Bought a old J.A.Fay planer....have questions

[whatwas]

I went to a farm auction today and bought a old 24" J.A.Fay planer. I would like to convert it from a flat belt (thrasher belt) drive and run it off my tractor PTO. What RPM should the cutter drum run at? Info on the planer is its a model 59420, 24', two blade, 1891 cast into legs, heavy as heck (I'd say about a ton according to how far down my truck squatted when we loaded it) Any info would be appreciated , thanks

[sealark37]

If your tractor PTO runs at 540 rpm, I would try that and see how it runs.  Make sure the babbit bearings are clean and well lubed.  It almost surely has square cutter heads, so be careful, as a square head will kill you very quickly by throwing hard things at high speeds.  Regards, Clark

[opticsguy]

You could probably google the rotational speeds of tractors with the belt pulley, the diameter of the tractor pulley, then measure the size of the pulley on your planer and from there, an easy calculation for the correct speeds.

[muggs]

Be careful with that square machine. I have a metal plate in my arm due  to a kickback from one of those machines. I would think around3600 rpm due to the babbit bearings. My Powermatic planer runs around 4500 rpm, but it has ball bearings and a round head.  Muggs

[Ludo]

Whatwas-  I have a mid 20th century 36" planer that has a 40HP electric motor.  I would be very interested in seeing how you adapt the pto to the planer.  Please post some pics if you get around to making the conversion. I have seen several people who have done it successfully but I have not been able to get a close look at the actual connection. Good Luck!

[VTwoodworker]

Hi WW,

The vintage machinery website has some info on that machine.  Based on some of the literature  I have read it looks like many babbit bearing planers were specified at 4200-4500 RPMs.  It is very important that the bolts holding the large knives are not stretched from over tightening or bottom out in the head when being installed.  There is also a lot of information over at the Old Wood Working Machine site.

I have considered running a similar machine off a PTO but I have not made much progress.  I have decided that I will have some belts between the PTO power and the planers to allow some slippage if the planer gets jammed.  The tractor will supply enough HP to break things otherwise.

I am very interested in what you come up with.

Wayne

[Gearbox]

Flat belts were run at 700 fpm .

[Babylon519]

I toyed with the idea of changing the way I would power my 100-year-old 24" planer. In the end, the easiest thing was to find a flat-belt attachment for my PTO and do it the way the pioneers did (sort of). I was pleased enough with the speed and precision of the old planer, that I'm now getting the blades sharpened to see how nice a job it can do. Here are a few pics of the maiden planin' ...









Jason

[whatwas]

Thanks for all the tips and warnings. I'm still thinking using a PTO, I have a shaft with a slip clutch (adjustable), I'll get some pics as the project moves along. Thanks again for the help

[Larry]

I bought an old 24 or 30" Crescent planer of that time period.  The two knives on the machine were old paper knives that had been crudely machined to fit.  I later found out why.  Most millwork shops will not make knives of that pattern for liability concerns.  I did find one that would make the knives but the quote was something like $450/knife.  I'm pretty resourceful so I did find a couple of sets of used but good knives.  Figured I was in business now.  Sharpened them up and bolted them down.  Checked and cleaned the bolts and threaded holes.  No way to check to see if they had ever been torqued down by a farm boy using a 6' cheater bar on the wrench.

Fired up the machine and it purred like a kitten.  My planner also had a mounted blower on top which made it sound like a jet airplane.  Fed a couple of white oak boards through...it would eat the wood.  First thing I noticed was the finish.  Lots of scallops, I think because of the slow knife speed and only having two knives.  Next thing I noticed was occasional tear out where the grain changed direction.  More research and I learned a lot of these machines had a cutting angle on the head best suited for softwood.  I learned I could put a back bevel on my knives and reduce the cutting angle.  That solved the problem of chip out.

I ran a lot of wood through that machine and most was used for decking or siding.  Found another planer that did a better job so I tried to sell the old Crescent.  Nobody was interested so I hauled it to an auction and a scrapper bought it.  I thought a happy ending as nobody got hurt and I learned a lot.

[opticsguy]

I do not like scrappers, they help to destroy our history, better to donate to a farm, machinery museum of some kind.