As posted from OWWM -
Wow...what a day.
For whatever reason (probably kids and time) I have been in an indefinite 'off-season' with arn (or, at least, arn acquisition) and a decently full garage kept me from getting too inspired.
That all changed yesterday.
I get home from work and casually check my email. I have an email from a local buddy and OWWMer (aka enabler) and he sends me a C/L link asking me if the said link is to that of a planer I've been looking for.
Not just any planer, but a very, very rare Craftsman 12" planer that was only found in the 1956-1957 general line catalogs manufactured by Belsaw for Craftsman. So rare, in fact, that after researching it, I've never even come across an actual picture of one in the wild. Nobody knows its actual model number, there are no additions of it to the mothership and doing a search online turns up nothing, at least nothing past the early 1970s.
And 'looking for' is relative, as this has been a quest tool of mine for 3+ years, when I learned of such a tool.
Here is what it looks like, straight from the Craftsman catalogs of the mid 1950s -
It's no Parks. And that price tag is about $5000 in todays money!
So, due to its rarity, I've become accustomed to seeing a lot of 1970s belsaw planers sent my way from wonderful folks asking if its something I am looking for. I never have taken any of that for granted and it always floors and humbles me that people would be so kind to be 'on the lookout' for me.
So, needless to say, when I saw his email, images of 1970s belsaw planers danced through my head.
Until I opened the link.
And what I found, was this:
The next few moments were me running around the house screaming. I had been caught completely off guard. There it was.
I was blown away. I spoke with the PO who was a very nice older gentleman and fellow arn gatherer. We talked of meeting up asap and that just happened to be the next day.
That way yesterday and this is today:
It is still in the back of the vehicle. I'm working myself up...to getting all 700lbs of it out
It is in good condition. It runs and well. It is operational, with very little rust. It is nearly complete. The feed speed handle knob is a pool ball, the original Cutler Hammer switch has no guts in it and there was a modification to the back of the cabinet - one of the previous owners cut a square hole in the sheet metal to gain access to the motor. I don't know which is more remarkable - that the planer had little to no way to access the motor from the sheet metal cabinet base or that the modification was cut cleanly and with a little work will be a very nice and workable addition to the planer.
For those of you that geek out as much as me:
I can now confirm the model number of this planer - it is 306.23740
The real gem of this planer is the motor. It is a mammoth of a motor - a 3HP repulsion/induction, single phase - the original Craftsman motor:
As you can see, the motor matches the tag on the outside of the machine as well.
And, this motor is big:
There was NO way I was getting this thing in the back of the vehicle with the motor in place, so we removed the motor. And to remove the motor, we actually removed the planer from the motor, to be accurate.
My plans (eventually) would be to replace bearings (motor and cutterhead), find the guts to the C/H switch, new wiring, clean up tags, repaint, find new knob, and do a little fab work to clean up the homemade access door but keep it intact and document all of it. It doesn't have to be a showpiece, but I would like to get it back to as original a state as possible.
So, thus ends a 3+ year quest and opens up a new journey to discover more about one of Craftsman's long lost hidden treasures. Hopefully, as more light is shed on this tool, more might start to come out of the woodwork! A hearty thanks to Todd for remembering my obsession, casually sending me a harmless link, and giving me a gentle push back off of a very steep slope! I appreciate you man!
EDIT: looks like I'll need to cross this one off the list in my signature!
