To Anne Watson and Frank Campbell,

Thanks to each of you for the link, but I had found the site through an
earlier web search. The site only had a reference link where it looked like
someone had rebuilt the planer and was dsiplaying pictures of it.

To KB8QLR,

If this palner appears to be a monster to find parts for, or to just operate
in a safe manner, then I might just put a "For Sale" sign on it. It might be
great for someone that wants the entire thing, or they might want it for
parts for another existing unit. I did a search on the Sears web site, and I
found they still had the unit on record. They had an exploded view of the
parts, as well as a list of the parts, but whenever I tested to see if they
still had any of the parts (knobs, handles, ...), the site told me that no
parts were available. I went ahead and made a copy of the parts list they
were showing, as well as the exploded parts view, just in case Sears stops
providing this information about the unit.

To Nut tree,

I can see what you mean about it could/can be a beast. Roughly 40 years has
past since this thing was made, and I'm sure that many safety features have
been implimented during the years. I hope that you may have the manual. I'd
like to read-up on the manual before I turn this thing on (as well as
getting other reading material about planers). Let me know if you were able
to find the manual or not.

To JAW

I sort of chuckled when I read his message too. However, my first thought
was that his father-in-law gave it to my father-in-law. These things appear
to be *VERY* well built, but as KB8QLR implied, these 40 year old planers
appear to be a bit dangerous to run. Maybe these things have lasted this
long because they are well built, or because people have only used them or
twice and became scared to use them again, so they just collected garage
dust until they were given away again and again. A thought did cross my mind
that a son never gave this beast to his father, or the father to the son. It
only seems to be an "In-Law" thing. I guess that my next freebie gift from
my father-in-law might be something like an old set lawn darts. :-)