Old shingle mill

[Black Dragon]

HI everyone, I have recently bought an old shingle mill. I'm going to spend the winter restoring it, and thought I would post about it as I go along. At the moment I have got all the parts home and me and my dad are trying to identify it, when and who made it, and find some information on how it goes together. If any of you have any ideas I would greatly appreciate the input.

[Magicman]

I think that you have a fun project ahead of you.   8)

[beenthere]

BD
Welcome.
Put words with your pictures that tell about what you are showing are wanting others to get from them. Your thoughts will help draw out comments. Also helps sort out misc. objects in the pic that are irrelevant.

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Look forward to seeing your build go together. 

[deadfall]

I have seen both vertical and horizontal shingle mills.  I am thinking your blade will run vertically.  While I was at the input end of the mill I worked at, making the raw shingle bolts, I did often view the shingle machines, as I think of most machinery as a spectator sport. 

The probable reason you have two different sized blades (second picture) is, the shingle machine blade starts life as one size to cut the shingles, and when it's given all it has to that task, it is resized to be used in the clipper saw.  The shingle weaver stands in a corner between the shingle blade and the clipper saw, with the reciprocating carriage (first picture) at his left, passing the shingle bolt through the cut while tipping it, top or bottom, one to three times on each taper, delivering the shingles to his left hand.  He then takes the one to three shingles with the butts in one direction, puts them in his right hand, taps an edge to even it, taps the butts to line those up, lays them on a springboard with the butts up against a board at the hinged end, and pushes them together down through the clipper saw which is directly in front of him at about belt level and just beyond his fingertips.   The clipper saw cuts one side's edges square to the butts.  The sawyer then flips the stack, one-handed, taps the other edge, and then the butts again, and clips that other edge.  Then, in his next movement, sees the grain, knots, and other details of each shingle, and sorts them into various graded chutes, delivering them to the shingle packers on a level below.  All this happens as he is picking up the next several raw shingles in his left hand which will have the butts up, if those last few were butts down. 

The challenge for the shingle weaver is to do all this fast while attempting to keeping the greater percentage of his fingers. 

[kameljoe21]

Nice find, I am always searching for one as well

is this a vertical or a horizontal shingle mill ?

https://raycityhistory.wordpress.com/2010/10/23/andrew-morris-shingle-mill-machinist/

[bandmiller2]

B Dragon, where are you located.?? Reason I ask is most shingle mills are local and would help identify it. If your up in the northeast I'd say it might be a Carver. Frank C.

[Black Dragon]

Nice find, I am always searching for one as well

is this a vertical or a horizontal shingle mill ?

https://raycityhistory.wordpress.com/2010/10/23/andrew-morris-shingle-mill-machinist/

its a vertical

[Black Dragon]

B Dragon, where are you located.?? Reason I ask is most shingle mills are local and would help identify it. If your up in the northeast I'd say it might be a Carver. Frank C.

Garland Maine, but I bought it in the southern part, so it could be from New Hampshire

[Black Dragon]

BD
Welcome.
Put words with your pictures that tell about what you are showing are wanting others to get from them. Your thoughts will help draw out comments. Also helps sort out misc. objects in the pic that are irrelevant.

Use the modify button to add words between your pics and the Preview button to check that they are correct with the pics.
Look forward to seeing your build go together.

I will try, it took me some time just to get the pics up

[Black Dragon]

I have seen both vertical and horizontal shingle mills.  I am thinking your blade will run vertically.  While I was at the input end of the mill I worked at, making the raw shingle bolts, I did often view the shingle machines, as I think of most machinery as a spectator sport. 

The probable reason you have two different sized blades (second picture) is, the shingle machine blade starts life as one size to cut the shingles, and when it's given all it has to that task, it is resized to be used in the clipper saw.  The shingle weaver stands in a corner between the shingle blade and the clipper saw, with the reciprocating carriage (first picture) at his left, passing the shingle bolt through the cut while tipping it, top or bottom, one to three times on each taper, delivering the shingles to his left hand.  He then takes the one to three shingles with the butts in one direction, puts them in his right hand, taps an edge to even it, taps the butts to line those up, lays them on a springboard with the butts up against a board at the hinged end, and pushes them together down through the clipper saw which is directly in front of him at about belt level and just beyond his fingertips.   The clipper saw cuts one side's edges square to the butts.  The sawyer then flips the stack, one-handed, taps the other edge, and then the butts again, and clips that other edge.  Then, in his next movement, sees the grain, knots, and other details of each shingle, and sorts them into various graded chutes, delivering them to the shingle packers on a level below.  All this happens as he is picking up the next several raw shingles in his left hand which will have the butts up, if those last few were butts down. 

The challenge for the shingle weaver is to do all this fast while attempting to keeping the greater percentage of his fingers.

I got a lot of blades with it, The large ones you see in the picture I think go to a Foley belsaw the guy also had. The shingle mil did have what I think you are calling a clipper blade. I am rather fond of my fingers so i'm going to retrofit the cast iron planer wheel.

[deadfall]

If that slows you down, you'll never be cutting bonus.

Enjoy your rebuild.  Wish you were close enough for me to visit.  I have one shingle blade and wish I had two, and rarer yet, two arbors, for a crazy machine I've wanted to build for a very long time. 

[deadfall]

I was going down memory lane about shingle saw blades and remembering that I was told that the blades were forged from a single lump of Sheffield steel, creating a radial grain in the disk.  I was also told that the swaged teeth self tempered at the speed they went through the wood at, heating in the cut and cooling while coming back around.  The man who told me these things was born in 1892. 

So anyway, this sent me off on a web search where I found this interesting old catalog:

http://www.wkfinetools.com/hus-saws/atkins/pubs/1895-catalog/0_img-pdf/1895-SawsAndSawTools-Atkins-ne.pdf

================================

I also found these YouTubes: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjvmFjRqFEc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJRoEXH9QHE

I ran the deck in a two machine mill.   So I was the guy bringing the logs to the slip, bucking and splitting the bolts, and sending them to the crazy man at the bolter saw. 

The guy sawing in the second video was my boss.  Never thought I'd find that!  He was the second generation owner of several mills when I worked for him. 

================================

And this, form Wikipedia:

Sunset magazine described the job of the shingle weavers for its readers:

    "The saw on his left sets the pace. If the singing blade rips 50 rough shingles off the block every minute, the sawyer must reach over to its teeth 50 times in 60 seconds; if the automatic carriage feeds the odorous wood 60 times into the hungry teeth, 60 times he must reach over, turn the shingle, trim its edge on the gleaming saw in front of him, cut the narrow strip containing the knot hole with two quick movements of his right hand, and toss the completed board down the chute to the packers, meanwhile keeping eyes and ears open for the sound that asks him to feed a new block into the untiring teeth. Hour after hour the shingle weaver's hands and arms, plain, unarmored flesh and blood, are staked against the screeching steel that cares not what it severs. Hour after hour the steel sings its crescendo note as it bites into the wood, the sawdust cloud thickens, the wet sponge under the sawyer's nose fills with fine particles.

    "If 'cedar asthma,' the shingle weaver's occupational disease, does not get him, the steel will. Sooner or later he reaches over a little too far, the whirling blade tosses drops of deep red into the air, and a finger, a hand, or part of an arm comes sliding down the slick chute."

[bandmiller2]

Shingle making while interesting to watch becomes old fast and its so labor intensive forget trying to make a living at it. Most of the shingle saw I've seen are set tooth, my old one was 40" hammered for 1000 rpm. You will find many sizes because they must occasionally be gummed and rounded and you loose a little diameter each time. Most of the shingles up here in the northeast come from Quebec, big frenchie has a problem ordering more than two beers. The danger is ledgendary and well founded you are working very close to a vicous saw, you can feel the wind from the saw and the mist from green blocks. Frank C.