About a week ago I became the proud owner of a Whitherby/ Rugg/ Richardson jointer. I went back to Coopers Mills, Maine where I first saw this machine sitting in the weeds from a few weeks ago. I wanted to get some pictures of it because it was the biggest jointer I ever saw and wanted to post some pictures on here. I also wanted to see how much the antique dealer wanted for it. Man was I ever surprised when he said he would have to have 100 bucks. I am not sure, but I think scrap iron price makes it worth more than that. It's only 6 feet long, but the blade width of this jointer is a whopping 18 inches, the widest I have ever heard of.
I paid him on the spot in any case. We spent an hour getting this behemouth onto the truck, but it was worth it. It was all my Kubota wanted to lift getting it off the back of my truck once I got it home. My snowmobile is about 600 pounds and I would have to say this machine must weigh about the same.
So far I am impressed. Everything works, from the table height adjustment screws to the jointer head. It has babbitt bearings that I thought were "stuck". Luckily that is not the case. They turned freely so now my biggest problem is figuring out how to redo the leather seals and then of course, how in the heck I am going to power this machine. It did not come with a motor. At the present time I am thinking that I could some how use my kubota's PTO to power this machine, but I'm not sure. 3 Phase power is out of the question where I live. Heck I'm lucky I got any electricity. I also got to figure out a way to sharpen these massive blades. Unfortunately it is only a 2 knife head.
Over the next few months, I am hoping to get this machine powered up again. This is my first true rebuild of an old woodworking machine. Overall I am pleased with it, now if only my wife was happy with my latest addition
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