Beautiful machine and meticulous restoration work! Very nice! However, you should replace that cutterhead with a modern knife-and-gib model or a segmented one. Those clamshell heads are ticking time bombs due to a design flaw with the screws that can lead to the cutterhead throwing the knives. Just ironic they were originally called "safety" cutterheads.
Hey Matthew, thank you for your concern! Yes you're right these cutter heads are not ideal in terms of safety. I plan to upgrade the head with a carbide helical cutter head at some point. (these are quite expensive..) I'm currently building a full cover for the cutter head also for dust extraction which should add a lot of safety.
@@HolzFlo Good plan! Yes, those helical heads are crazy expensive for what they are, but no amount of money can undo the potential damage one of those clamshell heads can inflict. Plus that carbide will last you for years or even decades without having to completely change the inserts (depending on if you're a hobbyist or pro). In the next 3-5 years I'm looking to upgrade to a bigger jointer. I want to go for an old Oliver 166, either a 12 or a 16 (but no smaller or bigger), and for the most part those come standard with a knife-and-gib head. They really don't build them like that anymore and you can often get them for a lot less money than buying a brand new (and not as good) model. It's good that they don't normally have a clamshell head on them as I REALLY don't ever want to have to change out the whole head (too time consuming and expensive for me).
@@GamingDrummer89 Yes, didn't dig into it jet.. But I think there are suppliers where you can get this helical heads custom made to fit your planer. Yeah these old machines are built very nice! I expect this machine to last my whole life, so I think it's worth it to put the money into a better cutter head at some point.
@@HolzFlo Yep, there are suppliers like that. Usually people go with a Byrd Shelix cutterhead. They're extremely expensive (especially custom built) but they have 4-sided carbide inserts that will outlast steel knives, on average, a couple or three dozen times over. Plus they're easier to reset than regular knives and cut much more quietly and don't tear out nearly as much on tough grain or figured woods. There are several other companies that do the same type of thing but Byrd is the one I see people upgrading to the most. Good luck! As for me, unless the particular jointer I end up getting happens to already have had a helical head installed, I'll just stick with the knife-and-gib head and skew the fence at an angle to get a shear cut. I'm probably going to just get a thickness planer already equipped with a Byrd Shelix head and if I do happen to get any tearout on my jointer's regular knives, I'll just plane the opposite face and then flip it back over and run it through the planer to clean it up.
Great project and a very excellent video. I have purchased the plans and just started gathering the materials. Can you tell me what the height of the gantry is when it is lowered to its lowest point and raised to its highest point? Thank you.
Thank you! These sizes depend on the castors you use. But with the casters I have mounted, at its lowest setting the gantry fits underneath a 2m high door. So its highes point is a little lower than 2m. You can raise the ganty about 1.15m so up to 3.15m. I hope this helps your question. If you have further questions, let me know.
Yes I’ve thought about it when I purchased them. But in the end I did it like it was original. The bearings are sealed by the housing pretty good. The housings also have greese nipples to greese the bearings, that would be impossible with sealed bearings.
Well.. it's a jointer planer with 61cm width. There is no brand or model number on it, so I can't tell you exactly. The previous owner told me that it was bought by his uncle immediately after WW1. But it's handmade from cast iron and in fabulous condition.
