Parks Planer Restoration--reassembly finally underway!

[Matt Meiser]

I started restoring this Parks Planer last winter and stopped after cleaning and painting everything for a variety of reasons. One was that it needed a stand. Finally got that built and painted yesterday!

[Dick Strauss]

Matt,
I'm impressed! It probably looks better now than it did from factory! I can't wait to see it finished.

[Matt Meiser]

The factory stand is actually quite a bit different. This one is period-typical though. The legs are from an old Delta TS, the rest is just steel angle.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Matt,
I bought a Park 12" planer when I first built my shop in the late 70's or early 80's. It was brand new in the crate when I got it. The only change I made was to build a better tension mechanism for the drive belts. I still use the Parks even though I bought a used 20" Bridgewood along with the matching helical head from Byrd. I've had that one over a year and still haven't installed the new head. In fact, it is still stored exactly where I deposited it the day I bought it. I suppose that says a lot for the old Parks. I'm sure you will figure out a dust hood but if you want a picture of mine, let me know.
fmr

[Sam Layton]

Great job Matt, keep the photo's coming.

Sam

[Carroll Courtney]

Nice job on the stand,looks better than factory.Keep the pics coming---Carroll

[Matt Meiser]

Faust, I'd love to see pictures of your hood. That's one thing I still need to figure out. I faxed the hood drawing from OWWM to several local HVAC shops last summer. Only a couple had the courtesy to even call back and they quoted crazy high prices--$3-400. Sorry, but there is no way there's that much work or materials in it if a sheetmetal guy has the proper tools and knows what he is doing, and I'm basing that on posts on the OWWM site, not my opinion. Guess they are all flush with work.

[Matt Meiser]

Here's as far as I got today (after returning home from a shopping trip) before being summoned for dinner.

[jim sauterer]

matt great job.how much does that motor weigh.

[Matt Meiser]

I bet its at least 50lbs. Never weighed it. Its only a 1HP motor according to the tag. The guy I bought it from got it from a guy who built crates for Libby-Owens-Ford Glass in Toledo. Apparently from pine. Really sappy pine. Did I mention the sap? Anyway supposedly he had work done on the motor and they tested it on a dynamometer as closer to 2HP. I can't even find anything on the company that made it other than that they made agricultural equipment in Archibold, OH which is about an hour west of Toledo.

[Phil Thien]

Very nice work. I can continue to be impressed by everything you do.

Can't wait to see it finished and read the report of how great it works.

[George Sanders]

Great job on the stand. Can you tell me the dimensions. I need to build two of those. Yes, I have 2 Parks planers. Don't ask me why but I do.

[Matt Meiser]

Uh...I'll have to measure exact dimensions. But as a rough idea, I believe the legs are 22" which seems REALLY low until you add the height of the base and sides of the planer. I was worried right up until I set the head in place and adjusted the table. Length and width are just 1/4" more than the base. With bed sitting where it is in the last photo its bout 1-1/2" higher than my Unisaw's top. And that's probably the position for about 6/4 material.

The legs are off the base for a Delta table saw. They come up fairly regularly on OWWM.org and I've seen the TS's on Craigslist fairly regularly. Just the legs are UPS-able no problem. You could of course just use angle, but wouldn't get the cool foot.

[Mike Wilkins]

Looking good. Had one of the Parks planers for a lot of years before I got a jointer/planer combo, and ran a lot of timber through it. Yours appears to look better than factory new.

[Art Mulder]

Is it going to be stationary, or are casters going under it?

How come you didn't go with Candy-Apple red for the colour... :p;)
Looking good anyways, Matt!

[Matt Meiser]

I thought about doing another color but I also just like restoring the stuff to its original grandeur.

It does need to go on a mobile base, and in my excitement to start assembly I kind of forgot. I need to get it on there before it gets much heavier. I'm using one of these Rockler bases, but I'm going to take off the kickstand wheel and replace it with a hook for a machine mover like some of the euro machines use. I plan to do the same on my jointer and router table.

http://images.rockler.com/rockler/images/92051-01-200.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41FE2uquK%2BL._SS500_.jpg

[tim weidman]

looking good matt. i also have a 12" parks on what looks like a factory base with wheels. a real beast of a machine! and i have one of those mobile bases that came with my delta jointer. would work great if my garage floor wasn't asphalt with a surface similar to the moon! lol

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Matt,
As promised, here are pictures of the dust hood I built for my Parks planer many moons ago. It has worked flawlessly for all that time. It is built from sheet plastic, Lexan or plexiglass and plywood. It mounts on the planer via four 1/4 x 20 screws. The inside screws, accessible via the 1/2" holes drilled in the top are countersunk. The two on top mount on the pressure bar that covers the infeed roller.
I am sure you can figure out the details by the pics. Enjoy the old iron.
By the way, my motor is at lease three HP. I plane hardwoods almost exclusively. It has never labored but I limit my cutting depth to one third turn of the depth adjusting wheel.
I also have the original instruction sheets for the Parks. I can copy them of you need.
There are planers that are wider but none more simple and beefy.
fmr

[Matt Meiser]

Thanks for the photos! I have a copy of a manual from the OWWM site so I'm good there.

I asked on the OWWM site if I should get a bigger motor and response was basically not unless I find it to be underpowered.

Hopefully tonight I can get out and make some more progress (but remember to get it on the mobile base before making it heavier!)

[Dick Strauss]

Matt,
Let me know if you need a hand getting it on the base. I'm heading to MI on Wed and Thurs and could stop by to help if needed.


Take care,
Dick

[Matt Meiser]

Dick, thanks for the offer. After thinking about it more, I think for now I'm going to leave it non-mobile. I just like the look of the stand and don't expect to move it very often anyway.

Here's tonight's progress, about 2 hours worth. Basically everything is assembled with the exception of the gearbox. If I can get off work at a decent time tomorrow I'll work on that because I don't want to start without having time to get it figured out.

Here are those stand dimensions:
14-3/4" deep x 19-3/4" wide x 21" tall

[Matt Meiser]

Got the gearbox together today which was not an easy task. On-off-on-off-on...you get the idea. But its all together and works great when I spin the head by hand. Tomorrow I need to measure for belts and clean up, paint, and install the pulleys. I also need to get the starter mounted once I figure out where I want it. Then I should be ready to start tuning it up. But I'll also need to get a dust hood and belt guard fabricated before using it.

[David DeCristoforo]

That looks sweet. But I was wondering... the motor shaft, cutterhead shaft and the bed elevation wheel look to be pretty much in alignment with each other. Isn't that going to create a problem with the belt and guard? Is the elevation wheel shaft going to have to go through the belt guard?

[mike wacker]

[QUOTE=Matt Meiser;1330783]
It does need to go on a mobile base, and in my excitement to start assembly I kind of forgot. I need to get it on there before it gets much heavier. I'm using one of these Rockler bases, but I'm going to take off the kickstand wheel and replace it with a hook for a machine mover like some of the euro machines use. I plan to do the same on my jointer and router table./QUOTE]

Very impressive Matt. This a as side line to your post really but shy the hook instead of the kickstand wheel. Kickstand weheel has worked great for me and I'm wondering if I am missing something?

Thanks,
Wack

[Matt Meiser]

Yes, that's how the factory stand/guard works. Its rather scary without the guard with those long belts right by the elevation wheel. There was a model that was direct-drive where the motor hung out the side too.

[David DeCristoforo]

"...that's how the factory stand/guard works..."

I was just looking at some pictures on OWWM and, sure enough, that's how they work. There's a few pics of machines without the belt guard and it looks a bit like you could get something caught in the belts pretty easily reaching down to crank the table with the machine running!

[Jon Kasmire]

Looks great- I hope mine looks as good once I finish it... I picked one up on Thursday, and it's currently in about 200 pieces in my basement. I'm about 75% of the way through rust removal and polishing on everything mechanical.

Thankfully, the paint is in pretty good shape since I'm feeling too lazy to strip and repaint it. I was pretty happy to find that I've ended up with the original stand, and belt cover, 100% factory original with the exception of a 3 HP Baldor motor, and I'm not about to complain about that one.

Matt- I hope you remember how yours ended up going back together, for when I can't figure it out later this week. Any tips/tricks/revelations are much appreciated.

[Matt Meiser]

And its alive! I got the belts and got it adjusted enough to power it up yesterday. Tonight I installed the knives and got it essentially adjusted and planed the first board. After a few adjustments its planing within 0.001 side-side on a 7" wide board. I think that will be acceptable. :)

I still need to do some adjustment to the feed rollers, chip breaker, and pressure bar to get everything feeding optimally but its pretty good.

Next step is prototyping a dust hood and belt guard.

[Mike Heidrick]

Here's as far as I got today (after returning home from a shopping trip) before being summoned for dinner.


Matt, that looks soooo sweet. Great job.

[george wilson]

I had a 12" Parks back in the 60's. I'd have died to have one in the condition of yours. There just weren't many options for small planers,and they all were too expensive for me back then.

A VERY common problem with this model Parks is that the gearboxes went bad. I don't know why as I never had one with the original gearbox. Nearly all the Parks I saw had some kind of jury rigged gearbox. Mine was the worst Rube Goldberg one I ever saw. it had a conglomeration of long,strung out stuff.At least it worked,though very slow feed.

When I made anything large,like a harpsichord,it took very long to plane the wood. I was mostly only making guitars back then,though.

The coolest gearbox swap I ever saw,was the use of an old 1940's or 30's floor shift transmission neatly added to one. 3 speeds,and reverse!!! It was well done,and had a neat angle iron stand that also held the transmission. But,the whole assembly was BIG!! I remember it must have been as big as a 24" Crescent thickness planer!!

I could have had a near mint condition 12" Parks for about $200.00 last year. It was tempting,but I just didn't have the space. With my machine shop I am sure that I could have kept the gearbox working. It didn't seem to have had much use.

I am wondering if the bronze bearings were the problem? Do some of them have to stand the speed of the cutter head?

[Van Huskey]

Great job, I love old iron when it has been seriously refurbished. Often it looks too good to even use.

[George Sanders]

Great job on the restore. When you tear down and restore a machine you gain an intimate knowledge of the workings of it that goes far beyond what you could gain studying in a manual. Great looking machine; and shop too.

[Matt Meiser]

George, over on the OWWM site the Parks is generally regarded as a very solid machine. There's got to be 100 or so in the photo archives and most have the factory gearbox. I seem to remember one that had a two motors, one driving the cutterhead and one driving the feed rollers. The bronze bushings are all in locations that run slower than cutterhead speed. The cutterhead itself rides in ball bearings (set in babbit) The cutterhead drives a very small gear which in turn drives a very large gear on a countershaft to slow things down. There's another combination of little-big gears to slow it down even further. I guess a common problem was using the wrong lube--they call for a thick grease and a lot of times they are filled with oil, so maybe that's part of the problem. All the parts are still available today from a place down in Kentucky.

All the gears in mine were in great shape, save for a chip on on tooth of the big gear but not big enough to even worry about.

[Matt Meiser]

Yesterday morning I got the electrical done and waxed the bed. The starter is an old Allen Bradley unit of about the same vintage as the planer that came with it. I ended up stripping the outside completely and repainting. I also re-filled the lettering on the buttons with paint so its readable.

Today I got a model of the DC hood. Going to sleep on this one for a day or two to make sure I'm happy with it and see if I get any good suggestions from the forums.

[David Keller NC]

Matt - Nice job on the restoration. I admit complete ignorance of these machines - how old is a typical Parks planer?

One other comment - looks like you've the ability to work metal in your shop (both skills and equipment). Based on the beautiful restoration you've done, I'd strongly consider making the dust hood out of sheet steel instead of lexan - the lexan's easy to work with, but a sheet steel hood would drastically increase the "cool" factor.

Nice job.

[Matt Meiser]

David, they made them from about 1936 until 1989. Based on serial number (mine's number 3119) and a number of details mine does or doesn't have, mine was probably made around WWII as best I and the unofficial Parks historian over at OWWM.org can tell.

I am making it from sheetmetal but wanted to work out the angles in cardboard.

[David Roberts,Fitchburg,Ma]

Matt - Nice job on the restoration. I admit complete ignorance of these machines - how old is a typical Parks planer?

One other comment - looks like you've the ability to work metal in your shop (both skills and equipment). Based on the beautiful restoration you've done, I'd strongly consider making the dust hood out of sheet steel instead of lexan - the lexan's easy to work with, but a sheet steel hood would drastically increase the "cool" factor.

Nice job.

I love my Parks, I don't use a hood, just open the barn door, and aim the chips outdoors. I think all metal would look good, but I would think the Lexan would make spotting a clog easier. I had a Ryobi AP12 with a dust collector, it always was clogging. Not really the same thing, but from experience, I know how much flows out of the Parks when you are working. Good looking restoration.

[Matt Meiser]

Got a really good start on the belt guard as well. Man I love my plasma cutter!

[dan petroski]

your parks is coming along fine. i rebuilt one last fall and really like it over the lunch box planer i had. what i did for dust collection was to use a floor dust collector. i have a bench next to my planer so i rigged an over arm over to the planer and attached the floor sweep collector to that. i put a 1/8 inch piece of Masonite on the bottom of the floor sweep. it gets about 90% of the chips and if i fiddled with it some i think i can improve on that. my guess is that a 3x12 inch floor register would work as well and be easier to modify to be more efficient. have fun

[Matt Meiser]

I got an hour or two out in the shop tonight and got the belt guard fabricated with the exception of some mounting tabs. I'm really happy with how its turning out.

[jerry nazard]

Matt. That is SO cool!
I am enjoying this thread.

[Art Mulder]

Okay, I'm no welder, but isn't that just a tad over-built for just a belt cover!? :D;)
(Do you really need a weld every inch for something like that?)

[Matt Meiser]

Probably but it keeps the joint tight. It only takes a couple seconds per weld.

But yeah, your car is made (mostly) of thinner sheetmetal welded less frequently.

[Rick Alexander]

I might would consider would be to angle the DC connection a little lower so there's not such a drastic direction change there. I know you've got to clear the exiting board but looks like you might have a little room left there. My dad has that exact planer and his is nearly straight out from the dush shute and works perfectly - even with only a 4 inch DC hose. I would think with a 6 inch like you appear to have - about anything you do there should work fine as long as the DC has pretty good suction.

I haven't read the whole thread here so you might have already covered this but do you have plans to cover those pulley's. Dad's didn't come with a cover but he ordered one later on (back in the 70's). I remember that thing was super scary without one.

We nearly got rid of his a couple years ago when we updated to a 20 inch planer. I'm glad he decided to keep it after all. Those things are beasts.

[Matt Meiser]

I got the mounting tabs fabricated and welded in place and mounted the guard for a trial run. Works as intended with no rubbing and no rattling.

[Matt Meiser]

Then I turned my attention to making another prototype hood with a lot lower angle. Nordfab is supposed to be quoting a hood for me that others have gotten from them but I haven't heard from them after 2 days. Unless they get back to me tomorrow with a reasonable price, I'll just start building this.

[george wilson]

When was yours made? They may have upgraded the gearbox problems since I saw several in the 1960's. That was a pretty long time ago. Back then,Parks gearboxes breaking were well known.

[Matt Meiser]

Mine's probably mid 40's.

[george wilson]

Don't think I'm running your planer down at all. I have a real soft spot for them,and was tempted to buy a VERY fine original some time ago,stand and all. I just didn't have the room to accommodate it. I might just warn you to keep an eye on the gearbox from my own experiences in the 60's,when they were about the only game in town(except Belsaws). The Parks looks like a heavy duty,larger machine,just scaled down,and that appeals to me.

[Art Mulder]

I got the mounting tabs fabricated and welded in place and mounted the guard for a trial run.

Now paint it purple, or maybe candy-apple red!!!! ;)

[Matt Meiser]

I was planning to paint it matching gray but hmm....

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Matt and George,
Mine is a mid 80's and probably made from the same castings as Matt's. The motor is under the planer. It has always run perfectly except that one of the belts whacks the side of the belt guard when I shut down. The belts are original and probably not as matched a pair as they once were. I'll spring for new ones eventually. My gear box seems fine but tell me, is there some maintenance required for the gear box other than adding a bit if fresh grease once in a while?
By the way, Matt, great job restoring the old Parks. You made good use of your welding skills. The belt guard looks perfect.
Butch

[Bruce Page]

Matt, that's some nice fabrication work on the belt guard.

[Matt Meiser]

I finally got a chance to get the dust hood fabricated. Pretty happy with the result here too. I'd planned to mount it a different way but realized I could easily add a couple tabs and drill and tap the chip breaker/top guard. The second picture shows how I made a 1/4" plywood template from my cardboard mockup to cut the sheetmetal with the plasma cutter. I'm not steady enough (and can't see well enough) to follow a line with the plasma torch.

The belt guard is painted. Just grey since I decided to keep it stock looking. But I did look at colors at our new local O'Reily auto parts store that opened the other day.

[Peter Aeschliman]

Very impressive.

Are you a weekend warrior, or a professional? Your work (I read your cabinet thread) is very impressive if you're just a hobbiest!

[Matt Meiser]

My daughter had a snow day today so I used that as an excuse to take the afternoon off. After plowing the drive and shoveling snow, we got the scroll saw I picked up over the weekend up and running and I let her practice drawing lines and cutting them. In between all that I primed and painted the dust hood. Since the paint I'm using dries in an hour or so...its done! Well close, anyway. I'm modernizing it a little with a Wixey digital readout that hasn't shown up yet.

The dust hood works awesome--at least as good, if not better than the designed-for-dust-collection lunchbox planer that I sold on Friday. Basically nothing was left uncollected, and it was just temporarily connected via a very long 4" hose with some nasty bends to make it reach.

[Matt Meiser]

I finally got the Wixey readout installed today. Since the bed moves and the head is fixed, opposite a lunchbox planer, the readout reads backwards, which makes calibration a little tricky. For now I got it close by running the head all the way up and zeroing it. Then I ran a piece and bent the tab at the bottom slightly until it matched what my calipers said. Someday (TM) I'll drill a hole and add n adjustment screw to that tab.

I also fabbed the mobile base which is painted and drying.

[Matt Meiser]

The paint on the mobile base was dry when we got home this evening so I was able to get the planer on the base. This project is officially done. :)

[george wilson]

I'm not the one to ask. The planer I had did not have the original gearbox. It had a Rube Goldberg arrangement of a gear motor and lots of other parts.

[jerry nazard]

The paint on the mobile base was dry when we got home this evening so I was able to get the planer on the base. This project is officially done. :)

Matt,

Great thread - and planer!

-Jerry

[Alan Schaffter]

Matt, I'm late to this thread. Great restoration! I restored an older Delta RC-51. Actually I just cleaned, painted and aligned it, since it was in good shape.

Mine came with the stock Delta DC hood, which is shaped much like your custom built one- and has, what I consider the same flaw. The dust port on the hood sticks out the back and so the flex hose gets in the way and wants to hang down right where the boards come out of the planer.

I plan to make a new hood so that the port curves to the left or right- maybe I will make it symmetrical top-bottom so I can mount it to discharge left or right. Just something to think about.

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/500/medium/P1170033.JPG

[Matt Meiser]

Alan, I know what you mean because I had that problem with my lunchbox. However the consensus on the OWWM site with my first design and the stock one was that they don't work as well because the chips have to turn from the direction they are thrown by the cutterhead to be collected. I'll have a drop coming down from above for mine so I don't think it will be an issue.

[Alan Schaffter]

As long as you have good suction from a ceiling drop you should be ok, but angling it instead of curving it up creates the same problem.

If the chute has a smooth curving transition then I don't see any problem. Were the OWWM guys commenting on just using it as a "dust chute" or a DC dust port? In addition to the blade inertia, if the chute is connected to a DC, the chips will have (should have) at least 4000 fpm air pulling them along.

I haven't figured out how I will make the chute. MDF or sheet metal will result in some flat surfaces and inside corners. Though more of a mess, the best way to make a chute with compound curves is with foam and fiberglass using a moldless technique. Start with a large block of rigid foam, carve and sand a plug to the size and shape you want, fiberglass it, then dig out the foam.

[Greg Portland]

With the digital gauge issue, you can get url=http://www.woodmastertools.com/NS/accessdetail.cfm?PID=773]this one[/url] from Woodmaster which reads correctly when the bed moves & the planer head remains stationary. (ruler reads 0"->6" instead of 6"->0"). It would be nice if Wixey sold one with the ruler in the other direction (no, you can't flip the ruler around). You can of course rig it to still work but you'll have the ruler protruding off the top of the planet (not good if you like dragging boards back across the top to re-feed).

[Alan Schaffter]

With the digital gauge issue, you can get url=http://www.woodmastertools.com/NS/accessdetail.cfm?PID=773]this one[/url] from Woodmaster which reads correctly when the bed moves & the planer head remains stationary. (ruler reads 0"->6" instead of 6"->0"). It would be nice if Wixey sold one with the ruler in the other direction (no, you can't flip the ruler around). You can of course rig it to still work but you'll have the ruler protruding off the top of the planet (not good if you like dragging boards back across the top to re-feed).

I can neither confirm or deny, but you may see exactly what you need from Wixey in the next couple of months.

[Matt Meiser]

I think I could have used the one intended for router tables/shapers too--the one with the remote readout. But I'd already mounted it before I realized. Someday (TM).

Actually I could care less about the -, but calibration is a minor pain. Luckily the need to recal is infrequent based on my previous experience with the Wixey on a planer. The TS fence Wixey on the other hand...

[Dirk Lewis]

Nice job on the planer Matt - thanks for the thread.