Parks' Wagon Shop Special
 

Anyone know anything about one of these ante-diluvian combination
machines ?

It seems there's one nearby looking for a home, and there's a
possibility of converting it for use in chairmaking. This means
reworking the motor drive, rebuilding a few Babbitt bearings (which is
why I've been aproached) and probably abandoning the planer and
sawbench. This would leave a large bandsaw, a horizontal borer and a
horizontal round tenoner. I'll need to meet modern safety standards
for guarding, and quite probably a mechanical brake. I assume the
planer and sawbench are simply beyond hope for achieving this.

Google and the OWWM site have shown nothing on one of these, and
hardly anything on its cousin(?) the Planing Mill. Here in the UK
they're _really_ rare.

I was hoping to finally see a square-head planer, but as these things
were built in the '20s (?) I guess they're too late.

Andy Dingley wrote:
Anyone know anything about one of these ante-diluvian combination
machines ?

It seems there's one nearby looking for a home, and there's a
possibility of converting it for use in chairmaking. This means
reworking the motor drive, rebuilding a few Babbitt bearings (which is
why I've been aproached) and probably abandoning the planer and
sawbench. This would leave a large bandsaw, a horizontal borer and a
horizontal round tenoner. I'll need to meet modern safety standards
for guarding, and quite probably a mechanical brake. I assume the
planer and sawbench are simply beyond hope for achieving this.

Google and the OWWM site have shown nothing on one of these, and
hardly anything on its cousin(?) the Planing Mill. Here in the UK
they're _really_ rare.

I was hoping to finally see a square-head planer, but as these things
were built in the '20s (?) I guess they're too late.

I have seen a couple of them. The belts are all 2" canvas/leather and
completely unguarded. They will be a real bear to guard to modern
standards. The bandsaw may or maynot have some basic guards, but you
can build them if missing. The shafts on the borer and tenoner are also
unguarded. Just about any moving part is open to the world. I'd love
to have one to play with, but not in a commercial shop. With any luck,
some of the work may already be done for you. Good luck.

I've got a re-print in the archives on several Parks combos.
Best I can figure is they were made towards the front end of
the last century (teens/twenties) and up to at least the
thirties.

UA100

Unisaw A100 wrote:
I've got a re-print in the archives on several Parks combos.
Best I can figure is they were made towards the front end of
the last century (teens/twenties) and up to at least the
thirties.

UA100
Do you ever sleep? 4:13am!

My Old Tools wrote:
Do you ever sleep? 4:13am!


Sleep? I do that at work, of course.

UA100, early riser, late to bed, tired all the time...

Sorry, off topic for this thread:

Hey Andy there's some free Alder, fresh cut, in Derby as announced in
rec.crafts.woodturning. Thread is Is 'Alder good for turning?' Steve Bak.
I imagine that is Derbyshire, long drive? If you go there you could visit
Griffiths Engineering too! http://www.lathes.co.uk/ Nothing could stop
me from going there.

Alex

So, I got to see the beastie.

Until some time in the '60s, this machine was in regular use. But
times change, and a not unreasonable trend towards guarding the
whirling bits took it out of service. So it was placed in an old shed
and left to moulder.

Fourty years later and I disturbed the cobwebs to dig it out.

As far as I can tell, the combination machine is really two machines
on the same wooden frame. There's a lineshaft driven input shaft, then
two separate belt-driven shafts at different speeds. The high speed
shaft is the planer and sawbench, the low speed shaft the bandsaw,
horizontal borer and tenoner. There's a steel angle subframe holding
the tables up, but beneath that is a chunky timber frame and that's
well rotten by now. The wooden runners for the old sliding tables (?)
for bringing wheels and rims (?) up to the borer are just a memory.

All three shafts run on chunky Babbitt bearings. Which are wrecked. I
wonder if these were ever used after the demise of the wooden frame ?
By the looks of them, the shafts had had enormous runout when they
were in use, as the bearings themselves look like the insides of a
trumpet bell.

So, the plan is to reconstruct the bandsaw, borer and tenoner. Major
rebuilding and guarding will be needed, but it's eminently practical.
I don't think there's any hope of getting the sawbench / planer
working to modern standards, but it looks as if these will simply
unbolt ("bolting" being something of a vague notion in the current
state anyway).

The bandsaw is large, although the frame is on the definitely skimpy
side; narrow cast iron above, bolted steel and timber below, with some
rather flexible joints. I think that old standby, the 2" x 1" box
section steel will be in much demand.
--
Smert' spamionam

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 21:58:20 +0100, Andy Dingley
calmly ranted:

So, I got to see the beastie.

Until some time in the '60s, this machine was in regular use. But
times change, and a not unreasonable trend towards guarding the
whirling bits took it out of service. So it was placed in an old shed
and left to moulder.

Fourty years later and I disturbed the cobwebs to dig it out.

Tres cool.


All three shafts run on chunky Babbitt bearings. Which are wrecked. I
wonder if these were ever used after the demise of the wooden frame ?
By the looks of them, the shafts had had enormous runout when they
were in use, as the bearings themselves look like the insides of a
trumpet bell.

Will you rebabbit them or go to a new style, like pillow blocks
or something?


So, the plan is to reconstruct the bandsaw, borer and tenoner. Major
rebuilding and guarding will be needed, but it's eminently practical.
I don't think there's any hope of getting the sawbench / planer
working to modern standards, but it looks as if these will simply
unbolt ("bolting" being something of a vague notion in the current
state anyway).

Got it on your website yet? Please do so as it comes to life.


The bandsaw is large, although the frame is on the definitely skimpy
side; narrow cast iron above, bolted steel and timber below, with some
rather flexible joints. I think that old standby, the 2" x 1" box
section steel will be in much demand.

That should hold it. Hopefully, that pic I sent will help you
figure out how it should actually look as a working unit.



--
REBOOT AMERICA!
-----------------------
http://diversify.com Website Programming

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 17:12:44 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

Will you rebabbit them or go to a new style, like pillow blocks
or something?

Probably re-pour the Babbitt - so long as the shaft journals clean up
well enough.


Got it on your website yet? Please do so as it comes to life.

I haven't got any photos yet. Too small and dark a shed to get any.
Hopefully there'll be some when it's all dragged out and moved to the
new location.