The Shaping Machine is perhaps one of the most useful tools in the modern manufacturing or repair workshop. It is called upon to cope with a large and varied range of work, and copes with the bulk of small planing jobs. It enjoys this distinction because it is capable of removing more metal from a plane surface in a given time than any other machine.

To meet the demands made on the shaping machine it is essential that a varied range of speeds and feeds be obtained, so that different metals may be treated alike so far as concerns uniformity of cut and the use of modern high speed tools.

The march of engineering science and skill in meeting this demand is shown by the two shaping machines illustrated.

Illustration No. 1 shows a “Double Head” Shaping Machine that has been in service for 52 years. This machine has three speeds and four feeds, and was considered to be quite up-to-date in its day. However, in comparison with the machine shown in illustration No. 2, its obsoleteness is apparent.

Illustration No. 2 shows a “Single Head” shaper that has replaced the “Double Head,” and it is quite capable of turning out the same amount of work with its single head. The machine has a 20in. stroke and a range of 11 to 138 strokes per minute, together with a large range of power traverse table feeds. Force feed lubrication is applied to all internal moving parts of the machine by means of a pump worked by the to and fro motion of the head.

The machine has its own motor, the drive being a short centre one enclosed in the frame and is operated upon by a friction clutch. It will also be noticed that the floor space is reduced to a minimum. The machine was made by the Cincinnatti Shaper Co., U.S.A., and its outside appearance is most pleasing to the eye.

Reclaiming of Oil.

With the introduction of motors, starters and electrical appliances in the modern workshop, oil plays a great part. It is used for cooling transformers and protecting the moving parts of switch gear, etc., that are subject to electrical flashes.

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Oil so used, after having been in service for some time, gradually gathers moisture and deposits of brass, copper, carbon and other solid matter, with the result that it becomes altogether unsuitable, and in many cases its retention occasions harm to the working parts.

It was the practice hitherto to discard this oil and obtain a supply of fresh oil to replace it. To conform, however, with modern methods at Hillside workshops, an oil purifier (illustration No. 3) has been installed to reclaim this would-be waste.

In the oil purifier the oil is subjected to a centrifugal process, whereby all moisture and foreign matter is extracted. It was found, by actual test, that oil, after being in service for three years, withstood a flash-test of 50,000 volts when purified by this process.

The purifier is manufactured by the Empson Centrifugals, Ltd., London.

The Hack Saw.

The introduction of the power hack saw (illustration No. 4) into our workshops realised a long felt want. The one time laborious and expensive methods of cutting unequal sections is now overcome. Moreover, it is much cheaper and more effective to cut certain material with the power saw than to use the lathe or the shears.

The saw illustrated is chain driven (by an electric motor) and has two cutting speeds. The downward pressure of the blade operates on an oil cylinder which regulates the cut and automatically lifts the blade on the return stroke. A pump is also fitted for cooling the blade.

[This hack saw is the product of E. G. Herbert, England.]

Railway Electrification Success

The Southern Railway is generally recognised as one of the most progressive of all British lines, and the thorough-going manner in which it adopted electrification gave further proof of the management's determination to provide modern service. It is therefore interesting to read in “The Times” weekly edition of 1st March, that “no passage in General Baring's speech at the previous week's meeting of the Southern Railway could have given the stockholders more gratification than that in which he demonstrated the success of the electrification policy.

The number of passengers carried in the electrified area was, he pointed out, still going ahead by leaps and bounds, and notwithstanding the opening of the City and South London Tube to Morden, which deprived them of about 4,000,000 passengers during the year, there was still an increase in the number of passengers carried in the electrified area of 7,250,000 compared with 1925. By the electrification of the system, and by the large extension of cheap fares, the company can, in our view, not only meet motor competition, but also take advantage of it. The more frequent service which electrification permits enables the company to offer a service comparable in facility with that of the motor omnibus, and by cheap bookings it can take advantage of the universal travelling habit which the motor has created. It is important to bear in mind that the motor conveyance is not merely a competitor of the railway, but is also an ally, inasmuch as it has popularised travel. In the present year capital expenditure will, General Baring stated, again be considerable—namely, about £2,750,000, of which about £750,000 is required for Southampton dock extensions.”

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