Planer

[Frank_Pender]

Don P., no offence, but you are beginning to gain and the volumn of scrap some us collect from one another.   You and David Gilman are running neck and neck for first place.  I will have to get him down here again to see what else I can pawn off onto him.

[Don P]

I hear you Frank, I'm glad I "saved back" that too big blower she wanted me to get rid of. It weren't too big, I just needed to add to my empire .

Dail, the AC motor on the rotophase is a beast, it would take 2 men to reach around that thing. It looks like one of those big old slower rpm models. I think I'll have to have a talk with the power co engineer before I throw juice to that thing, I could see lines falling off the pole

I'm not sure of the model yet Paul, http://www.owwm.com/PhotoIndex/detail.asp?id=357 is the same layout as the machine though. That one in your link is LOTS purtier. It does have sectional feed and the cranks all seemed to move freely. One motor had been gutted, I've done work for the owners of the local rewind shop, so hopefully...

They were going to try to flip the phase converter tomorrow with the knuckle boom at a nearby sawmill and then we'll try to unload after work tomorrow. I've got some locust 6x8's and some pipe and there's a winch on the front of his gooseneck to spot it off the dovetail. We had rain today so it might be yard art for awhile if we can't go off the driveway.

[Don P]

Question of the day,
The "phase converter"...isn't, its 2 3ph motors connected by a belt, a 48 and a 75 If I spin the big motor off a gas motor, is it a generator?

We had another inch of rain yesterday, got stuck pretty good. A neighbor is bringing a backhoe tonite, but the molder is here  .

[Don P]

Well, Tony said "it took an act of congress, but we got 'er done".
We first buried his truck and trailer, my tractor and truck, and we decided we needed bigger stuff. He brought out the knuckle boom and tried to lift and slide it off the dovetail. The trailer had kinda come to a rest at a slight angle and when 10,000 lbs hit the matchsticks we had put in the stake pockets...well lets just say it wasn't looking pretty. He went back and got the dozer and first pushed the molder back on the trailer, then chained to the uphill side while Lewis ran the boom and Larry worked the winch on the trailer...nuthin to it  . I guess I'll build the building around it  .

It is the 12" Vonnegut. While I was searching info on the internet I found out that #1 Kurt Vonnegut wrote lotsa books, and he is the great grandson of Anton Vonnegut, the founder of the molder company. We had a Vonnegut sander in one shop I worked in, but I guess I'm slow, I'd not put 2 and 2 together. Anyway, I learned lotsa literature so far and 2 hits on the molder. I think I'll e-mail the guy on the OWWM site that has one and see what kind of info he has.


This pic is from the infeed end, that's a Mt Dew can for scale.
Its a push feed molder as opposed to a thru feed machine. The front 3 handwheels are all part of the feed and front guide assembly, the drum switches on the lower front are for the heads and feed motors, 2 forward speeds, 1 reverse. , then the heads are in order, top, left, right, bottom. The last patent date is 1925. I wonder how many miles of wood has been through this thing.

[dail_h]

   Hey Don,
   If you can paw around the mill where this came from,ya might get lucky,an find the heads

[Paul_H]

Good stuff Don,you've got it home where you can keep running outside to look at it. What is the difference between a pushfeed and through feed?It sounds like both types have power feed rollers (?)

[Don P]

Dail, Larry is my "inside man" he's trying to come up with some heads. He's got a stand of trees and a desire for a housefull of framing and trim 

A pushfeed has the feed unit at the front end and shoves the wood through from there, its the way all the older machines I've seen worked. I ran a SCM 5 head throughfeed for awhile in one shop, there are feed rollers all the way through the machine. They are acting as hold downs and feeders, less jams and better hold down too, its the way most newer machines work...more complicated though. This one does have sectional feed rollers though, pretty hi tec for its day. I have been going down to admire and oil/twist screws/ inspect/ scratch my head.

Our maid of honor from 21+ years ago was up for a visit, nothing like 2 females rolling their eyes at a guy  .

[Furby]

A pushfeed has the feed unit at the front end and shoves the wood through from there, its the way all the older machines I've seen worked.

So what do you do for that last board? I'm guessing you would have some waste on the end from pulling it through?

[beenthere]

Furby
We'd send a slave board through to poke out the last one, and then back the slave out backwards. Sometimes it was a little chewed up and marked with the power roller tracks, but not bad.

[Furby]

 
Got ya!

[Buzz-sawyer]

Hey Don P
Whats doin with the planer...ever get her rollin? Or 3 phasing?

[Don P]

Nada Buzz, I can't even move the 40 horse yet to make the rotophase. I made some horses for tables at the CF benefit auction tomorrow and will be going. Our local crane guy has donated 3 hrs crane time, I'm hoping to bid only a little above retail  .