How Paper Boxes Are Made / A practical and instructive book telling how the beginner may manufacture all kinds of paper boxes, with special chapters on the printing department for paper box plants, embossing, gold-leafing, label work, etc.

by Robert F. Salade

SIDE-SET PAPER BOXES.

IF a single piece of box-board were to be used for the making of a large-size set-up paper box, (a hat box, for example) it would necessitate the cutting out of four corner pieces which would be as large in size as the two side walls of the box, therefore the reader can readily understand that it would not be economical to cut out corners of stock which is to be used for the larger-sized boxes. Another advantage of the side-set paper box is in the ends being stronger than the ends of a one-piece box. While this strong feature of construction would not been needed in a small-size box—a pound size candy box, for instance—it is an advantage for a larger size box such as is used for holding 500 No. 10 envelopes.

For this kind of a box, the chip-board, news-board, or straw-board is cut and scored to the size required on either a single or double scoring and cutting machine. This refers to the body-piece of the box. The side pieces may be cut to the desired size, in stacks of fifty or more sheets at a time, on an ordinary power paper cutter, or of course, the side pieces may be cut from large-size sheets of box-board on a scoring and cutting machine, or on a rotary board cutter. In many of the big paper box plants the rotary board cutter is being used for neck-pieces, side-pieces for side-set boxes, and for other plain cutting where no scoring is to be done in connection with it. The main advantage of the rotary board cutter is in the smooth, clean edges left on the box-board after it has been cut into the various sizes. The smooth, clean edges could not be procured on an ordinary paper cutting machine, but in the case of common paper boxes, the rough edges of end-pieces would not be a serious matter. For the better grade of boxes the edges of the end-pieces should be smooth and free from small particles of the board, especially when the box is to be covered, as the rough edges would show plainly from under the covering.

Fig. 5. Showing the construction of the flange style of paper box.
Note the mitered corners of the flanges.
Fig. 6. Shows the end-pieces glued to the flanges.

Mitering for stock that is to form the body-pieces for side-set boxes is done on a machine such as the Hobbs Duplex Corner Cutting and Mitering Machine which is also used for cutting the corners for one-piece set-up boxes. The Hobbs machine is so constructed that two corners may be cut from box-board on one side, and two miters cut from box-board on the other side. In other words, it is a quadruple machine which will permit two operators to work upon it at the same time, the operator on one side doing corner cutting, and the operator on the other side doing mitering. Either side of the machine may be used independently of the other, and all sizes of corners up to 3 inches, and all sizes of miters up to 1 inch in depth, can be done by making the necessary adjustments of the dies, sub-presses, and gages. The two miters may be spaced as wide apart as 22 inches, and the two corners as wide as 20 inches.

Some of the paper box manufacturers are making the side-set boxes by hand, but the majority of box-makers are using Ending Machines for this kind of work. The hand method of construction is very simple: The operators are seated on each side of a long table; one operator “turns in” the flanges of the body-pieces, and shapes them ready for receiving the end-pieces; another operator applies glue to the end-pieces and keeps a supply of the glued end-pieces, arranged in rows, ready for the next operator who places the body of each box on a form, and then applies the end-pieces. It requires care for the operator to place the end-pieces in true register with the bottom and sides of the box. The scoring lines made for the flanges are followed as guides for putting on the end-pieces squarely. The form is simply a smooth block of wood, the size of the interior of the box that is being fashioned. The amount of work which a force of skilled hand-workers can turn out during the course of a day is really surprising.