Who made this planer

[Sod saw]

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I received (at a small cost) a used 24 inch wide thickness planer with the purchase  of a used edger.  I will talk about the edger in another post, later.

There are no name plates any where.  There are no casting mold numbers in any cast iron parts.

For now I wish to identify this machine and find a source of parts and blades.  Does any one have any thoughts about age, where it was made, by whom, etc.

I did run it before bringing it home and have since oiled (ATF) every joint except where I was told to insert grease. It produces a smooth surface.

There is a missing part between the feet near the floor where a gear is used to help raise and lower the bed.  The matching gear is missing from the shaft. 

As you can see from the photos, I have my work cut out just building guards for all of those moving belts and gears, etc.













Your thoughts are most welcome.   


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[NewYankeeSawmill]

Wow, what a piece of equipment!
Small world, I used to live outside Rochester, went to school in Oswego!
How are you going to power that thing? Is there an attachment for a PTO on a tractor to drive it?
No idea where you would find the manufacturer. Any dates to it? There's nothing on any of the gears or anything? That seems weird. Previous owner have any other information?

[Old Greenhorn]

Very nice find! It will be a lot of work to get it cleaned up, but planing 24" is pretty sweet. I am n help on ID but you could try doing a search on Vintage machinery for planers and slowly parse through the styles and time periods. It takes time, but you might find it.

 On that missing gear, I could not see it, but I am guessing it is a miter gear? Hard to match those up because in addition to the angle you need pitch diameter, pitch, pressure angle, etc. which are all hard to measure and on miters it's even harder. My suggestion there would be to do a search for gear suppliers and settle on one you like then get a pair of gears and replace both. This way you know they will match and you only have to worry about shaft size, keyway, and that simple stuff. I am assuming both gears are the same size and they are 45° angles. Is there a matching pair on the other end?
 Good luck, it's a labor of love but can be very satisfying.

[Andries]

That's a beautiful machine. It might be more than 100 years old, but they knew what they were doing back then!
You had the right impulse, when you tucked it in with the edger and brought it home. If you can, keep it under cover and keep squirting it with ATF, while you're sourcing the pieces you need for a 100% restore.

Back in the day, air dried lumber was the only lumber to be had. Old growth lumber (rough and 2x4 was a full 2x4 inches) plus balloon framing with 18 foot lumber was the norm. Your planer could've been used to plane green wood as soon as it came off the sawmill. A niche market is there for planed, air dried lumber in the bent wood market. Think canoes, boats, sleds, rustic furniture and cruck timber framing, etc.
How machines were used and setup is very location specific. With a bit of time and tic, that planer could be a real asset to your operation.

Tom's advice about mitre gears sounds bang on - he's a clever guy with decades worth of experience.
This is another site (besides the one OGH mentioned) that specializes in bringing back old iron to life:

https://www.owwm.org/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=ac0605e3cd891d6ed5cc75a1c3f94577 

I have several old cast-iron machines that still earn their keep.
Last week I picked up a DeWalt saw that is as old as my wife. She's got a sense of fun; she came with me to Wisconsin to pick it up.

[Sod saw]

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NewYankeeSawmill,  I trust that you attended Oswego College?  Nice place.

The machine came with a Gas Engine.











There are no marking on any piece.  I looked inside, upside, downside, outside of all gears, pullies, cast iron and tin pieces.  No casting numbers, a blank slate.

The old owner knew nothing except that he picked it up in Pennsylvania.

Old Greenhorn,  Yes 45 degree gear near the ground is missing.  It threaded on to that shaft.







Yes a labor of love.   I enjoy refurbishing old stuff.  When we had the game bird hatchery, I fixed, upgraded and used old incubators and hatchers.  They were build to last, too.

Thanks for the encouragements.


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[Southside]

@Quebecnewf  rebuilt a similar machine a couple of years ago 

[Old Greenhorn]

Regarding that gear issue. It appears that your driven (existing) gear is a 30° bevel meaning the drive pinion would be 60° bevel and likely much smaller. The larger issue is that the shaft appears to be broken off which would mean you need to re-construct a new shaft which is easy machining work of course, but needs to be done. The ratio between the smaller pinion gear and the larger existing gear should remain about the same in order to maintain the leverage you would need on a hand crank wheel to easily move the head up, but you can flex a little to use existing and available gears.
My guess is that as this machine aged and lubrication habits dropped off there was a lot more force required to turn that pinion and eventually the shaft failed to support the smaller pinion gear which had a lot more load on it than the driven gear.
Still very fixable but a little more work and effort. As you said in the first post 'it makes smooth boards', so no doubt you are not wasting time or money. I have run some slabs through a larger but similar planer and I can tell you it's worth it to see that beautiful wood coming out the back end, even with all the chip cleanup involved. Yeah, they didn't think much about dust collectors in those days. Those chips can become an issue. On the machine I worked with the pile made it hard to get up to the machine to handle the wood.

[NewYankeeSawmill]

NewYankeeSawmill,  I trust that you attended Oswego College?  Nice place.

Yessir, 4 years and out! I can even remember some of them!
The chimney bluffs are also a fond memory.

[Larry]

I can't tell for sure from your pic but is that a square head two knife cutter head? In any case the bolts holding the knife are always suspect. Check carefully for thread stretch.

[Resonator]

As I recall there was some discussion that the old square head planers had a bad reputation for board kickback. If it is square head, use caution where you stand running it.

[VTwoodworker]

I think that machine is an early Baxter.  http://www.vintagemachinery.org/pubs/78/13881.pdf

The lag bed planers are not known for a fine finish but will feed large timber without sticking.  The square head is not a concern on planers as the feed controls the work.  Square heads can be dangerous for free hand feed like jointers.  Good advice above to carefully inspect the bolts that secure the knives.

[rusticretreater]

That is a fine piece of equipment! After looking at a bunch of pictures, I believe that this is a Baxter Machine Company pre-1900s planer.    Apparently VTwoodworker came to the same conclusion. The links below are for Baxter planers listed on the Vintage Machinery Website.  Don't confuse this company with Baxter D. Whitney<--original inventor of the planer.

All of the machines shown have similar characteristics.  The same spoked wheels, the angled adjustment wheel shaft running to the gear shaft centered under the planer, the distinctive frame design.

Does the curved cover on the machine look original? One machine has a brass appearing cover that bore the company name.  Is there any place that a label would have been mounted on the machine?  Apparently, the company didn't cast their info into the machine until after 1900, but I am not sure about that.

http://vintagemachinery.org/mfgindex/detail.aspx?id=78&tab=0

http://www.vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/detail.aspx?id=15011

http://www.vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=13881

http://vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/detail.aspx?ID=14619

[NE Woodburner]

That old Wisconsin engine brings back memories. We had an old circle cordwood saw powered by the same engine when I was a kid. It was a bugger to start (hand crank) until Dad rebuilt the magneto.

We ran that saw when I was a kid and never thought much about it. After I got older I used to cringe at the thought of my Dad running it by himself (into his early 70's before he passed) as it was totally unguarded. I tried to talk him out of running it but he wouldn't hear of it. I had thoughts of him slipping or losing his balance and falling into that saw blade or even the big flat belt and pulleys. Cancer got him instead of the cordwood saw...