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Restoring old planers

Started by slowzuki, February 05, 2006, 05:38:20 PM

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slowzuki

I took a look at an old 20 or 24" planer this weekend.  It has been stored outside for 5 years in the rain since it was last run.

It has all babbit bearings and all seem to be seized up at least beyond hand pressure.  The raise lower crank works but the slides are seized so the table doesn't move.

There appears to be a section of the casting immediately after the cutter head that is broken.

I've read that the split bearings can be taken apart and the rust on the shaft cleaned and reassembled if not in too bad of shape.

Some of the bearings do not seem to come apart.

Anyone restored something like this before?

Time involved?

Photos below to get an idea of the condition. :)







woodhick

It all depends on how cheap you can get if for.  It is very easy to put more in one like this than its worth if there is any broken parts.
Woodmizer LT40 Super 42hp Kubota, and more heavy iron woodworking equipment than I have room for.

slowzuki

I'm fairly busy and have a tough time getting 2 hours in on the sawmill... I suspect the planer may be cheap but without knowing the time to get it working, free might even be too much... :(

isassi

Great piece for a museum, but if your time is worth anything, planers are not that high. When you get into "restoring" babbit bearings, you first get the thrill of finding a machine shop that even does them anymore and just how pricey that proposition will be. When I was a kid, we had a dinosaur of a planer that ran off a flat belt. Oliver maybe? Anyway, by the time my grandfather paid $50 bucks for it a few hundred more for bearing repair and planer knife grinding (24 inch blades), he would have been money ahead to leave it where he found it. It was much cheaper to run the Belsaw planer, but he wanted that wide board capability. I think when he sold the sawmill in 1980, he got $250 from the planer, and it was every bit as old as the one in the picture. 

slowzuki

Wow, any guess how old this one may be?  I'm guessing the 30's maybe only by having seen lathes of that era.

Paul_H

I'd go for it.

Brett,who I grew up with in Squamish,completely rebabbitted his Berlin 108 a few years back and he was happy with the results.

The only thing that would concern me would be the broken casting behind the head and is it critical to the finish(chatter)?
My old 4 sided planer will only accept a 13" board the way the infeed is set up now but if I had a 24" planer,I could find work for it from the Cabinet maker that I dry wood for.He has 3 mbf of VG Fir in my kiln right now and most of it is over 14" wide. The average is 14-19"
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

dail_h

   Looks just like the Daisey I brought home the other day.
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iain

If you got the time and its free take it

if you aint got time to even mill, then buy one in better condition, or you do want to store it inside for years instead of out, (just till you find the time)

iain (ignore me if you really want it)

Ernie_Edwards

Looks as if it is a project for Rust Reaper.

From the few oldies I have restored it is amazing how many of the old babbitt bearings will still be servicable. But if they aren't, babbitt is really a bit of a challange but fun to do.

I would love a project like that.

Good luck.

isassi

I don't want to sound as if I was in a rush to scrap it. I love old iron, have restored a few tractors, and you sure don't do that for profit...you better love what you are doing. I meant only the time aspect...you need to have a planer going pretty quick, that one looks like it would be a love affair for awhile to make shavings..If it were offered to me, I would buy it and probably have a shot at it, depending on broken/missing parts.  ???

slowzuki

Hmm, I went through every planer on the Old Woodworking Machines website and it isn't there in the photo collection.  It must have been a local company that produced it, maybe in Nova Scotia.

Anyways, after reading it seems like it takes a bit of work to restore these monsters!

Larry

Babbitt bearings...sometimes ya get lucky and all you have to do is remove a shim to fix it.  And it's not to hard to learn how to pour a new one at home...lota work though.

Couple of other things to think about.  A lot of those old dogs were made to rough plane softwoods...some don't do very good on hardwoods.  Also take a look at the planer head.  If it is a square head it won't have gibbs.  The knife is held down with a series of bolts but the knife has slots cut into it for the bolts.  Not an off the shelf item now days and new knives are mega bucks if you have this kind.

I've messed around with several of em.  If you can get one ready to bring home and plug in...maybe some minor tuning that might be a deal.  Think I would pass on the one your looking at...somebody left it out in the field for a reason.
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

Jason_WI

The cast piece that is broken sounds like the chip breaker. If the broken piece is still there it can be welded up. If any part of the planer bed is cracked I would walk away.

The 26 inch Cresent planer I bought this past fall was only outside for less than a year. It took less than 2 oz of Rust Reaper to get everything loosened up on it. 5 years out in the weather is a different story. I would ony give 50 bux for it, but that is just me.

Jason
Norwood LM2000, 20HP Honda, 3 bed extentions. Norwood Edgemate edger. Gehl 4835SXT

slowzuki

It does have a square shaped head that looks like it could take up to 4 blades but only has 2 on it.  I will look up what gibbs are.  I have not even used a planer before to give you an idea of my experience level :)

Quote from: Larry on February 06, 2006, 03:11:01 PM
If it is a square head it won't have gibbs.  The knife is held down with a series of bolts but the knife has slots cut into it for the bolts.  Not an off the shelf item now days and new knives are mega bucks if you have this kind.


iain

Those kind (square block) are outllawed big time here, due to the number of fingers that have been trimmed, (even when turning the block by hand)

i used to have a 16" thicknesser (Metalclad), came with three sets of blades (6 knifes), a of them were laminated 8), they took a fantastic edge and stayed sharp good style, you got to make sure the all the blades are very well (perfectly) balanced all ways round.


iain

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