If the cutting tool be made parallel and cylindrical on its edges, and clearance be given on the front end of its diameter only, so as to cut along a certain distance only of its cylindrical edge, the rest being a close fit to the bore of the work, the part having no cutting edge, that is, the part without clearance, will be apt to cause friction by rubbing the bore of the work as the tool edge wears, and the friction will cause heat, which will increase as the cut proceeds, causing the hole to expand as the cut proceeds, and to be taper when cooled to an equal degree all over. This may be partly obviated by giving the tool a slow rate of cutting speed, and a quick rate of feed, which will greatly reduce the friction and consequently the heating of the tool and the work. On cast iron it is possible to have a much broader cutting edge to the tool, without inducing the chattering referred to, than is the case with wrought iron, steel, or brass, especially when the finishing cut is a very light one. If the finishing cut be too deep, the surface of the work, if of cast iron, will be pitted with numerous minute holes, which occur because the metal breaks out from the strain placed on it (and due to the cut) just before it meets the cutting edge of the tool. Especially is this the case if the tool be dull or be ground at an insufficiently acute angle.
When the work shows the tool marks very plainly, or if of cast iron shows the pitting referred to (instead of having a smooth and somewhat glossy appearance), there will be less of its surface in contact with the surface to which it fits, and the fit will soon become destroyed, because the wearing surface or the gripping surface, as the case may be, will the sooner become impaired, causing looseness of the fit. In the one case the abrasion which should be distributed over the whole area of the fitting parts is at first confined to the projections having contact, which, therefore, soon wear away. In the other case the projecting area in contact compresses, causing looseness of the fit.
Hydraulic press or forcing fits.—For securing pieces together by forcing one within the other by means of an hydraulic press, the plug piece is made a certain amount larger than the bore it is to enter, this amount being termed the allowance for forcing. What this allowance should be under any given conditions for a given metal, will depend upon the truth and smoothness of the surfaces, and on this account no universal rule obtains in general practice. From some experiments made by William Sellers & Co., it was determined that if a wheel seat (on an axle) measuring 47⁄8 inches in diameter and 7 inches long was turned 7⁄1000 of an inch larger than the wheel bore, it would require a pressure of about thirty tons to force the wheel home on the axle.
At the Susquehanna shops of the Erie railroad the measurements are determined by judgment, the operatives using ordinary calipers. If an axle 31⁄2 diameter and 6 inches long requires less than 25 tons it is rejected, and if more than 35 tons it is corrected by reducing the axle.
In order to insure a proper fit of pieces to be a driven or forced fit it is sometimes the practice to make them taper, and there is a difference of opinion among practical mechanics as to whether taper or parallel fits are the best. Upon this point it may be remarked that it is much easier to measure the parts when they are parallel than when they are taper, and it is easier to make them parallel than taper.
On the elevated railroads in New York city, the wheel bores being 41⁄8 inches in diameter and 5 inches long, the measurements are taken by ordinary calipers, the workmen judging how much to allow, and the rule is to reject wheels requiring less than about 26 tons, or more than about 35 tons, to force them on. These wheels form excellent examples, because of the excessive duty to which they are subjected by reason of the frequency of their stoppage under the pressure of the vacuum brake. The practice with these wheels is to bore them parallel, finishing with a feed of 1⁄4 inch per lathe revolution, and to turn the axle seats taper just discernible by calipers.
This may, at first sight, seem strange, but examination makes it reasonable and plain. Let a wheel having a parallel bore be forced upon a parallel axle, and then forced off again, and the bore of the wheel will be found taper to an appreciable amount, but increasing in proportion as the surface of the hole varied from a dead smoothness; in other words, varying with the depth of the tool marks in the bore and the smoothness of the cut.
Let the length of the wheel bore be 7 inches long, and the amount allowed for forcing be .004 inch, and one end of the wheel bore will have been forced (by the time it is home on the axle) over the length of 7 inches of the axle-seat, whose diameter was .004 larger than the bore: a condensation, abrasion, or smoothing of the metal must have ensued.
Now the other end of the same bore, when it takes its bearing on the shaft, is just iron, and iron without having suffered any condensation. If the tool marks be deep, those on one end will be smoothed down while those at the other remain practically intact. Clearly then, for a parallel hole, a shaft having as much taper as the wheel bore will get in being forced over the shaft best meets the requirements; or, for a parallel shaft or seat, and a taper hole (the taper being proportioned as before), the small end of the taper hole should be first entered on the shaft, and then when home both the axle and the wheel-bore will be parallel.
It may be remarked that the wheel seat on the axle will also be affected, which is quite true, but the axle is usually of the hardest metal and has the smoothest surface, hence it suffers but little; not an amount of any practical importance.