planer

Discussion on all milling machines vertical & horizontal, including but not limited to Bridgeports, Hardinge, South Bend, Clausing, Van Norman, including imports.

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hoppercar
Posts: 616
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2018 4:09 pm

planer

Post by hoppercar »

looking for an old, small metal planer. even it's completely worn out and non operational...that's ok...anyone have any idea where one may be located?
Russ Hanscom
Posts: 1955
Joined: Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:10 pm
Location: Farmington, NM

Re: planer

Post by Russ Hanscom »

spro
Posts: 8016
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:04 pm
Location: mid atlantic

Re: planer

Post by spro »

You already knew a planer has a traveling bed and a shaper has a traveling ram.
hoppercar
Posts: 616
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2018 4:09 pm

Re: planer

Post by hoppercar »

yep....looking for a planer......not a shaper
pete
Posts: 2518
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:04 am

Re: planer

Post by pete »

I wish you luck on the search hoppercar. There out there of course. But as I'm sure you already know it's fairly rare for the smaller one's to turn up. Anything from about a 4' foot bed and under that would fit in an average home shop usually gets priced in the $1800 - $3000 range. Videos on YT about the larger shapers by some of the content creators seems to have added much more demand and higher prices for something you could hardly give away not to long ago. And now with a few adding planers to there shops I expect the same to happen with a machine that's already pretty rare and high priced. If you look at what happened with the late 60's early 70's muscle cars from what I've seen the same appears to be slowly happening with the smaller South Bend, Ammco etc shapers, Atlas and a few other of the smaller horizontal mills as well. Lately well equipped SB shapers and Atlas mills have started showing up on Ebay with $3000 + asking prices. Good for the sellers of course, bad for the people wanting to buy and actually use the machines. With the supply of those machines really starting to dry up I'd bet quite a bit on seeing the prices double at least or more in the next 10 - 15 years.
armscor 1
Posts: 311
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 3:12 am
Location: Philippines

Re: planer

Post by armscor 1 »

Watching Keith Rucker on youtube who is currently restoring a New Haven pre 1900 metal planer, must watch.
I have only seen one metal planer in the flesh, rusting away on a farm in Tasmania.
Love to have one sitting in my workshop, just to watch it operating!
pete
Posts: 2518
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:04 am

Re: planer

Post by pete »

Yep I've been watching the first 3 videos of Keith's planer as well. My guess is the bed and table re-grinding on it is still going to come with a large price shock. Dave of Old Steam Powered Machine Shop just picked up one of around the same size that seems to be in a lot better condition I think.
spro
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Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:04 pm
Location: mid atlantic

Re: planer

Post by spro »

"Traverse" shapers are also interesting. Many of them are not super heavy like planers.
hoppercar
Posts: 616
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2018 4:09 pm

Re: planer

Post by hoppercar »

never seen a traverse shaper.....that's an interesting machine !!
spro
Posts: 8016
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:04 pm
Location: mid atlantic

Re: planer

Post by spro »

Yes. There was also a company named Traverse. The current name is "traversing head" shapers which doesn't say that the whole ram is traversing. These are usually pre 1900 machines or slightly later. Some decades ago there was a topic about which machines would still be usable after catastrophic energy failure. Since I had a small Boynton & Plummer traverse shaper, I felt confident to remark about it. Original flat belt cone pulley and flywheel deliver dynamic mass. The thing is: my flywheel wasn't even drilled for a handle but I knew it would work. The videos I've seen recently show them driven manually but they were driven by flat belt.
armscor 1
Posts: 311
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 3:12 am
Location: Philippines

Re: planer

Post by armscor 1 »

Watched Keith Rucker on YouTube having the New Haven planer being ground on large surface grinder, full of envy seeing it being done.
I thought it would have been more costly for the job.
pete
Posts: 2518
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:04 am

Re: planer

Post by pete »

Thanks for the heads up about that video being posted Armscor. For anyone interested enough, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIvRi1Ygaaw

I priced out having my mills table reground some years ago to take out about .0015" of hollow down the center of the table as the casting had moved after being originally ground. That price of $1200 a day and 3 days work was roughly around to a bit lower than I'd figured it might price out at. If I recall correctly? I think Keith mentioned in one of his previous videos either having a friend or knew where he could get a bit of a deal for surface grinding his planer bed and table. He's cagey though. You'll note he sort of side stepped the exact answer and instead quoted that shops rate per day. He didn't specifically state that's the full price he paid. With Keith's 135k subscriber base and even more who will view that video over the years it's excellent advertising for that shop, and I'd be more than surprised if Keith didn't get that job done for a whole lot less. He didn't do all that long distance traveling without a good reason since I'm sure there's a few within shorter distances that could have done the job as well.

It looks like they did a really good job and someone who knows how to properly re-grind machine tools and has the large enough modern equipment in top condition is worth whatever they cost. If Keith does his part scraping it in as I'm sure he will, that planer should be even better for accuracy as the day it left the factory. If that planer was mine I think I'd pick up a good used Bridgeport or one of the heads from a BP clone and build an adapter so that could be used on it for large milling jobs. Getting the table travel slow enough might be an issue, but certainly not impossible to solve. A simple in/out dog clutch with a bolt on worm drive hooked to a variable speed DC slow speed gear motor powering the planers pinion drive would be one method.
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