What to do with an old 8" jointer?

[Cary Falk]

Cary
I understand the "square head" sentiment, but not the Babbitt bearing sentiment.
Not all "old 'arn" is worth restoring. Some of it was made poorly, even back then, and should have hit the metal recycler many years ago. I have a 16" square head jointer, with Babbitt bearings that may be in this category. It's been sitting in the garage for a few years now. Time will tell with this machine. For now, it makes an outstanding work bench surface.
A jointer is a very simple machine, and other than adding dust collection to them, they have remained largely unchanged in 75-80 years. Heads have gone through different design iterations since then, to what we now have available now, but the rest of the machine is the same. only the quality of manufacturing has changed.
The particular jointer referenced in this thread, was a very well made machine, even in it's day it was considered well made. Other than replacing the head with a 3 blade safety cutter head, widely available, in that size "vintage" machine, there isn't much else to do to it.
Yes the Babbitts will need to be repoured if the cutter head is changed, or they are worn, but that is not an impossible task. Anyone with some fairly good mechanical aptitude and patience can pour a babbitt. It's not hard, just a little time consuming, and exacting, to setup. Any half decent machine shop can still pour babbitts if a person did not want to try it themselves.
I would not hesitate to restore the particular jointer referenced in this thread. It's a beauty of a machine.

Just a personal preference. I don't care to mess with it. I love my 8" parallelogram jointer with a spiral head. I put the head in myself. Pull and replace 2 bearings. Super easy, Super fast.

[Chris Fournier]

Just a personal preference. I don't care to mess with it. I love my 8" parallelogram jointer with a spiral head. I put the head in myself. Pull and replace 2 bearings. Super easy, Super fast.

This machine oozes cool no doubt but that is as an object of past design and production. As a tool it is a relic and is our performed by inexpensive modern designs and production. What is your goal? Answer this and you will or will not restore this jointer. I hope someone does to preserve the history...

[Chris Hachet]

Unisaw - replaced with a Grizzly 1023rl
Delta scroll saw - replaced with a DeWalt
3 or 4 Dewalt RAS - love to restore then but they loose due to space. Probably the only Old Arn I would buy again if I had the space but it would have to be a long arm GA.
Delta lathe -replaced with a Jet 1642 replaced by a Grizzly G0766.
Delta 14" bandsaw - replaced with G0513x2

How do you like the G0766?

Delta bandsaw is well replaced by G0513x2.

[Chris Hachet]

Cary
I understand the "square head" sentiment, but not the Babbitt bearing sentiment.
Not all "old 'arn" is worth restoring. Some of it was made poorly, even back then, and should have hit the metal recycler many years ago. I have a 16" square head jointer, with Babbitt bearings that may be in this category. It's been sitting in the garage for a few years now. Time will tell with this machine. For now, it makes an outstanding work bench surface.
A jointer is a very simple machine, and other than adding dust collection to them, they have remained largely unchanged in 75-80 years. Heads have gone through different design iterations since then, to what we now have available now, but the rest of the machine is the same. only the quality of manufacturing has changed.
The particular jointer referenced in this thread, was a very well made machine, even in it's day it was considered well made. Other than replacing the head with a 3 blade safety cutter head, widely available, in that size "vintage" machine, there isn't much else to do to it.
Yes the Babbitts will need to be repoured if the cutter head is changed, or they are worn, but that is not an impossible task. Anyone with some fairly good mechanical aptitude and patience can pour a babbitt. It's not hard, just a little time consuming, and exacting, to setup. Any half decent machine shop can still pour babbitts if a person did not want to try it themselves.
I would not hesitate to restore the particular jointer referenced in this thread. It's a beauty of a machine.

Not sure on this particular jointer, but many of the older jointers IIRC had four points of attachment-adjustment for the bed. Probably from what I ahve seen more precise adjsutment of the bed than a standard jointer. Parallelogram jointers also seem to work very well.

[Cary Falk]

How do you like the G0766?

I am very happy with it.

[Terry Therneau]

The square cutter head will need to be replaced: square heads were taken off the market decades ago for safety reasons. There is a pretty graphic older advertisement at
http://wiki.vintagemachinery.org/Clamshell%20heads.ashx. (Not that you can believe everything advertisers say, but it would convince me.)
If updating an old machine is your cup of tea, go for it. Crescent machines are very well regarded. If not, list it on the owwm site and someone will likely be happy to get it. I have some old and some new and enjoy them both.
Terry T.

[Mike Cutler]

Terry

I have a 16", square head, jointer at home. It's' "nerve wracking" to use it, which is why it is now a work bench until I find a replacement cutter head, but at the same time it is pretty cool. That machine will take a 1/2" off at a time easily, of any type of wood. It sounds like a small Cessna flying around the garage when it's running.
I can't say I won't ever use it again as is, but I'd really like to put a safety head on it.

[Chris Hachet]

Terry

I have a 16", square head, jointer at home. It's' "nerve wracking" to use it, which is why it is now a work bench until I find a replacement cutter head, but at the same time it is pretty cool. That machine will take a 1/2" off at a time easily, of any type of wood. It sounds like a small Cessna flying around the garage when it's running.
I can't say I won't ever use it again as is, but I'd really like to put a safety head on it.

I really like the Video of Frank Howarth and his Jointer on Youtube. I have an American made Powermatic model #60 8 inch jointer that runs flawlessly. Still kind of dream of an older larger jointer. But changing the cutter head out on an older direct drive machine is a big project.

[Andrew Hughes]

I have 60yr old oliver. It's sad to think someday 40 yrs from now some yuppie will be in Control of my joints fate.
I can hear him now it's too heavy for my flying car how will I get it home to my plastic house. )

[Will Boulware]

As an owner of a Crescent jointer, I'm not able to give you unbiased advice. These are incredible machines. Barring theft (Ha!) or an Act of God catastrophe, it will be my last jointer, as I doubt I'll ever need one wider than the 24" mine will cut. These big machines are incredibly solid and very straightforward to set up, and they're not going to get knocked out of tune if you bump them the wrong way with a chunk of 8/4 (Or with your pickup truck for that matter.) If you're up for restoring your machine, you'd be hard pressed to find a better 8" jointer. That said, Crescent invented the 4 knife round "Safety" head specifically to replace those square head designs on jointers. Not saying you can't use it as is, but I'd replace it. On a planer, it wouldn't be as big of a deal, but I'd be cautious here (and I'm not the safety police type - all my stuff is old and heavy.)

Babbitt is easy. Don't turn it down because of that. Adding a motor is easy. Don't turn it down because of that. That said, if you have limited time and limited interest, pass it along to someone who will get it up and going. Limited skills shouldn't stop you. There are plenty of sources of information around to get you through it, but if you're not up for a project, that's ok too.

[Chris Hachet]

As an owner of a Crescent jointer, I'm not able to give you unbiased advice. These are incredible machines. Barring theft (Ha!) or an Act of God catastrophe, it will be my last jointer, as I doubt I'll ever need one wider than the 24" mine will cut. These big machines are incredibly solid and very straightforward to set up, and they're not going to get knocked out of tune if you bump them the wrong way with a chunk of 8/4 (Or with your pickup truck for that matter.) If you're up for restoring your machine, you'd be hard pressed to find a better 8" jointer. That said, Crescent invented the 4 knife round "Safety" head specifically to replace those square head designs on jointers. Not saying you can't use it as is, but I'd replace it. On a planer, it wouldn't be as big of a deal, but I'd be cautious here (and I'm not the safety police type - all my stuff is old and heavy.)

Babbitt is easy. Don't turn it down because of that. Adding a motor is easy. Don't turn it down because of that. That said, if you have limited time and limited interest, pass it along to someone who will get it up and going. Limited skills shouldn't stop you. There are plenty of sources of information around to get you through it, but if you're not up for a project, that's ok too.

I passed up an 8 Inch jointed of similar vintage to the one the OP has and still kind of regret it.

[Chris Hachet]

I have 60yr old oliver. It's sad to think someday 40 yrs from now some yuppie will be in Control of my joints fate.
I can hear him now it's too heavy for my flying car how will I get it home to my plastic house. )

Which model? 144 or 166 or....

[Andrew Hughes]

I have a 166bd definitely not a hobbyist machine. If you know what I mean 😃

[Osvaldo Cristo]

Despite my lusting after this machine, I hate to say it, but I have to agree. I've restored a few old arn machines for my shop, and I know this is blasphemy, but for each of them, the time and money would have been better spent on a new machine. I could have bought a new Jet for what I put into a 31 year old Unisaw 20 years ago, and the Jet would have been a better machine then and much better now. I can say the same about more than a few things I've seen at some other places.

I do think we tend to over-romanticize old arn sometimes.

It looks most of people thinks old machines is synonimous of better quality ones. It isn't.

Of course there is some great old machines but from my own experience, most of them isn't worth the work to repair it - I did not know if it applies to that specific machine but I guess so.

I would repair if it can be reward you someway, either for the quality of the machine or for the pleasure to recover a collector item, if it is your particular case... otherwise I would scrap the thing. In my place of the world it is quite easy: I simply call the local town administration and in 24h time lapse they will send someone to collect it "free of charge" (well, this service is included in our yearly municipal tax).

Regards.

[David Kumm]

Like anything, when you rehab machines you need to be selective. The sweet spot is finding a machine that would cost 15-20K for 2K, Oliver, Yates, Newman, Porter, Northfield, etc. Rehabbing an old Delta that cost $800 twenty years ago and $1200 today due to foreign labor doesn't warrant the effort. An old Wadkin PK may cost the same as an old Unisaw because few people do their homework. If you do the homework you will be rewarded. If you don't you are squandering your time. Dave