Firefyter-Emt
Well-known member
Seeing as how you all liked seeing the restoration on the Delta Unisaw I just finished off a couple weeks back, I thought I would share this one with you.
I have had this in my shop longer than the Unisaw, and it's a shame it's been sitting so long. I helped a my friend (the one who gave me the Unisaw) move a trailer load of tools that he had bought maybe two years back. One of the tools in the batch was this Parks planer. The Parks is an awesome planer, and this Craftsman badged one came with the original stand, belt cover, and the biggest 2hp repulsion induction motor that I have ever seen! Because he did not have a need of the planer, it was mine to keep in trade for moving the lot.
When I first got it home, I tried it out on some wood and it seemed to gut great, and every thing worked as it should. There was a little noise, or vibration, that turned out to be a broken cast shield. I removed enough to get that part out and welded. However, I have to be honest.... it has sat like that for the last year or more. But now, I am ready to get this old girl chipping!
Here are some shots taken when she first came home with me. The Parks is a 12" x 4 planer and as mentioned, powdered by a rather large 2hp motor.
This massive beast is the gear driven feed for the lumber. It's a massive lump of gears and chains encased in grease. NOT fun to clean for sure! Funny story, I almost lost all the gears and chains a while back. One of my sons took the plastic coffee cans with all the gears in it and used it to paint something outside on. But being a boy, he also left it out there... with a cracked lid... next to the trash can. Just by chance I picked it up to put the "trash" in the can and noticed it was heavy. The gears were now sitting in 6" of rusty water! AND they almost went out in the trash!!!!
I did have her making some nice fluffy shavings before I tore it down, and even have a photo to prove it!
That brings me up to now, where I started to tear it down and clean it up. Last weekend, I used 3 bottles of that cheap LA cleaner from the dollar store and removed all the grease off the planer itself. (The gear box was done way back when) Over last week, I was able to get into the shop and pull it down a little here and there. But this weekend was the one that had it fully stripped and ready to be cleaned. I was even able to sandblast the base casting today.
Like my use of a vintage tool stand as a rolling bench? I am thinking that I will add another shelf and bracing way down at the bottom of the feet, and maybe add a wood lip around the top shelf.
I had mentioned that the motor was big, right? Well remember that stand the planer is sitting on? It's almost stuffed with motor! Here is a photo with a 13mm (1/2") wrench sitting on top of the motor. It's freakishly huge!
I have had this in my shop longer than the Unisaw, and it's a shame it's been sitting so long. I helped a my friend (the one who gave me the Unisaw) move a trailer load of tools that he had bought maybe two years back. One of the tools in the batch was this Parks planer. The Parks is an awesome planer, and this Craftsman badged one came with the original stand, belt cover, and the biggest 2hp repulsion induction motor that I have ever seen! Because he did not have a need of the planer, it was mine to keep in trade for moving the lot.
When I first got it home, I tried it out on some wood and it seemed to gut great, and every thing worked as it should. There was a little noise, or vibration, that turned out to be a broken cast shield. I removed enough to get that part out and welded. However, I have to be honest.... it has sat like that for the last year or more. But now, I am ready to get this old girl chipping!
Here are some shots taken when she first came home with me. The Parks is a 12" x 4 planer and as mentioned, powdered by a rather large 2hp motor.
This massive beast is the gear driven feed for the lumber. It's a massive lump of gears and chains encased in grease. NOT fun to clean for sure! Funny story, I almost lost all the gears and chains a while back. One of my sons took the plastic coffee cans with all the gears in it and used it to paint something outside on. But being a boy, he also left it out there... with a cracked lid... next to the trash can. Just by chance I picked it up to put the "trash" in the can and noticed it was heavy. The gears were now sitting in 6" of rusty water! AND they almost went out in the trash!!!!
I did have her making some nice fluffy shavings before I tore it down, and even have a photo to prove it!
That brings me up to now, where I started to tear it down and clean it up. Last weekend, I used 3 bottles of that cheap LA cleaner from the dollar store and removed all the grease off the planer itself. (The gear box was done way back when) Over last week, I was able to get into the shop and pull it down a little here and there. But this weekend was the one that had it fully stripped and ready to be cleaned. I was even able to sandblast the base casting today.
Like my use of a vintage tool stand as a rolling bench? I am thinking that I will add another shelf and bracing way down at the bottom of the feet, and maybe add a wood lip around the top shelf.
I had mentioned that the motor was big, right? Well remember that stand the planer is sitting on? It's almost stuffed with motor! Here is a photo with a 13mm (1/2") wrench sitting on top of the motor. It's freakishly huge!
