Traversing device for wood shearing machine

For use in a vertical type wood shearing machine having a bed, a pair of spaced apart guides, a side slide slideably mounted on said guides adapted for movement toward and away from a wood stock to be cut, a bar carrying unit and blade holding unit interconnected between said slides, the improvement of a traversing device for effecting the drive of said slides and connected bar carrying unit and blade carrying unit toward or away from the wood stock comprising a pair of spaced apart upper screws, said pair of screws being operatively connected to a corresponding slide adjacent the upper end of said slides and slightly above the bar carrying unit, a pair of lower screws, each of said lower screws being operatively connected to the lower end of said slides, and means for synchronizing the rotation of said upper and lower pair of screws whereby said bar carrying unit and blade carrying unit can be uniformally advanced toward or away from the wood stock, and reaction body means including thrust bearings therein being connected to said bed, said screws having the other ends thereof journalled in said reaction body means and reacting with said thrust bearing so that said screws resist any torque imparted to said bar carrying unit and blade carrying unit during a cutting operation.