Machine for forming a cylindrical billet with a plane surface substantially parallelto the billet axis

Claim 1

A WOODWORKING MACHINE FOR FORMING ON A ROUGHLY CYLINDRICAL BILLET A PLANE SURFACE SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL TO THE CYLINDRICAL AXIS OF SAID BILLET, COMPRISING: A CUTTING TOOL DISPOSED FOR CUTTING IN A PREDETERMINED CUTTING PLANE, A BILLET POSITIONER FIXEDLY SUPPORTED ON THE INFEED SIDE OF SAID TOOL FOR POSITIONING A BILLET WITH ITS CYLINDRICAL AXIS PARALLEL TO SAID CUTTING PLANE, AND WITH SAID PLANE CHORDALLY INTERSECTING SAID BILLET, A MAGAZINE FOR FEEDING A PLURALITY OF BILLETS IN SUCCESSION TO SAID POSITIONER, A FEED CARRIAGE, MEANS SUPPORTING SAID CARRIAGE FOR OPERATIVE MOVEMENT PARALLEL TO SAID CUTTING PLANE FROM A RETRACTED POSITION ABREAST OF SAID POSITIONER THROUGH A FEED STROKE PAST SAID TOOL AND A RETURN STROKE, GRIPPING MEMBERS CARRIED BY SAID CARRIAGE FOR OPERATIVE MOVEMENT INTO AND FROM GRIPPING ENGAGEMENT WITH A BILLET SUPPORTED IN SAID POSITIONER, FOR FIXEDLY SUPPORTING SAID BILLET ON THE CARRIAGE DURING SAID FEED STROKE IN ITS AXIAL POSITION WITH RESPECT TO SAID CUTTING PLANE AS DETERMINED BY SAID POSITIONER, SAID GRIPPING MEMBERS BEING RELEASABLE FROM THE BILLET AT THE END OF SAID FEED STROKE FOR RETURN WITH THE CARRIAGE TO ITS RETRACTED POSITION, SAID GRIPPING MEMBERS BEING MOUNTED ON THE CARRIAGE FOR MOVEMENT FROM AN OPERATIVE POSITION IN ALIGNMENT WITH THE ENDS OF A BILLET IN SAID POSITIONER, TO A RETRACTED POSITION OUT OF ALIGNMENT THEREWITH, WHEREBY TO CLEAR A BILLET OPERATIVELY HELD IN SAID POSITIONER ON THE RETURN STROKE OF SAID CARRIAGE.