Parks Planer Rebuild

[AdrianBoomer]

I bought this parks 95 on February 26th. It was on my quest list and I was looking for a decent project. Today I fired it up for the first time and made wood chips!
I tore it down completely and replaced the bearings, knives, elevator shaft, bushings, in-feed roller bearings. I wired in a vintage Allen BRadley switch but that was an adventure in learning. I had to turn it from a magnetic momentary starter to a maintained On/off switch (fun stuff). I also made some spacers to remove slop in the rollers. Everything was de-rusted. I painted it Rustoleum smoke grey and made the stand a shade light to contrast.

I had knives made with Cobalt 5 steel which is very hard and an old tool metal. I look forward to seeing how they wear.

Enjoy the pics and I really hope to meet some people on this thread who also own a parks and want to share their experience, have questions are info etc.

Oh, and I set it up by eye and using the Craftsman Manual and my first board came out true

 

[Roberts210]

Gorgeous restoration! Really well done.

 

[LMS]

Beautiful. I restored an old Clausing drill press, and to this day it's one of my most satisfying shop memories.

 

[EricP]

Very nicely done. One of the first restoration projects I did was a Parks Planer. Its gearbox was trashed but I was able to find all the parts and get it back in service. You will find your Parks will out plane a lunch box planer 3-1. I could stuff mine with a 12" wide oak board and it wouldn't slow down or break a sweat and with sharp knives the finish is quite good. They are very quiet to operate too. I sold mine when I bought a Powermatic 160 beacause I didn't have the shop space for two planers. I have the space now and wished I still hand my Parks because it did a great job. I expect you will enjoy yours.

 

[DuroChrome]

Beautiful work!!!

 

[nine4gmc]

Awesome job, love the old machines in the background too!

 

[AdrianBoomer]

Thanks! I love my old tools, Niner. Need to hit that Delta Jointer at some point, it's the only one left for me to rebuild.

Eric, I loved your planer and enjoyed the pics I found over at OWWM. I studied yours a lot, it's in my top 5 list of restorations I found in the index.

I have it planing nicely. The in-feed roller is a little sloppy are the roller bearing at the gearbox. I am unsure if it is just that it is not seated far enough into the casting (even though it is where it wants to be for planing) or if there is wallowing in the casting hole due to wear. Any thoughts?? None of the other parts showed much wear as it had very low hours of using in it's lifetime but this is something that I notice. Doesn't affect performance but I can see it causing stress over time possibly. I did add a few spacers here and there to remove play and get things tight and cleaning running but I am not sure with this. Also, I don't want to completely disassemble to bore out the casting right now LOL (I would love it if the fix was as simple as a sleeve on the bearing but I doubt that it would be that easy haha).

I plan on building a belt guard for it. My stand is not original and I doubt a stock guard from DC Morrison will fit and I might be wise to make one that looks right but is a nice tight fit to my exact set-up. I know there are plans.

 

[EricP]

I'm not quite sure where the sloppy point is you are describing. I know the area and assembly but am unsure where exactly you are seeing the excess play. Can you post a picture?

 

[AdrianBoomer]

Somebody wanted to see how I did the motor mount for this machine. Here are the pics. Bolts and angle iron are your friend. Fully adjustable

 

[Roberts210]

Adrian, what are you going to do for a belt guard?

 

[AdrianBoomer]

I will be making one that looks original out of sheet metal and fit it. I don't think the stock one will work, but they are available.

 

[bisley45]

Very nice I am right in the middle of a parks planer restore. Just got to figure out what style of base I want to make.


Brian Milner

 

[AdrianBoomer]

I took the lead of a fellow OWWMer and placed my motor plate on the stand above the access area. Because the motor is a tight fit and hard to get at, this gives me an easy reference to the specs when ordering parts or doing some wiring changes and it also makes it a no brainer for people to ID the motor when they are drinking in my shop and nerding out.

 

[dep5]

Does your planer have locking wheels?

 

[crazymonkey2465]

Very nice restoration! I'm jealous


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Conquistador]

I know this is an old thread, but does anyone happen to know the bushing sizes needed for the gearbox? I'd like to but then locally if I can.