Manufacture of doors for safe deposit box nests

Claim 1

In the manufacture of doors for the compartments of safe deposit box nests from substantially uniformly oversized rectangular blanks of plate stock, each door in finished form having hinge, strike and side edges and front and rear faces with the rear face having provision for the mounting of a door lock thereon including a pair of spaced lock noses extending through the door from its rear to its front face, the improvement comprising: punching a pair of spaced lock nose holes through the door blanks uniformly located with respect to said edges; placing each door blank upon holding means, each holding means having a pair of parallel cantilevered draw members fittingly and slidably engageable with the door nose holes by sliding the door blank on the draw members through its nose holes so that the draw members extend axially therethrough in a forward direction from the front to the rear face of the door blank, whereby to support the door blank in a substantially vertical position, the draw members terminating in forward ends forwardly of the door rear face; engaging the forward ends of the draw members with removable clamp means carried by the draw members and defining a first clamping face engagable with the door rear face inboard of the door edges, the removable clamp means being thereupon effective to prevent withdrawal of the draw members axially from the nose holes in a rearward direction opposite said forward direction; moving the draw members and the removable clamp means in said rearward direction to cause the door front face to engage a second clamping face defined by portions of the holding means inboard of the door edges, whereby to clamp the door blank between said clamping faces; performing a plurality of door finishing operations upon the four edges and the rear face of the door blank by moving each holding means for same with the door blank in said clamped position from one to another of a succession of tool stations serially performing said operations upon the door blank; moving the draw members in said forward direction to unclamp the door blank after performance of said finishing operations thereof; and detaching the removable clamp means from and sliding the door blank off the draw members.