Planers in Action , how to make a lathe.

[Silverbullet]

I was just looking at some of my saved pictures and was looking close at the set up . These planers are loaded with other machines being made. But there sure isn't much holding the lathe beds down . A couple of pins to stop movement and I suppose two with pointed hold downs pressing it down and into the pins . At least that's the way I use to hold things on the ones in a job shop I worked in. I just think it's a great picture , the adjusters hanging on the wall look like Tom Lipton worked there. Found LATHES too

 

[4GSR]

I used to go check on things being built and rebuilt at a shop in Dallas back around 1978. They had a big Cincinnati Hypro planer in that shop. I don't remember the exact dimensions it would plane, something like six foot wide by twenty feet in length. I've seen stuff up on that planer that was every bit of five foot wide and about the same in height being planed. Seen the guy re-plane several lathe beds on different visits up there. Got to talking to the man one day, he told me he worked in a shop in St. Louis, Missouri before coming to Texas in the early 1970's. His main job there was planing lathe beds for several of the lathe manufactures that were around then.

I used to have a small planer I bought out of a warehouse in Austin in my younger days. It was old but still did a good job planning. Sold it years later, wished I kept it. Oh well!

And yeah, that's all they used back then was a few studs sticking up out of the planer table and a couple of holddowns and that was just about it.

Ken

 

[benmychree]

In the shop where I apprenticed, they had an old Cincinnati planer that had a capacity of 6ft X 6ft X 16ft, and I had parts on it that took up the whole capacity, notably, the rocker bearings for the new San Mateo Bridge (San Francisco Bay area) The bottom of the rocker hinges were flat and the top was planed to a concave radius on some of them. The machine had a 35 horsepower DC motor on it with variable speed on both cutting and return strokes; it would take a considerable cut! Another capacity job, at least for width was a string of rack gear segments for a plate planer, I think they were about #1 diametral pitch. The last time I saw it, they had put a milling head on in place of one of the rail heads.

 

[benmychree]

I also had a small planer of my own, 20" X 20" X 5ft, belt drive like the ones in the picture; I sold it and used the real estate to better advantage.
And yes, stops at the end of the job with poppets and pins are the way things are held in a planer; I never had anything come loose in a planer using the old stand by table furniture. I suspect in the case of the lathe beds that cross bar clamps were used inside the lathe bed with studs and tee nuts, nuts and washers to hold the beds down and poppets used to hold them from moving sideways at each end.

 

[Silverbullet]

In a job shop I worked in riverside NJ everworth machine , we had a hydraulic planer , I made the hold downs for it in my home shop . I use to plane giant bearing blocks for the steel mill on it . Top and side cutting simultaneously. After the box was squared it was put on the VBM to bore the stops for the bearing depth. And the bore at the same time , twin spindle tool holders . I had to keep six indicators on the VBM to get them right. The blocks weighed in at over 1,700 lbs. Before I took over that job they use to use a ton of hold downs for milling machines. Didn't take advantage of the pin holes at all.

 

[Silverbullet]

Just looking at the picture it's shows a very nice set up using the overhead belt drive . When I get to my planer I will have to mount the drive over top or hope too. If the dam surgeon gets on with the next operation. I'm so tired of hanging. I called three times asking the hospital for the paperwork for charity care help. Never get an answer just machines. My federal awaits .

 

[4GSR]

Just from several post I've seen over the years on the internet, there seems to been many of these "little" planers around. Make you wonder if this was the way until shapers became popular and these became obsolete?

What came first, the planer or the shaper?

 

[Silverbullet]

Just from several post I've seen over the years on the internet, there seems to been many of these "little" planers around. Make you wonder if this was the way until shapers became popular and these became obsolete?

What came first, the planer or the shaper?

From some picture or sale booklit from the 1900 era they had a traveling head shaper that had a long table like the planer only sidways