles which are located away from the cutting wheel while it is rotating. The cutting wheel rotates whenever the engine is running, and, because the apparatus is supported by a pair of tires and its weight is balanced slightly forward of the tires (the end with the cutting wheel), the rotating cutting wheel will fall to the ground whenever the operator lets go of the handles. Further, because the underside of the cutting wheel is exposed at all times, if the operator releases the handles without first stopping the engine, the cutting wheel will dig into the ground. The apparatus also has an angular side chute aft of the cutting wheel which deflects wood chips from the stump being ground to the side of the apparatus.

Abstract: A device for trimming two opposite edges of veneer to provide parallel edges uses optical apparatus to scan the edges and determine the maximum width to which the veneer can be trimmed. The veneer is scanned at an inlet table upstream in the feed direction from a trimming apparatus in which previously checked veneer is cut to the determined width. The width to be cut is stored in a controlled device. When the trimming apparatus completes the cutting of the previously checked veneer, the control device sets the trimming apparatus for the width of the veneer to be cut and the veneer is moved from the inlet table to the trimming apparatus and is cut.

Abstract: A blade type wood splitter is described including a blade guarding housing that is movable along with the blade to engage a wood block prior to contact of the block by the cutting edge of the blade. The housing rests against the wood block as the blade is driven through and later is retracted with the blade following the splitting operation. The housing includes a peripheral wood engaging edge that substantially circumscribes the cutting edge of the blade and is normally spaced therefrom toward the platform on which the wood blocks are received. This edge may first engage the wood block as the blade is moved toward splitting contact with the block. The edge may therefore provide ample warning to an operator who has inadvertently placed fingers in the path of the blade by contacting the fingers before the blade descends to cause injury.

Abstract: A wood processing machine includes a cylindrical cutter assembly having a plurality of adjacent disks, each holding one or more cutting blades. The cutting blades are mounted in indentations in the disks. The solid character of the cylindrical structure thus formed can be smaller than prior drum-type wood processors because the individual disks are stronger than the thin plate of a drum. The novel disk construction is shown utilized in a wood chipping apparatus and in a wood flaking apparatus.

Abstract: A fixture for a router for permitting one end of a finishing tool extending therethrough to be moveable along a radius edge of a countertop for trimming such edge off of the countertop. The fixture includes a base member adapted to be attached to the front surface of a router housing and includes a central front flange rigidly connected to the base member and extending from the base member out toward one end of the finishing tool. Because of the configuration of the fixture, there will be a clearance between the outer edge of the front surface of the router housing and the countertop when the rounded front edge of the central flange is moved along the radius of the countertop while a cylindrical guide surface on the front end of the finishing tool is on the top of the countertop and the cutting edge of the finishing tool trims off a portion of the top front edge of the countertop.

Abstract: A process is described, with the aid of which panel-type workpieces to be manufactured from a panel blank may also be provided with flat face and/or end face bores in the course of their manufacture. For this purpose, the panel blank is displaced transversely to the cutting plane into a stop position, the flat face bores pertaining to one of the workpieces to be manufactured are subsequently made in the one flat side of the panel blank. To make the further flat face bores for the workpiece, the panel blank is then transported further in a clocked manner through predetermined paths in the same direction and bored after each advance. Upon completion of all of the flat face bores, the panel blank is displaced in a clocked manner in the opposite direction into predetermined positions, fixed after each advance, and lastly severed.For the end face boring, the panel blank is displaced in the direction of advance through a path corresponding to a side length of a workpiece and subsequently clamped and severed.

Abstract: A delimbing device which includes a rotatably mounted drum (13) within which a number of processing devices are mounted for mechanically processing a bundle of stems with twigs in order to limb and preferably also feed said stems longitudinally through the drum. Each processing device consists of at least one rotating member (16, 17) mounted on the inner side of the drum and accompanying the drum rotation. This rotating member comprises one or more tearing, cutting and/or shearing tools, for example screws (16, 17) adapted to remove limbs by cutting.

Abstract: Interlocking joints such as box finger joints and dovetail joints are made in wood parts by a combination including a body for attachment to a tool table having a guide slot in the upper surface for guiding a work feeder. The combination includes a router tool and a vertically adjustable tool holder for holding and carrying the router tool with the router cutter axis parallel to the upper surface of the tool table attached to the body. The tool holder is formed substantially in the shape of a sector of a circle and is attached to the body by a pivotal attachment substantially at the center of the arc of the sector. The tool holder includes a circular arc shaped gear rack at the arcuate edge thereof, and a pinion gear is rotatably attached to the body and in engagement with the gear rack or vertical adjustment of the tool holder.

Abstract: A workpiece stop mechanism (20, 50) for use with a fence (50, 60), is disclosed. The stop mechanism (20) includes a body member defining an opening for enabling the body member to be inserted on and removed from the fence (50) and for sliding on the fence (50). The body member has a view plate (24) that is cooperatively connected for viewing a measuring device (57). A gate member (30) and eccentric (31) provide for pivoting the gate member between an open and closed position wherein when in the closed position the gate (30) is engaged with the fence (50) and thereby securing the gate (50) and body to the fence (50). The fence (50) includes a body member (51) adapted to be secured to a work surface and an upright member (55) cooperatively connected to the bottom member (51). An angled extension member (56) is cooperatively connected to a top portion (55c) at an angle from approximately 30.degree. to 60.degree. and preferably at an angle of approximately 45.degree..

Abstract: A log sawing and cutting apparatus has a knife head which serves as a cutting tool for the production of wood chips and a coaxial circular sawblade which serves to saw off at least one side board. The knife head is connected with a hollow shaft. The saw shaft is connected to a saw shaft and is pivoted and axially displaceably supported in the hollow shaft. The saw shaft is connected with a drive apparatus which provides a higher spped than the hollow shaft.