'Alien head' Craftsman planer

[Paul Schaefer]

My dad has one of these. He recently had the blades re-sharpened, and he's having a hard time with the re-install. He tried re-installing, and when he started the planer, a blade flew loose and broke!

I've gotten him a copy of the original manual from OWWM, but he's finding that to be not very helpful. Does anyone know of any better resources out there? I've done some searching on the web and come up empty.

Thanks!

[Ronald Blue]

A photo and model would be helpful.

[Dave Cav]

The regular OWWM dot ORG forum will have a lot of info on alien planers, but you will have to do a search through the forum from the website as it is not searchable via Google. You could also join the forum and ask; alien planers come up regularly for discussion.

[Erik Loza]

I can add nothing except to this conversation except super curious to see what an alien planer is.

Erik

[Chuck Saunders]

Alien Planer.jpg
If you squint a little bit and think alien, alien, alien you can see it.
Chuck

[Erik Loza]

If you squint a little bit and think alien, alien, alien you can see it.
Chuck

AWESOME, I sure do. Wouldn't be surprised if there are some other NSW nicknames, LOL. Seriously, though, that's an interesting design. Never thought of an open-ended planer. I've seen pretty much every machine you can think of in shops but this is a new one.

Erik

[Richard Coers]

AWESOME, I sure do. Wouldn't be surprised if there are some other NSW nicknames, LOL. Seriously, though, that's an interesting design. Never thought of an open-ended planer. I've seen pretty much every machine you can think of in shops but this is a new one.

Erik

You're just not old enough to have seen them all Erik. When I started hobby woodworking in 1972, a thickness planer in a hobby shop was a very rare site. The only thicknessing device I had was a rotary head on a radial arm saw. You rotated the head so the head was parallel to the table. I was in heaven when I bought a basically worn out Powermatic Model 100 for $400 on an auction. I had to spend more in parts than I paid for the machine to get it running. I was the envy of all that visited. Some of those Craftsman planers were manual feed.

[Erik Loza]

You're just not old enough to have seen them all Erik...

I find this very flattering, Richard!

Erik

[Ronald Blue]

Here is a link that gives a little history and multiple photos. There are also numerous YouTube videos it appears. Made from 1941 until 1964 it appears.

https://thepatriotwoodworker.com/for...031801-planer/