As my shop was slowly starting to become somewhere where I could get some real projects done, I was still missing a planer which was quickly becoming a major bottleneck to get things done. I was able to pick up one of these 1950s/1960s park planers during the pandemic and although it was in ok shape, it certainly needed some work
A few key issues that needed to be corrected:
With these planers, the biggest uncertainty from the whole process is the quality of the casted babbitt which holds the main shaft cutter head bearings. These are custom to your specific planer and you can’t order an off the shelf replacement. For most other parts though, you can order them directly from D.C. Morrison which still stocks/manufactures replacements by catalog name. I thought I would need a few of these replacement parts but after getting into the restoration that turned out to not be the case except for the blades and a handful of bolts.
I unfortunately did not take many pictures during the tear down including the aftermath of nearly 200 separate small parts scattered across my garage floor. This project was made worse by the fact that I didn’t take any pictures or label anything when taking it apart, which led to some later project anxiety after a 6 month hiatus.
After a quick look into the belly of the beast, I knew this was going to be a bit of work. Like I mentioned before, the knurling of basically all shafts made disassembly a nightmarish activity. After several nights of choice words and bruised knuckles, I finally got things broken down. After the table saw restoration project and knowing that this paint was very likely to contain lead, I had the parts professionally sandblasted to get down to bare metal.
After that, it started the long process of slowly making and taping all all the major components. All in all, I think I used ~30 rattle cans of rust oleum primer, enamel, and clear coat.
A few key issues that needed to be corrected:
- The motor support bar, shaft collars, and adjustments were permanently rusted together. I actually rounded over two hardened steel allen tools trying to get them off and eventually gave up and just broke out the angle grinder. I had to get some new bar, shaft collar, and adjustment screws but it was WELL worth it
- The cutter head bearings sounds like a box of rocks, so they definitely needed switched out. While I was at it I switched out the motor bearing as well.
- The cutter head blades were heavily chipped and needing repair, not a huge detail and they had to be taken out anyway
- All shafts and gears needed dressing to remove knurled and raised areas from set screws, etc. This made disassembly nearly impossible but with some persistence it eventually worked out
- And finally, just general rust throughout the internals of the machine which made adjustment mechanisms bind up
With these planers, the biggest uncertainty from the whole process is the quality of the casted babbitt which holds the main shaft cutter head bearings. These are custom to your specific planer and you can’t order an off the shelf replacement. For most other parts though, you can order them directly from D.C. Morrison which still stocks/manufactures replacements by catalog name. I thought I would need a few of these replacement parts but after getting into the restoration that turned out to not be the case except for the blades and a handful of bolts.
I unfortunately did not take many pictures during the tear down including the aftermath of nearly 200 separate small parts scattered across my garage floor. This project was made worse by the fact that I didn’t take any pictures or label anything when taking it apart, which led to some later project anxiety after a 6 month hiatus.
After a quick look into the belly of the beast, I knew this was going to be a bit of work. Like I mentioned before, the knurling of basically all shafts made disassembly a nightmarish activity. After several nights of choice words and bruised knuckles, I finally got things broken down. After the table saw restoration project and knowing that this paint was very likely to contain lead, I had the parts professionally sandblasted to get down to bare metal.
After that, it started the long process of slowly making and taping all all the major components. All in all, I think I used ~30 rattle cans of rust oleum primer, enamel, and clear coat.
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