KTWU Sunflower Journeys 1605C - Patrick's Woodcrafts
Produced by Bill Shaffer
Patrick Haire - Humboldt, KS: The building here which is the Landers' Carriage and Wagon Shop, an 1876 shop, finally became available. It was ideal for a setting for the machinery and myself...that's why I came to Humboldt. There's over thirty machines in operation here. Those were acquired one or two at a time throughout the country. The machinery that I have here, although a lot of it is self-feeding and self-powered machinery, you have to work with the machinery almost as if you were working with a hand tool. It's very personal on the set-up. It's something that you have to listen to and feel. You even have to use your sense of smell because of the bearing system. If you run it too long, it gets too dry and you get the warning that something's too hot. So, yes, there is a very personal day to day working relationship with the machinery. Patrick Haire: This small line shaft system as well as the one in the woodworking shop is a good example of using a single power source to run many machines at one time. This line shaft would originally have been operated with a steam engine. This line shaft here is operating right now about seven different machines and will have more hooked up as time goes on. Also to be able to take iron and to beat it or shape it into very fine shapes, it was very heavy and took a great deal of heavy pounding. That's why the blacksmiths obviously were big and strong. In a shop like this to be more productive and to alleviate that strain, you have the option of a trip hammer which is driven by the line shaft and all you do is, with the movement of a lever, start up a machine that does ninety per-cent of the hard work for you. Patrick Haire: This drill press came with a removable hand crank which could be installed so that the drill could be operated by hand, but more often than not, since the line shaft would be running from eight to twelve to fourteen hours a day once it was started...is by simply shifting this belt over, now this machine becomes totally line shaft driven.
Patrick Haire: This beautiful band saw is a general purpose band saw. It's well documented, historically. It was built by one of the high end machine makers of the 19th century, J. A. Faye. It's a 38-inch band saw. As opposed to a lot of embellishment on machinery or other artifacts from that era that were attributed solely to the Victorian time, some of the embellishment on this machine was just a result of engineering details that allowed, among many things, to break the bottom wheel and allowed the top wheel to safely slow down without breaking your blade. There are many features on this saw that you wouldn't find in even some of your most expensive industrial woodworking machines today. Now, all line shaft systems use this single power source to drive many machines and here again, as the line shaft operates, all the machines can either idle or you can start or stop them one at a time. Patrick Haire: Working with machinery like that and the choice to do it is...I can only correlate it to what you see on TV when they get into extreme sports. You calculate what you're getting into and do the best you can to keep it safe. Patrick Haire: Here's a good example of a line shaft obviously running several machines over a great floor space. These are your smaller horsepower machines and here again, in a small shop like I run it, I can use the machines one at a time, have a helper help me on another machine or in a bigger mill, they could run all of the machines simultaneously. We still have the simple system of simply switching a belt or shifting a belt from a loose to tight pulley and this is all it takes to start up a wood lathe.
Patrick Haire: The machine we're going to demonstrate here is a double spindle oscillating sander. The machine comes equipped with two interchangeable, different diameter sanders. The seven- inch strobe makes it very efficient. Not only are they spinning, but they also have a very pronounced oscillating motion which keeps the sandpaper from gumming up or burning nearly as quick as it would otherwise. Patrick Haire: This whole system with the 19th Century machines has proven to be actually an extraordinarily productive way to do one of a kind work, particularly since I have some of the more unusual machines that a small modern shop could not justify the expense of buying which would be the extraordinary molding machines. Some of the machines are oversized in capacity or capabilities and, even if some of the machines may get used only once every two or three months, the fact that they are here and they can meet a demand when that demand arises.
This transcript is from KTWU's Sunflower Journeys 2003 season. A production of: |
