The Damage Undone

This morning a friend of ours, who is a professional welder, came to see wether he could fix the thickness planer which was badly damaged after ‘the loose blade accident‘. In his shop he already repaired the bracing arm which supports the infeed table. This part was cracked in half and I was convinced that it would be difficult, not to say impossible, to fix. He proved me wrong and was able to weld it back together and bolted a reinforcement plate to it for increased strength and support.

One of the broken pieces clammed into place and prepared for welding.

I just love projects like these. This beautiful chunk of cast iron will not find it’s way to the landfill if we can help it. It had 60 years of active duty and can easily have twice as much if we just make an effort to continue it’s life. We will not give in to the desire for more consumption and just go out to buy something new instead of repairing what is left.

Applying liquid metal.

Many people who we talked to tried to convince us to buy a new machine. Arguing for the service which comes with it, the ease of use, and the lack of all the stress or time we invest in fixing it. They forget to mention that a new machine, which would fit our budget, would be a cheap piece of junk made with low grade components and can only be described as a true waist of precious resources. Most of the new machines I encounter like brand x, brand y and brand z, just to name a few, fall in this category. They might suit the enthusiast weekend woodworker but are not suitable for anything else then home, garden and kitchen use. Any of the new machines that I really like are way behind our budget. This leaves us searching for those unwanted oldies which we are happy to give a second life.

Pretty clean, but even more important,very accurate welding job.

In the next one you can see the support of the infeed table repaired and installed. It sits on top of the arm which got welded back on. Note the four bolts which connect true the piece into a plate on the back side (plate not visible). The plate in the front will be installed as extra reinforcement and to dampen vibrations around the weld.

Installed some new planer blades today and if everything goes well I can plane some wood tomorrow. How nice would that be? All depends wether I can adjust all the components to line up the way they should. But since they are all so finely made, this shouldn’t give me any difficulties. The sooner it is up and running the better, then I can dimension some wood and get back to the hand tools which I like to use even more then those noisy giants…

Too many Machines

Because of the event that caused the failure of our thickness planer (see here) my companion and I have been looking to acquire a new machine. Last week we went to have a look at one which seemed to be promising. Upon arrival we immediately started to investigate it so thoroughly that our seller was a bit impressed by our demands. It became clear that the two tables of the jointer did not line up the way they should. We ended up taking one of the tables off, cleaned it all up and put it back together only to find out that the tables where worn out and the fence a bit crooked. Someone must have taken it off at some point and dropped it on the floor causing one of it corners to bend slightly. Amazingly it still performed well enough but we decided those items had to be addressed before we would be able to put it to use. It would cost us about 500€ to have it fixed on top of the 800€ to buy the machine. Plenty of reason to have a look at some other options. In the end we decided we didn’t wanted to buy this one but left the seller satisfied because it was now in better condition as before since we performed some serious maintenance on it during our inspection.

My companion found another machine which is in pretty good condition and has no apparent issues. It is a good candidate but a little bit too large for our limited working space. It is a combined machine with also has a tennon-cutter, and shaper build into it. Those combined machines are quite popular in Europe and are easily found for sale on the second hand market. Most of the time they are intended for the enthusiastic hobbyist and not all that suitable for a professional shop. This one on the other hand is a fine example of a machine that is accurate and well made capable of being used constantly in a professional production environment. The brand name slips my mind and unfortunately I can’t post any pictures of it now.

My comrade told me the good news of his find and explained me there where many machines for sale there. He found it in an old machine shop ran be a machinist who is now too old and blind to continue his work. An alarm went of in my head instantly. A machinist who is selling his old machines is like a dream coming true! There is no place where there is a greater chance to find good, well build old machines which are maintained well, then in a machinists shop. I grabbed my phone gave them a call and asked for an appointment.

Yesterday I went there with my father to have a look and yes, my presumption was correct. The machinist daughter is taking care of the shop and she is a very friendly lady who was happy to receive us. We told here that any of the machines we would buy from them would be maintained well and put to good use.

There are three machines that have my interest and fit my budget. First there is this beautiful old ‘Danckaert’ bandsaw made in Brussels. It runs super smooth, the bearings are not worn out, the motor is in fine condition and they ask 500€ for it. SOLD!

Then I found this really nice drill press which I tested and is in very fine condition. It will take some cleaning and greasing but it is dead accurate and very well made. The gear system is the nicest I have ever seen on such a drill. For the enormous amount of 250€. Yes, I need it! It also comes with two clamps which fit the table.

And then I found this grinder with two precision tables attached to it. I will be using this one to regrind drill bits and similar cutting tools. I am still contemplating wether I will buy this grinder but my companion already told me that he will get it if I don’t. It is just too nice and useful not to get it while we have the chance.

As you can see in the background the shop is full of machines and they are all in fine condition. Luckily I am not a metal worker or I would have tried to get all of them. I saw many useful hand tools which they sell for the price of the old metal. I need to reserve a budget for all those things as well.

I am still overwhelmed by all the goodies I saw and need to contemplate whether I will buy all three of them or just the bandsaw and drill press. As soon as I made a decision and they are up and running in our shop you will get a review on their true performance…

Shrapnel

Last week I called one of my comrades, a fellow carpenter, to tell him the good news that a job was landed in which we put invested a lot of energy to get it. Before I could tell him the good news he said quite nervous that he just had an accident that day but luckily he didn’t get hurt. He told me what happened and ooh boy was he lucky! It was a typical carpenters accident and it could have easily been a really bad scene.

A couple of months ago he was looking to buy some old, high quality, second hand machines. Together we searched the internet for a bandsaw, planer and thicknesser. We found some nice machines for a reasonable price and it was one of these machines that he was fine tuning when it happened.

He was working on the machine and re-installed the blades to see if they where aligned and went for lunch. After lunch, happy with his achievement he turned on the machine and with 380 volts and an immense amount of power it started spinning effortlessly. He was amazed by the smoothness and lack of overwhelming noise and then    BANG !!

So what happened? After resharpening the planer blades he inserted them back in the proper position but didn’t tighten the screws which press a clamping piece against the blades to secure them since he’s lovely wife called him inside for lunch. When he’s lunch was finished, and most of his blood was still digesting the good whole foods served to him, he’s focus was not optimal and he turned on the machine instead of continuing where he left off.

When he told me what happened I was very happy to be able to talk to him alive. It also reminded me of my mentor who has told me so many times to always double check if you have tightened the planer blades after sharpening, and it is only on such a moment that I really understand and appreciate all the effort he put in teaching me proper machine maintenance. Accidents like that can happen to the best of us and constant awareness is never obvious.

The machine itself is one of these old cast iron very well made monsters. They don’t get any better then that. Nonetheless many of the parts broke and as you can see on the picture there is some serious force necessary to do damage like that. Another part is already send to be repaired and we will try to fix the machine rather then bringing it to the old iron merchant. I am not sure if it’s going to be possible to fix it at all but we will try. If we succeed I will post pictures of our success. If pictures never appear well.. then you know what (didn’t) happened.

Here you get some idea of the damage. Since the accident I still find pieces of shattered blades as far as meters away buried deep in pieces of wood.

We are in need of planer and thicknesser that is why we have been looking for a new machine. This weekend the search will continue and maybe we will buy another one since there is work coming up and the repair will take some time…