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

STEEL FURNITURE USED.

Steel sectional furniture, notched at the ends, is also used for building spacious steel dies. This steel furniture (as well as the iron and lead furniture) may be bought in regular fonts, or complete sets, from the American Type Founders’ Company, Jersey City, N. J., or from any of the printers’ supply houses. These concerns also supply the cabinets for holding the furniture conveniently. For the information of those not acquainted with the printing terms, it is explained that the term “point” in printing means 72 points to an inch. The steel sectional furniture comes in 24-point width with 12-point notches at the ends; 36-point wide with 18-point notches; 48-point wide with three 12-point notches; and 54-point wide with two 18-point notches. It also comes in a full range of lengths, all the way up to 24 inches long.

Showing Style of Patent Steel Furniture with interlocking
corners for forming hollow squares and oblongs.

With four pieces of this sectional furniture almost any size square or oblong frame, up to 24 inches, may be formed simply by putting the four pieces together. The frame is used for blanking out a square or oblong space in the die-form. At times several squares and oblongs can be made in this way and used instead of wood blocks or small pieces of metal furniture. The steel sectional furniture is absolutely accurate and it can be assembled very rapidly.

“Challenge” Improved Labor-Saving Metal Furniture,
with Chamfered Edges.

Plain iron furniture is to be had in a large number of standard sizes, but the smaller sizes are used by many box makers for blanking out portions of steel dies, the larger spaces in the form being filled in with blocks of cherry or black walnut. The iron furniture is comparatively inexpensive, and it will stand hard service for a life-time.

Showing style of Morgans & Wilcox Enlarged Iron Furniture.

Enlarged iron furniture comes in many different sizes and is particularly adapted to blanking out extra-large dies. The larger sizes of this material, such as for example, 25 × 100 ems (pica), are very popular with die-makers. In each piece of enlarged iron furniture are two round holes, on the top so to speak, enabling the die-maker to handle the piece of furniture easily by means of the round holes. (Pica means 12 points in printing parlance.)

“Challenge” Labor-Saving Iron Furnitures.

Mammoth iron furniture is made on the order of enlarged iron furniture, and it comes in pieces as large as 60 × 120 ems (pica.) Round holes are in each piece, making it light in weight and easy to handle. Special cabinets are furnished for the enlarged and mammoth furniture. The cabinets are subdivided for holding the different sizes of material, and by looking over the contents of these compartments, the die-builder can see exactly what sizes of furniture is available to suit the requirements of each die. The cabinets save a great deal of time, as the die-maker does not have to “sort out” the furniture from a “mixed” assortment of sizes.

Showing Cabinet holding font of No. 3 Mammoth Iron Furniture. Opposite side of Cabinet holds other sizes of Mammoth Iron Furniture. This Cabinet also holds all standard lengths of M. & W. Interlocking steel furniture.

In these days of high wages and short working hours, the folding box maker should have a plentiful supply of both wood and metal furniture, and the furniture should be systematically stored in cabinets so that the die-maker can work to the best advantage. A plentiful assortment of improved metal furniture, plain iron furniture, and enlarged or mammoth iron furniture, in cabinets, will pay big dividends in any folding box plant.