# How to run a Metal Planner manual and plane lathe beds



## Richard King 2 (Oct 8, 2022)

Hello all. 
I received this letter and want to share it with you.   I will attach his manual for all to share.  I also copied his email address if anyone would like to thank him .  I sent a copy to Keith Rucker of Vintage Machinery and Adam Booth - You Tubers so they can share in the years of wealth.  Rich



My name is Rees Acheson and I recently planed a lathe bed for David
Gardell.  He had been directed to me by you on the Practical Machinist
form.  Thank you for the reference.

I am retired and I do not think that I will be planing much longer. My
mind is becoming foggy and it has become difficult for me to keep my
wits during a job.  However, several years ago I wrote a paper on planer
use for my son.  I had just transferred my machine shop to him and the
planer is the one tool that he had little experience with.  So now he
owns the machines but his job at Climax Machine Tools does not give him
much time to gain planer experience.

I would like to disseminate the planer paper to people who might use
it.  I am not an much of an internet user and yet I suspect that the
internet is the easiest way to do this.

My guess is that you know where the planers are and who operates them.
I am hoping that you would be willing to accept the document I wrote
and, unless you disagree with its contents, pass it on as you see fit.
The idea would be that operators might like another person's perspective
on how to use the machine.  It contains a section on planing lathe beds,
another on milling machine ways and it covers subjects such as general
setup and the flat-tool.

I want nothing in return, I just want to share the document.  Planer
operators are becoming increasingly rare and I believe in sharing what
we know.  The paper is meant to explain planer work from my perspective,
and I think that it is reasonably accurate.

As background I used my first planer when I worked for Coulter McKenzie,
in Bridgeport, CT in 1973.  They made machines that made automotive leaf
springs.  But about half of their planer work was as a job shop, taking
in long work from outside.  They had four planers and I was responsible
for the two smaller ones, a 6' and 12'.  The other two, an 18' & 21',
were run by Leo Angers who was getting close to retirement and had been
running those planers for most of his working life.  I learned a lot
from him and we became friends. I also learned to love planers.  I
bought my current planer in 1973 while I was working there.

Incidentally, you and I met in Springfield, VT at one of your scraping
classes.  For me that meeting was a bit awkward in that Warren Jones had
invited me to come to see the class and to meet you.  But when I arrived
I began to figure out that Warren had not mentioned to you that I was
coming, nor did he introduce me to you. The result was that it took me
quite a while to figure out which one of you was Richard King and by
that time it would have been embarrassing to then introduce myself.  I
apologize in that I should have done so anyway and explained why I was
there.

I hope that the attached paper is interesting and useful to somebody.
If it is neither, I will not be offended.

I also would like to say that it pleases me that there seems to be so
much interest in scraping and machine rebuilding, as evidenced by your
class attendance.  Congratulations on your success with your efforts in
that regard.

Sincerely,
   Rees Acheson    racheson251@comcast.net


----------



## francist (Oct 8, 2022)

Interesting read, thanks for putting it up. Rees also has a YouTube channel with some of his planing jobs. As I recall there’s no talking or discussion but just footage of the machine working.

-frank


----------



## benmychree (Oct 8, 2022)

I have not read the whole thing yet, but I see it as quite well written, and a fine resource for planer work of all kinds.  I spent a lot of time on a planer, a 6' X6' Cincinnati with about 15 ft of table travel, thoroughly worn and abused, not capable of fine work, but it made a lot of big chips on big heavy work.


----------



## Richard King 2 (Oct 8, 2022)

Rees has 18 You Tube shows.  here is one.


----------



## Richard King 2 (Oct 8, 2022)

Keith has hosted 5 or 6 of my scraping classes.  He is the person who started Vintagemachinery.org.  He is a hero of the machine shop trade and will go down in history for preserving the craft.


----------

