Restoration of Parks 95 12" surface planer
Jesse brought in a Parks 95 12" surface planer, on 03/16/2016. This is a ~280 lb machine, probably manufactured in the 30s or 40s (we'll know more if we can clean up the plate with the serial #). It is cosmetically in bad shape, and has one small operating problem that should be resolvable.
It's not yet been decided whether this tool will get a top-to-bottom overhaul or just be touched up for usability. This page will be used to track resources with repair information, and to document the process of cleaning it up.
A note on usability
The planer is somewhat operational now. However the pickup roller (infeed roller) is not successfully pulling boards through the cutter. The fifth link below is for a thread where a similar problem with an identical planer is being discussed, and there are several suggestions we can try there without a full teardown. Anybody is welcome to attempt work on this, if you'd like a working planer or you're just bored. Things we can try (but haven't yet) include:
- Confirm that the bed rollers are positioned high enough to support the board rather than having it rest entirely on the bed itself
- Attempt to lower the position of the infeed roller itself - this would be a delicate process, since it's important that the roller height is not lower than the cutting height
- Continue to clean the rust off the bed, sand it down, and wax it
Restoration resources
Restoration worklog @ vintage machinery
Restoration worklog @ estrategy
Thread on pickup roller performace
"Before" Photos
On arrival
Gearbox
The bed
