Yates-American 16" Hand Jointer
Here's some background and additional information on the
YA 16" Jointer some of you might find interesting.
Dad once again communicated with
YA about the jointer and engineer M.J. Haas sent us information on the machine.
Below is a copy of the
YA machine record.
Note it was ordered January 27, 1944 and shipped to Fanner Mfg. Co., May 19, 1944. When we bought it and the planer at auction in the late 1970's, they were both being used in the pattern makers shop for the foundry at Fanner. We were confident that since they were used in the pattern makers shop to make molds for the foundry, that they had been well maintained and cared for. That has since be proved to be the case as both machines were in excellent operating condition. All I did was essentially just physically and cosmetically clean them up and do a little "tweaking" as necessary.
Some of the information provided to us was a 16 page parts list with sheet 1 seen above. Note the date on the upper right, 6-30-30. That's the date these parts were first brought into production at
YA. This means these jointers were first designed and brought into production by
YA in 1930. When our particular jointer was manufactured in 1944 that design was already 14 years old. Other pages of the parts list show parts designed from as early as 1929 and revised as late as the 1950's so
YA used the core design for over 20 years with mild revisions. A testament to a good, original design.
To set the jointer and all other equipment up, they were moved from the barn...
... to the basement via my lift. This was before the lift was powder coated of course.
Since I was working alone, I brought my engine hoist down to the basement to assist in setting the jointer up.
Here's it's done with the the in-feed and out-feed tables next to be set up.
Once those were brought in...
... and installed along with the fence the set up was largely done. Next was servicing it to get it ready for use after sitting idle for a couple of years.
First thing was to polish the tables and fence. They were pretty clean and rust free but the last time this had been done was 1982 and I thought they were due. I used 400 grit emery cloth and WD40 as a lubricant.
All hand work doing a small area at a time, I polished in the same direction as the machining marks on the tables.
I did each table twice, each time getting them a little more clean. I'd only work for a couple of hours at a stretch.
After a couple of times polishing them, they were quite clean. I'd cleaned and greased each table support and table ways as the machine was re-assembled so all that was left now was to grease the cutter head ball bearings via grease cups.
The grease cups were repacked with new grease and with the machine running they were slowly turned in until the old grease was displaced...
...with new grease showing. I left it running then for about 20 minutes with no load to thoroughly get the new grease into the ball bearings.
Now just like the planer, the jointer is cleaned, serviced and ready to work for a few decades more. I hope this is helpful information for some of you.
Thomas
