Stetson--Ross plainer

bandmiller2 · April 17, 2011, 08:34:07 PM

A friend stopped by today said he just bought a Stetson-Ross plainer that origanally came from a shipyard in the northwest.Its huge and will plain a 36"x36" timber 40+ feet long the bed is 120' long and uses a carriage like a circular sawmill.The guy does high end timber frame and has a job coming up and needs it.It will make moldings too. Frank C.

Dave Shepard · April 17, 2011, 08:36:45 PM

I've heard of these before. Is he in your area Frank?

woodsy · April 17, 2011, 08:46:23 PM

That should be a good asset to his business. I almost bought one (because I could) until I realized they are fairly common so I passed. I was aware of half a dozen or so for sale on the east coast this fall. There was one for sale in NE CT this winter.

bandmiller2 · April 18, 2011, 06:26:03 AM

Dave,yes he's close to me,it will be set up in Blackstone Ma.Woodsy this is probibly the one from Ct. it was never assembled just shipped and stored near the coast in Ct.thats strange Woodsy my friend thought there were only three of this size made.He told me the model, 31 I think.Frank C.

woodsy · April 18, 2011, 07:32:13 AM

I'm not sure how many of that particular model/size exist. I had just turned up several carriage style planers of varying sizes making me think they are more common than I thought they were.

ROUGH CUT · April 19, 2011, 08:04:00 PM

I would love to see a picture of a Stetson-Ross 36" planer.

I bet it makes my King 20"planer look like a baby.

inwoodcutter · April 20, 2011, 01:09:17 PM

Ah yes, Stetson-Ross, the manufacturer of big planer-matchers. I've been in correspondence with one of their former engineers, Chandler Jones, who did quite a bit of writing in his retirement after working there for 30 years. He wrote articles for The Logging and Sawmilling Journal and Wood and Wood Products. He also published 4 books which I now have the publishing rights to. The 4 books are on bandsaws, the double end tenoner, cutterheads, and lastly his most popular book, "Planers, Matchers, and Molders in America 1800-1985".

Their machines are incredible models of high production. The highest speed machines ran material at a FEED RATE of 2000 fpm. That's 23 miles an hour. At that rate they had to start liquid cooling the bed of the machines or the wood would catch fire! The biggest machine they ever made and the largest planer-matcher ever was the 6-16-A1, a 50,000 pound behemoth with nearly 500 hp spread over its 8 heads and feed works.

Here are some pictures of a 6-14-D4, a smaller yet still very large machine.

Notice the 20 some knives in the head. The spindle speed is still 3600 rpm but because the knives are jointed at speed along with the large diameter the high feed rates can be accomplished.

Dan

bandmiller2 · April 20, 2011, 08:42:14 PM

Thanks for the information Dan.I think this plainer has 20 hp three phase motors on all the heads friend says hes going to have to get a bigger 3ph generator the one he has now is only 50 amp. Frank C.

Dave Shepard · April 20, 2011, 08:55:12 PM

50 amp 220? He's really going to need a bigger genny. :D That is interesting information about the big planers. I saw some information on a Whitney planer that I think was capable of over 3000 feet per minute. I'm trying to imagine what the infeed and outfeed would look like on that.

bandmiller2 · April 21, 2011, 06:40:18 AM

It would look like a streak Dave,too fast for this old boy. Frank C.

red oaks lumber · April 21, 2011, 08:37:47 PM

on the out feed side you need to wear a catchers mask and glove to handle the speed.can you picture the massive amount of shavings flying off that wood eating beast.