Cracked Casting on General 130

[Aaron Mills]

Generally a cracked casting would be a definite non-starter for purchasing a used machine, but I'm not sure how the location of these cracks will ultimately affect the performance of the machine.

On the General 130, there is a cast iron chip breaker that can be pivoted. There are slight cracks are the depth of the casting on either side of the pivots. It almost seems as if someone dropped the chip breaker. I'm not sure how or if these cracks will affect the performance of the machine.

Aside from the cracked castings, the machine is in pristine condition and well maintained. It has its original operating instructions and the knives have just been sharpened. I'm still hoping to hear from General about the cost for a replacement, but they've been slow to respond to my queries regarding parts for my General 480 jointer in the past week.

At upwards of $4200 CDN for a brand new General 130, how concerned should I be about the damage on the chipbreaker for this planer? Is it a definite reason to avoid the machine, or is it a non-issue if the price is right for this machine?

Thanks for the help,

Aaron

[Dev Emch]

I would say wait and see what general wants for a replacement. You may turn white as a sheet when the blood leaves your head and you become woozy. The good news is that the chip breaker appears to be a one piece design.

But I have seen this before. Currently, I have a 1904 fay & egan 20 in planer that I am restoring in my minimal spare time.:rolleyes: The chip breaker was busted in several places and pinned back together again. Pinning is where you bore a hole in both items and then reassemble using a pressure fit dowel pin made of steel. Drill rod is often used for this. The repair work was a bit hokey.

My current plans are to just hog a new chip breaker out of solid hot rolled A-36 structural steel. Its about as strong as cast iron but has more flex.

My concern or question is how did this happen. Is there something about abusing a planer that can cause the chip breakers to simply break? Some kind of planer kick back problem? I have never really experienced such as massive failure that was forceful enough to fracture a cast iron chip breaker.

So I would keep my eyes open on this one. If you can wiggle the replacement or repairs, this may be a cool planer to snag. It is an awsome smaller planer.

[David Eisan]

Aside from the cracked castings, the machine is in pristine condition and well maintained. It has its original operating instructions and the knives have just been sharpened. I'm still hoping to hear from General about the cost for a replacement, but they've been slow to respond to my queries regarding parts for my General 480 jointer in the past week.

I work for one of the largest General dealers in NA. I have a full parts price list at work. Email me at sales@federatedtool.com and I will get you any parts pricing you need to help you decide if you want to buy the planer. Even a beater 130 that needs total restoration is worth $1000 CDN.

If you saw my last post, pics of me planing and machining a bunch, you will notice that I have a 130 planer, it is one heck of a machine.

David.

[Aaron Mills]

Thanks, Dev and David. I expected and hoped that both of you might chime in with some advice given your backgrounds. Gave me some insight into what would be an appropriate value for the item, and any underlying problems that I should be concerned about.

Got the word back from General on the cost of the chipbreaker, $264 plus S&H costs. Wasn't too surprised by the figure, but certainly figured into whether or not I would buy the planer. Ultimately, the price was too tempting to pass up, even when factoring in the cost of replacing the chipbreaker.

Thanks for your help,

Aaron

[David Eisan]

Ultimately, the price was too tempting to pass up, even when factoring in the cost of replacing the chipbreaker.Aaron

/annoying voice

Didja buy it, didja buy it, didja buy it?

/stop

David.

[Aaron Mills]

David,

Yeah, I bought it. Also got a General 43-01 drill press with the optional foot activated attachment. Combined they came in at under your suggested price for a beat up General 130.

Again, thanks for the suggsetion on pricing. Prior to that I was stuck with the half rule, give or take depending on condition. Theoretically, would've put the top end of the cost at about $2000 for the planer. It was a lot easier to justify the pricing with a little confirmation from an actual General 130 owner.

Also read about your difficulties finding a good, used General 130 or Powermatic 100 prior to purchasing your current planer. Made it that much more difficult to not jump all over this opportunity right away.

Aaron

[Dev Emch]

The price for that chipbreaker is not as bad as I figured it would be. Not cheap but not blood letting either.

Good Job! I think you will like that planer!

Does this drill press look familar? This was the first general machine I ever bought and its a great light duty drill press. Here I am about to ream out a clevis pin hole for alignment of weldment doublers for my tractor loader brackets. Later on, I can use these precise holes to align the item on the milling machine for a 1 inch line bore.

[Aaron Mills]

Does this drill press look familar? This was the first general machine I ever bought and its a great light duty drill press. Here I am about to ream out a clevis pin hole for alignment of weldment doublers for my tractor loader brackets. Later on, I can use these precise holes to align the item on the milling machine for a 1 inch line bore

It makes me laugh when you refer to some of the machinery as light duty. As a direct comparison to many of the machines that I've worked on in furniture warehouses, as well as many of the production machines that I've seen at auction lately, most of the tools that I've picked up for my shop are definitely not heavy duty. Still, everything's relative, and I think the machines probably exceed my needs for now.

[Alan Turner]

Good score. I see another old iron addict coming along nicely.

[Dev Emch]

Light Duty = 15 in drill press. But what happens when you go to a 20 in drill press with auto down feed? I would say the best drill press ever made recently is the clausing 20 inch drill press. It has some nice features including that auto down feed and some tapping features. Often, it comes a heavy duty table with integral flood coolant.

Then, you need to check out my buddy's drill press! This is a vintage drill press run by shaft drive. About a 20 in capacity with an auto down feed feature. He uses a 5 HP gas powered hit and miss engine in his shop to run it. Craig likes this stuff and rebuilds vintage gas engines.


www.antique-engine.com Navigate over to shop to see his shop.

[Aaron Mills]

Good score. I see another old iron addict coming along nicely.

The opportunity to set up my shop with better machinery at a fraction the cost of buying new has just been too difficult to resist. I'm a miser when it comes to everything, and since I'll be waiting until January to have the garage wired up for 220 and a subpanel dropped in, I figured I might as well be patient and wait for some cheaper, used machinery to come on to the market.

I've been applying the 50% rule for all of my purchases (table saw, planer, jointer, drill press) and come out ahead on all of those so far. While most of the machines will require a few hours of work (all are in good, working condition, I just want to put some TLC into getting them close to their original condition), having the time now to work on the machines makes buying used an easy decision. The hard part has been learning and researching more about the assemblies for these machines so that I can properly refurbish/troubleshoot/tune them.

As many have said, the hobby is woodworking and not working on the machines, but until I can start using my purchases, I'll continue to seek out deals for equipping my shop and put some time into getting them up to working speed.

[Allan Johanson]

You're doing a great job sourcing these machines, Aaron. If you need a hand with something, drop me a line and I can come on over.

Have fun!

Allan