Jointer gloat - lots of questions

[Rob Will]

Hi folks,
I have not been on in a while so I needed to say hello and show you my itty bitty jointer ;). It is an American 24".
It arrived here by truck freight today and as you might expect, it had some damage. Actually, the thing had turned over in the truck and was sliding around loose in the back of a semi van trailer when it arrived here.
Now here the really wild part.........the entire remainder of the loaded semi........stacked in front of this 1500 lb. jointer.........all the way to the front of the truck.........consisted ENTIRELY of 42" plasma TV's!!!! It's a good thing the guy didn't have to stop quickly.

Anyway, here's my problem: The motor cover was damaged when the machine fell over in the truck. Can anyone suggest where I might find a fan cover for a GE type 715Y? Also, does anyone know how old this machine might be? It is a 4 knife 7.5hp 3ph direct drive on ball bearings.

Thanks,
Rob

[Corey Hallagan]

That's a biggun! Congrats on the new euipment and hope you getter fixed up!

corey

[Kevin Blunt]

Wow That is huge!! I don't think I have ever seen one that big!!

[Chris Padilla]

The Navy will be landing planes on that soon, Rob! Congrats on the find. Try this forum that specializes in old woodworking machinery...see if you get any leads over there: http://www.owwm.com/

[Jerry Olexa]

I have now a serious case of jointer envy now that I just purhased a lowly 6":D :)

[Gary Herrmann]

Is it me or does the bed almost look short because of its sheer width?

And how much does that beast weigh? My back hurts just looking at it.

[Rob Will]

That's what I said about the plasma TV's. I offered to swap the jointer for the load of TV's but the driver just smiled and closed the trailer door. Man, I could have had the biggest TV in the neighborhood. :D

Rob

[Rob Will]

Is it me or does the bed almost look short because of its sheer width?

And how much does that beast weigh? My back hurts just looking at it.

Yes, it is shorter than some. I saw a 24" that was about 9' long. This one is about 7'. The freight co. said about 1500 lbs.

Rob

[Don Baer]

Rob,
Contact your local electric motor rewind shop (Yellow pages listing), look for an EASA shop. They can get parts for just about any motor made.

[Brett Baldwin]

Wow! You could make a cabinet door with rough wood and then just joint the whole thing flat at once. What is the intended use besides having unbeatable bragging rights?

[Chris Padilla]

Brett,

One thing about a nice wide jointer save for the obvious: you can run something with wild grain skewed at an angle as you face plane it in order to help with tear-out.

[Alan Turner]

Nice score.

I have a 12" American Woodworking Machinery jointer, quite old. While researching it, I learned that Am., of Rochester NY, merged with Yates in 1925 and became Yates American. You might want to take a close look at the nameplate. Mine is ball bearing also, but it is pretty clear that mine was converted at some point in time since it came with a pulley and single phase motor. The BB's are in large, strong pillow blocks. It was most certainly built as a direct motor drive 3 ph. I was told that Am. converted to BB in 1922.

One nice thing about the ship's wheel that raises and lowers the infeed table is that you can measure the TPI on the lead screw, and then mark the wheel so you know right where you are at any time in terms of cutting depth. Mine is a 4 spoke wheel, with an 8 tpi screw, so each spoke is 1/32".

Gook luck on the motor cover; can't help you there.

[Rick Lizek]

Having spent many years in repair and restoration of machines I would suggest you contact a welding or sheet metal shop to fab a cover. You may find an original cover after spending many hours in junkyards or old motor shops if you are so inclined on historical accuracy. I myself was never so inclined...get it running!

[John Shuk]

All I can say is WOW.

[lou sansone]

I agree with rich... get it welded and get it spinning .. real nice machine and I would suspect that it is more along the lines of 2350 lbs. excellent find.

lou

[Rob Will]

Does anyone have suggestions about building / buying a blade guard for such a wide machine? (missing) It appears to have had a couple of different types over the years.

Thanks,
Rob

[Mike Spanbauer]

24"... wow. Do you have a planer that can match the ability yet?

What an awesome machine, wish I had the space for that kind of equipment.

Grats!

Mike

[Scott Banbury]

Rob,

I've got a 12" American with that same motor in 3hp (I wish I had a 24").

My cover's all beat up too. I just straigtened it out as much as I could on the horn of an anvil and it works fine--unlike most motors that have bearings at both ends of the shaft, the rotor on this motor is only supported by bearings adjacent to the cutterhead.

I'm curious to know whether your ball bearings are fitted with oil cups or grease zircs--mine is fitted for oil at the motor side and grease at the outboard. Someday, I'm going to put it back to oil at the outboard too.

A friend of mine rigged up a springloaded plywood guard for his--personally, I don't use one since I only use it for face jointing.

[Rick Lizek]

You can make a traditional pork chop guard out of plywood. I recommend using a weight instead of spring as this will give a constant tension.
http://www.osha-slc.gov/Publications/Mach_SafeGuard/gif/mach31.gif
This is a guard made by Surty, out of business now, but it's similar to the better European guards. The nice thing is you can face a board by running it under the guard so it's the safest thing going.

[Alan DuBoff]

Nice jointer!

Per how old, you can probably only guestimate it.

American Woodworking Machinery Co. was bought out by P.B. Yates in 1925, so your jointer pre-dates that. 24" was the largest jointer/planer they made.

American Woodworking Machinery Co. (http://www.owwm.com/MfgIndex/detail.asp?ID=37)

Good luck on the motor cover, I'd say you're better off fixing the old one. Unless you can find someone with another old machine that has an extra, but my guess is that this would be a pretty good long shot in general.

Nice machine.

I just got my 3 phase going in my garage this past weekend.

Hope to find a nice jointer like that one day. Sorry it was damaged in shipping.:(

[Rob Will]

24"... wow. Do you have a planer that can match the ability yet?

What an awesome machine, wish I had the space for that kind of equipment.

Grats!

Mike

Thanks for the boost. You are correct, that sort of machine sure eats up floor space.

The jointer will be placed near my 24" PM 225 equipped with a Byrd cutterhead.

Rob

[Rob Will]

Wow! You could make a cabinet door with rough wood and then just joint the whole thing flat at once. What is the intended use besides having unbeatable bragging rights?

Brett,

I have some full tree width cuts done with a wood mizer. At some point, I would like to experiment with natural edge furniture along the lines of Geroge Nakashima's work. Also, I am interested to find out just how well I can select and stabilize some wide boards for use in traditional antique reproductions. A bit risky but I just have to find out for myself how far this can go. I also have a 37" x 60" Timesavers widebelt sander. Wide boards and big horsepower are proving to be a lot of fun and a challenge.
Who knows where this will lead. Any suggestions?

Rob

[Mark Marzluf]

WOW !!!

Thought I was happy to have my 12"er... JEEESH !!! :eek:

[Seth Poorman]

Ok Rob
I dont ever want to hear you complain that your jointers to small...
Nice score...;)

[Rob Will]

Rob,

I've got a 12" American with that same motor in 3hp (I wish I had a 24").

My cover's all beat up too. I just straigtened it out as much as I could on the horn of an anvil and it works fine--unlike most motors that have bearings at both ends of the shaft, the rotor on this motor is only supported by bearings adjacent to the cutterhead.

I'm curious to know whether your ball bearings are fitted with oil cups or grease zircs--mine is fitted for oil at the motor side and grease at the outboard. Someday, I'm going to put it back to oil at the outboard too.

A friend of mine rigged up a springloaded plywood guard for his--personally, I don't use one since I only use it for face jointing.

Scott,
Mine appears to have oil on both ends. There is a small wooden plug to remove on the top of each pillow block (for the fill). Interestingly there appears to be an oil drain on the bottom. I dont know what kind of seals these things are supposed to have but when I added a few squirts of oil, most of it ran out on the floor. :confused:

Rob

[Scott Banbury]

Scott,
Mine appears to have oil on both ends. There is a small wooden plug to remove on the top of each pillow block (for the fill). Interestingly there appears to be an oil drain on the bottom. I dont know what kind of seals these things are supposed to have but when I added a few squirts of oil, most of it ran out on the floor. :confused:

Rob

Hmm . . . can you take a picture of yours?

My motor side bearings has a brass oil cup low down on the casting so that the bearings are oiled only as they pass through the bottom of the housing.

I think they did this so that the level of the oil would be just below the hole for the shaft and thus not fling oil all over you and your wood.

My outboard bearing was fitted with a zerc and packed with dubious grease when I got it. The zerc it where I would expect to find another oil cup in keeping with the other bearings design.

I intend to some day fit it for oil, but I was desperate to use it so I just blew it out and regreased it and it works fine though the greased bearing does get noticeably warmer if I run multiple full width cuts.

[Jim Becker]

Nice jointer acquisition, Rob!! Congratulations!

[Dick Strauss]

Rob,
Have you noticed all of the planes circling over lately? Did you see the headlines "Navy Reports Missing Aircraft Carrier"? The pilots are searching for an aircraft carrier in your neck of the woods and are looking for a place to land. The problem is the carrier is currently dry-docked in your garage.

Seriously though, very nice gloat! What does a beast like that weigh?

[Rob Will]

Hmm . . . can you take a picture of yours?

My motor side bearings has a brass oil cup low down on the casting so that the bearings are oiled only as they pass through the bottom of the housing.

I think they did this so that the level of the oil would be just below the hole for the shaft and thus not fling oil all over you and your wood.

My outboard bearing was fitted with a zerc and packed with dubious grease when I got it. The zerc it where I would expect to find another oil cup in keeping with the other bearings design.

I intend to some day fit it for oil, but I was desperate to use it so I just blew it out and regreased it and it works fine though the greased bearing does get noticeably warmer if I run multiple full width cuts.

Scott,
Here are the bearing pics from the 24" Jointer.
Does anybody know what sort of seals contain the oil here?
My outboard bearing runs the oil out in the floor.
Rob

[Christopher Stahl]

Wow Rob, that is quite a jointer. I am thoroughly jealous. :) As the others said, use an anvil and reshape the motor cover. How did you come across this beauty? I never seem to come across these old pieces of iron.

[Rob Will]

Rob,
Have you noticed all of the planes circling over lately? Did you see the headlines "Navy Reports Missing Aircraft Carrier"? The pilots are searching for an aircraft carrier in your neck of the woods and are looking for a place to land. The problem is the carrier is currently dry-docked in your garage.

Seriously though, very nice gloat! What does a beast like that weigh?

Dick,
The freight co. said 1500 lbs. but Lou said it is more like 2350 lbs. I have an old Moline forklift to move it up to the door and a pallet jack will take it the rest of the way into the woodshop.

Rob

[Mike Spanbauer]

Thanks for the boost. You are correct, that sort of machine sure eats up floor space.

The jointer will be placed near my 24" PM 225 equipped with a Byrd cutterhead.

Rob

Fabulous match. I'd be green w/ Envy if I would be able to fit the machines in my Garshop and be able to still work within it :)

What a beaut! And a 24" spiral head planer also... /drool

mike