Making Clothespins – From Log to Packing Box

1914

CLOTHESPIN MACHINES.

What Happens When a Log of Wood Starts Through Them.

Making clothespins is an industry that nets handsome returns to many American factories. At Martinsville, Ind., there is a factory which has a capacity of more than 200,000 clothespins a day.

A rough log started through the mill comes out as hundreds of the shapely little wooden pins familiar to the back yard. The logs are cut into blocks about sixteen inches long, which a headlong saw cuts into boards about five-eighths of an inch thick. A gang of saws cuts these boards into strips five-eighths of an inch square and each long enough to make four pins. These strips are placed on an automatic trimmer and cut to the required length. They are then conveyed to the automatic lathes, seven in number, each with a capacity of four dozen a minute. From the lathes the pins drop to the slotting machines and from these to the dryroom. where all moisture is removed. Next they go to the polishing cylinders, which are filled about half full of pins, chips and sawdust. The cylinders revolve slowly for four hours, after which the pins drop into chutes to be conveyed to the packing room. Each lathe has a capacity of 2,400 dozen pins a day. — St. Louis Post-Dispatch.