Mechanick exercises, or, The doctrine of handy-works by Joseph Moxon.

§ 36. Of the Waving Engine.

The Waving Engine discribed in Plate 5. Fig. 7. Hath AB a long square Plank, of about seven Inch∣es broad, five Foot long, and an Inch and half thick: All along the length of this Plank, on the middle between the two sides, runs a Rabbet, as part of it is seen at C: upon this Rabbet rides a Block, with a Groove in its under side: This Block is a∣bout three Inches square, and ten Inches long, ha∣ving near the hinder end of it a wooden Handle going through it, of about one Inch Diameter, as D E: At the Fore-end of this Block is fastned a Vice, somewhat larger than a great Hand-Vice, as at F: The Groove in the Block is made fit to receive the Rabbet on the Plank.

At the farther end of the Plank is erected a square strong piece of wood, about six Inches high, and five Inches square, as G. This Square Piece hath a square wide Mortess in it on the Top, as at H. Upon the top of this square piece is a strong square flat Iron Coller, somewhat loosly fitted on, having two Male Screws fitted into two Female Screws, to screw against that part of the Wooden Piece un-mortessed at the Top, marked L, that it may draw the Iron Coller hard against the Iron

marked Q, and keep it stiff against the fore-side of the un-mortessed Piece, marked L, when the piece Q, is set to its convenient heighth; and on the other side the square wooden Piece is fitted another Iron screw, having to the end of its shank fastned a round Iron Plate which lies within the hollow of this wooden piece, and therefore cannot in Draft be seen in its proper place; But I have described it a part, as at M. (Fig. 9.) Its Nut is placed at M, on the wooden Piece. On the farther side of the wooden Piece is fitted a Wooden Screw called a Knob, as at N. Through the farther and hither side of the square Wooden Piece is fitted a flat Piece of Iron, about three quarters of an Inch Broad, and one quarter of an Inch thick, standing on edge upon the Plank; but its upper edge is filed round: (the reason you will find by and by:) Its hither end comes through the wooden Piece, as at O, and its farther end on the opposite side of the wooden piece.

Upright in the hollow square of the wooden piece stands an Iron, as at Q, whose lower end is cut into the form of the Molding you intend your work shall have.

In the fore side of this wooden Piece is a square hole, as at R, called the Mouth,

To this Engine belongs a thin flat piece of hard Wood, about an Inch and a quarter broad, and as long as the Rabbet: It is disjunct from the En∣gine, and in Fig. 8. is marked SS, called the Rack: It hath its under flat cut into those fashioned waves you intend your work shall have: The hol∣low of these waves are made to comply with the round edge of flat Plate of Iron marken O (descri∣bed before) for when one end of the Riglet you wave, is, with the Vice, Screwed to the plain side of

the Rack, and the other end put through the Mouth of the wooden Piece, as at TT, so as the hollow of the wave on the under-side of the Rack may lie upon the round edge of the flat Iron Plate set on edge, as at O, and the Iron Q, is strong fitted down upon the Riglet: Then if you lay hold of the Handles of the Block D E, and strongly draw by them, the Rack and the Riglet will both toge∣ther slide through the Mouth of the wooden Piece: And as the Rounds of the Rack ride over the round edge of the flat Iron, the Rack and Riglet will mount up to the Iron Q, and as the Rounds of the Waves on the under side of the Rack slides off the Iron on edge, the Rack and Riglet will sink, and so in a progression (or more) the Riglet will on its upper side receive the form of the several waves on the under side of the Rack, and also the form, or Molding, that is on the edge of the bottom of the Iron, and so at once the Riglet will be both molded and waved.

But before you draw the Rack through the Engine, you must consider the office of the Knob N, and the office of the Iron Screw M; For by them the Rack is screwed evenly under the Iron Q. And you must be careful that the Groove of the Block slip not off the Rabbet on the Plank: For by these Screws, and the Rabbet and Groove, your work will be evenly gaged all the way (as I said before) under the edge of the Iron Q, and keep it from sliding either to the right, or left hand, as you draw it through the Engine.