Home From Road Trip: Parks Planer is Parked

[John Bailey]

Got home from the road trip with the Parks Planer. It is a bit bigger and heavier than I imagined a 12" planer would be. I've attached some pictures. The first are of the front and back of the planer. As you can see it will take some TLC.


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The next are the left and right side. Also, I've included a picture of where the throw-out bearing handle normally goes. This transmission has been modified so the transmission is always in gear. This picture also shows the rust that I will have to contend with inside the transmission.


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I'll continue with a couple more pictures in the next post.

John

[John Bailey]

Here are a couple of pictures of the inside of the transmission. As you can tell, this part is gonna' take a little work. Before I took these pictures, I had to vacum 100's of decaying nuts that were jammed in the transmission. The add for the planer said that it "worked well." Little did I know at the time that it meant "worked well for a squirrel nest."


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I worked with a spray can of PB Blaster for about two hours on the transmission. It took a lot of working the transmission by hand until it turned smoothly, or semi-smoothly. The following pictures are of the first board I've ever jointed and planed. It was a 4 ft. board and I cut in in half so I could show a before and after. I know this is old hat for most of you, but for me it's a first.


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It was a long drive, but worth it for me.

John

[Bruce Page]

John, :eek: :eek:
Stop!! I wouldn’t run the planer anymore without a complete disassembly and cleanup. The rust will destroy those bearings in short order, if it hasn’t already done so. Those gears are under a serious load while planning, I wouldn’t want to be around when they let go!

[John Bailey]

Thanks for the advice Bruce. I guess tomorrow I start the disassembly. This is going to be a real education for me. By the way, I did get most of the rust out of the transmission. Everything moved easily by hand before I did any planing. But, the advice, I'm sure is still sound.

John

[Carl Eyman]

This may be of interest - hope so - if not stop reading. In the mid 1970's I wanted a planer in t6he worst way. The lunch box variety had not yet arrived on the market. I attended many auctions in the Wisconsin area. Farmers there usually had a side line they pursued in the winter. Sometimes that was woodworking. So when one of these died his estate auctioned off his tools. Many of my hand tools come from this type of source.

I also attended auctions of commercial establishments such as boat building businesses. Every time a planer came up it went through my price ceiling like a NASA rocket. My ceiling was $200. seem to low? Remember I'm talking 1975.

Well one day I had the opportunity to attend the auction of the Horlick Malted Milk plant in Racine Wisconsin. Thewy had some tablet presses that I thought might be something my candy factory could use. That was not the case, but:

When the auctioneer got to Horlick's maintenance shop VOILA! old iron. Lathes powered by overhead shafts, all kinds of goodies, and a 12" Parks!!

When it came up for sale it went up to my $200 ceiling pronto. When the only bidder against me bid $225 I quit. I noticed he'd been bidding on everything (by way of machine tools). I went over to him and asked if he were a dealer and he said he was. I asked him if he would take a quick $25 profit on the planer right then, and he said yes. So I got my planer for $250 for which I've been thankful lo these 30 years.

This may be a technique some of you can find useful at an auction.

[tod evans]

john, you`ve got yourself a nice planer! bruce offers good advice to tear it down, clean and change out bearings and seals. don`t forget to blow out the motor and check bearings and the contactor switch while it`s torn down. this should make it several more decades. congratulations! .02 tod

[John Bailey]

Carl,

Very interesting! Do you still have your planer? Do you know where I could get info on how to dismantle the planer? Any info or advice would be very much appreciated.

John

[John Bailey]

Thanks Todd,

I'll have a steep learning curve on this project. Haven't ever done this before. I have an exploded parts diagram of the machine, and it seems pretty straight forward. In my younger, wilder days I had an old Harley with a bad clutch. I had no money and lots of ignorance. So, I tore it apart myself without having a clue. It was either that, or not ride. Some how I got it put back together and it worked. I think this project is going to be very similar, at least the "lots of ignorance" part.

John

[tod evans]

Thanks Todd,

I'll have a steep learning curve on this project. Haven't ever done this before. I have an exploded parts diagram of the machine, and it seems pretty straight forward. In my younger, wilder days I had an old Harley with a bad clutch. I had no money and lots of ignorance. So, I tore it apart myself without having a clue. It was either that, or not ride. Some how I got it put back together and it worked. I think this project is going to be very similar, at least the "lots of ignorance" part.

John

john, mechanical ignorance is often best overcome with skinned knuckles and cussing. be sure to use your digital camera to keep track of what goes where and you should be fine. i don`t know the specifics on that machine but if any of the bearings are pressed on be sure to use a bearing press to remove and install them. good luck and try to keep the grease off the wood:) .02 tod

[Carl Eyman]

Yes, John, I do have it and it is working real well. However, I don't have any manuals or such. The FWW article was a godsend, but it didn't go into the details of disassembly. If I had to do it. I think I'd start with the gear box and think about tearing it apart first. I would consider replacing the chain in any event. I Imagine it is standard chain. Frankly, I'm glad I don't have to face the problem. How about asking the people in Cincinnati that supply parts for the machine?

BTW I believe my machine was made pre-WWII. They are rugged.

[jerry cousins]

i too have a parks 12" planer that i bought from a local high school shop that was downsizing. i think i bought it in the late 80's - still running great - check out the the owwm site for information about it - http://www.owwm.com/MfgIndex/Detail.asp?ID=618

jerry

[John Bailey]

Jerry,

I've got most of the OWWM stuff for the Parks. That's a great site and they've been very informative.

Carl,

The chain seems to be solid now that I've got it freed up. It's a little loose, but it works well. I'm going to try and get the transmission off today. Then I'll tackle the bearings on that side.

John

[Bob Weisner]

Vinegar takes rust off real easy.

[George Kretschmann]

Where do you find all of these old machines. These are really made of some good steel not like todays brands. I have seen some big heavy machines bought here I was curious about where they are found:confused: .
Thanks gk

[John Bailey]

I got this one on e-bay. I keep an eye on e-bay, OWWM, and Old Woodworking Machines.

John

[Reg Mitchell]

John you can visit OWWM and they have had a discussion about electralis for getting rust.....very informative, might be worth checking out...nice snag by the way.....:)

[John Bailey]

Thanks Reg,

Once I get the planer apart, I'm considering the electralysis thing. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to pull the transmission off. I've never done this type thing before, and I don't want to do any damage.

John