serious iron-big jointer

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

And here I thought I was overboard for wanting a 16" Oliver!

Holy moly!

Kevin

We called them ***facers***. Most were equipped with a power feed with knurled wheels and driven by a electric motor to chain drive. It was rare to get ready milled lumber ie: S2S1E, in those days. Most all was rough sawn and in thick slabs or timbers. A facer would be used to get one good surface before putting through the planer usually a 36 incher. Then the S2S piece would be resawn on a bandsaor and the final milling to size would be done. Favourite machine was an ORTON traveling bed planer. It had a 'rack' or fixture to hold S2S1E stock on edge for feeding through the planer to put the finished edge on the other side of the boards or planks. One yard had a railroad siding within the gates and when lumber was ordered it would come in on a flat car from mills and be stacked according to thickness and length. The next couple of days were spent milling a portion of that load into the most common sizes. "Killer" swing saw to cut to rough length, facer, planer, resaw, Orton, stack. Sweepers filling burlap sacks with the chips and sawdust as fast as they could. That was sold to make sawdust for butchershops, saloons etc.. Tales of a Boatbuilder Apprentice

That's an old one... If you really want big iron, visit these folks who still are selling "Big Iron"...

You will want to bring your check book...

Dave Flem>>I found this on ebay. I'm not the seller, and have othing to do with it.

Got one, 16". Loaded it on the trailer with 2 helpers, one weighed 140 # and the other was 74 years old. I didn't believe it could be done, but the old man said no problem. The tables weigh about 600 each. After those were off, the rest was cake.

I count 6 "Warning" labels in that picture. I'd love to know what they say. I can only guess:

Warning: Do not stick hands into spinning blades while machine is turned on.

Warning: This machine is heavy. Picking up machine without help may result in serious back injury.

Caution: Do not remove safety guards. Yes, that includes the red hinged spring-loaded sheet metal one that covers up the 16" long razor sharp carbide blades spinning at 3600 RPM driven by an electric motor so big you had to have the utility company run a special feed for your shop.

Danger: Do not let children play with this machine.

Warning: Use of this machine while intoxicated may result in the removal of bodily parts.

Danger: This machine is capable of carving off a 1/4" slice of hard maple 16 inches wide. You don't think it would even slow down if you stuck your fingers in the blades, do you?

Not surprising after the demise of several 'big arhn' makers here in the US.. Oliver was sunk by lawsuits from 3rd. or 4th. or 14th owners of their machinery because of supposed tampering or altering the machines or removing safety devices or removing the safety warnings.

Tales of a Boatbuilder Apprentice

"Push-sticks recommended."

I suspect the folks over at OSHA had a small part in those labels.

Roy Smith wrote:

Back in the early 70's, I took a cabinet making class at a tech school in Huntsville, AL. They had a Northfield bandsaw - 36 inch I believe. What a marvelous piece of machinery - no vibration at all.

No vibration in the saw, but the school shook terribly

Dave

Here's the really hilarious part of the listing:

"The seller ended this listing early because the item was lost or broken."

How do you lose something like that? "Where the hell did I leave my 30" jointer..."