NDR 120 yr old wood planer

Matt Vanderpan

Matt Vanderpan

Active member
A few yrs ago my dad picked up an OLD wood planer from about 120 yrs ago. It was made in Buffalo NY in about 1890ish. Anyway we got it cleaned up and working and have used it about 6-8 times in the last 3 yrs for various demonstrations and have run it at Heritage days in East Grand Forks (our local threshing bee) http://www.egfheritage.com/

Well last yr while running it one of the square bolt heads broke off, hit a blade which shattered, hit another blade and cracked the other. We were done with the demonstration to say the least. After a few phone calls it looked like the blades were going to be very pricey to replace $5-700 apiece to have them made. We assumed the old knives were made of hard steel since all the "experts" we spoke to said that is what they had to be. Well we decided to check with a local machine/metal shop and they said the old one were not hardened. We have had new knives cut and ground and they work just as good as the old ones did. 4 knives made for ~$500 from the local shop. Anyway should we have them hardened? would that help keep a better edge? I'll run over there tomorrow and get a pic of the machine. Any help, suggestions or questions?


Thanks
 
Matt

You say it was made in Buffalo. A little researching leads me to believe it is possibly a Josiah Ross or maybe a George Parr planer. Sounds like you have an old square cutterhead. Oliver invented the round cutterhead in 1908 so before that they were all square with the knives held in place by four or more bolts that went though holes in the knives and threaded into the head. If it were a jointer I'd tell you to get rid of the square head based on the fact they can be quite dangerous. In a planer it's not quite so bad since you don't pass your hands over them but as you learned throwing a bolt can do a lot of damage. Glad nobody was hurt for I have heard of planers tearing themselves apart under similar conditions. I have read the bolts are hardened steel to withstand the stresses they undergo but the knives themselves are not (they are real thick though). Not just any old bolt will do. They need to be up to the task. You need ones especially designed for cutterheads from what I understand. It's possible the cheapest and SAFEST route is to replace the cutterhead. You can find round modern gibbed style cutterheads fairly easily these days as folks are swapping them for Byrd Shelix or the like. I've seen Powermatic 20 and 24" cutterheads go for under $100 on ebay. Any decent machine shop can shorten a longer cutterhead and then put the cutterhead in a lathe and turn the ends down to match the diameter of your square cutterhead. I hate to say it but the four knives at $500 may have been more expensive than this route and is subject to fail again. Since we are talking safety here (I'm a bit in over my head on this cutterhead subject as well) I'm going to defer you to owwm.org and owwm.com. Post some pics and you will get advice from some very knowledgable folks who do this stuff for a living or as a serious hobby. You can gather a lot of information by searching the forum and maybe even your answer. I found this and there is more. http://owwm.org/...search_id=1925767806

You can find some interesting info on cutterheads at http://wiki.owwm.com/...ge=Clamshell%20Heads

four_knife_oliver.gif

http://wiki.owwm.com/Default.aspx?Page=Clamshell Heads
 
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We have had new knives cut and ground and they work just as good as the old ones did. 4 knives made for ~$500 from the local shop. Anyway should we have them hardened?
Click to expand...


First will need to know what type of material the blades you have now were made from,,,,,,,,,,,, and don't say "steel" (hehe) need a type of steel and "code" number.
 
Holly cow ERIC.
That picture brings back bad memories from shop class and the safety slide show. Lots of good pictures of industrial accidents to keep us from fooling around.
My pal is missing most of one digit and part of another.
 
The planer knives used in the sawmill I worked at as a young man were made out of high speed steel, ditto for the chipper knives. I'd think that'd be better than carbon steel, which if hardened enough to hold an edge would be prone to shattering than the more ductile high speed, and more prone to overheating and loosing it's hardness.
 
Bob

I remeber those films. Even moreso I remember my 7th grade woodshop teacher telling stories of shop accidents he'd seen over the years. Like the guy that was prying something with a screwdriver towards his face. The part gave way and he shoved the flat head up his nostril. Bled like a stick pig.

Mr. Moore

HSS is still the most common with tooling suppliers, specifically M2. You see some solid carbide and carbide tipped as well but they are very expensive. The HSS sharpens more easily and gets sharper but it doesn't hold as edge as long (I know you already know this....). CG Schmidt and WM Moore are well known suppliers and could probably help Matt get the right tool steel for his planer.
 
I remember safety films in grade school basically warning kids not to touch anything that could cut. To this day I can not stand the sound of a skill saw because of that. Makes me shiver just thinking about it. Yep good memories....

Ha! Just thought about getting to help run the projector in school. I can't imagine kids today get to sit next to the DVD player remote and push play, poor kids.

Tim
 
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