Page History: Restoring a Parks Planer
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Page Revision: 2008/11/21 20:07
The Parks (and Craftsman-badged Parks) 12” planer is one of the most ubiquitous OWWM around. Some 45,000 were produced over a period of more than forty years, with no significant design changes. People are reporting rescuing and purchasing Parks planers on a regular basis. There are also many folks who have rebuilt their machines, and asked questions or reported discoveries in The Shop forum. These are solid machines, that with a bit (OK quite a bit sometimes) of TLC and the wisdom of the OWWM collective, can be made to run better than new.
In response to the steady stream of questions in the forums about Parks planers, I decided to wiki-ize my experiences in tearing down and rebuilding my machine. I have borrowed heavily from discussions and the ideas of others in the Shop forum, and I thank everyone who has offered assistance and a shoulder to cry on as I moved through the process.
A special thanks goes to Bill Nance and Doug Rewerts. Bill reviewed the wiki as a ‘work in progress’ and offered a number of very helpful suggestions. I was perhaps a third of the way through my rebuild and the documentation of it in the form of this wiki, when I came across
Bill’s very excellent page where he photodocuments his own rebuild. Doug provided me with a ton of excellent pictures of his own rebuild that I was able to use in the wiki. Thank you gentlemen!
These planers are superior in almost every way to the cheap plastic lunchbox screamers that are sold new today. Fixing one up will be well worth the effort. For me, it was a great project to work on with my 13 year old son. Perhaps one day he will rebuild it with his son or grandson, but I doubt he will rebuild my DeWalt 733 that died after a couple years of service. That being said, in my personal opinion, the newer systems for aligning knives are a lot nicer than what the Parks offers as its standard. Presumably upgrades are available.
Although my machine is a Craftsman-badged Parks, these machines are mechanically identical to the Parks-badged machines. The Craftsman-badged units are a slightly different colour, as well as not coming standard with a stand and belt guard.
One OWWM’er bragged in The Shop of getting his Parks completely apart in 3 hours. Me, I took several days to get mine apart, then several months of part time effort to clean and reassemble!
This wiki references the 1980 version of the “Operating Instructions and Parts List for Parks 12” Thickness Planer” manual that is stored on the OWWM.com website. A printout of the two exploded drawings in that document along with these instructions will be useful during the disassembly. Note that there is a
1949 version, a
1980 version, and a
Craftsman version of the document. They are all virtually identical, with only small differences.
As always, this wiki is intended to be the first word on the subject, not the last word. If you see something in error, out of date, missing, or otherwise in need of changing, please feel free to make the changes yourself, or send me a PM and I’d be happy to make them for you if you are not comfortable editing the wiki yourself.
DISASSEMBLING THE PARKS PLANER
Getting the #$%^!! gearbox separated from the main part of the planer is by far the most difficult part of the disassembly process. In theory it should be straightforward, but due to awkward access and stuck parts it often is not.
Removing the Gearbox
Open the top on the gearbox and peer cautiously inside. First the gearbox oil/grease/gunk must be removed. Tilting/pouring, wiping, scooping, diluting are all valid methods. Use whichever one suits you. Have plenty of rags/containers available, and please dispose of the waste safely.
 Looking Down Into the Gearbox Before Disassembly, Grease Already Removed |
Ideally, the infeed roller and outfeed rollers and the cutterhead stay in place while the gearbox is removed. The ends of each of these three stick into the gearbox, so the strategy is to loosen all the gears and stuff on each of these enough so that the gearbox will slide off of the three shafts. You can be sure that you will encounter various complications along the way. Plenty of salty language will help.
We don’t have to tell you to take lots of pictures along the way, and make sure you label and bag/containerize all the removed parts in a logical manner so there is no confusion come assembly time.
 Planer Disassembled with Small Parts in Bags and Jars |
First thing to do is to remove the throw out sleeve (A-8) off the end of the outfeed roller (A-23). Do this by taking out the two bolts (A-9) that hold the parts A-10, A-11, A-12 in place. The throw out sleeve will now slide out readily.
 Remove These Two Bolts to Get the Throw Off Assembly Off |
Next, you need to loosen off the Allen screws securing the chain sprocket (A-4) on the end of the infeed roller (A-30), the gear (A-17) on the end of the cutterhead, and the chain sprocket (A-4) and the shaft collar (A-2) on the end of the outfeed roller. Note that to access the Allen screw on the shaft collar, you will need to rotate everything around until the Allen screw lines up with the hole in the webbing of the case.
 First Step of Gearbox Disassembly |
Now you should be able to get the big 88 tooth gear (A-6) on the outfeed roller loose, and then slide it over away from the main body of the planer just a smitch. This will give enough clearance that you can slide the infeed roller sprocket (A-4) off. With it off the chain will drop down, allowing the gear (A-17) on the end of the cutterhead to slide off as well. All that remains now is to get everything off the outfeed roller.
First remove the key (A-71) in the outfeed roller shaft. Note that although the visible portion of it is flat, in fact it is semi circular shaped underneath. You should be able to remove this easily by carefully tapping one end of it down using something slightly narrower than the key. This will lever the other end of it up and out. Once enough of it is lifted up, you should be able to grab it with vice grips or pliers and simply pull it out. Then loosen up everything on the shaft: A-7, A-6, A-5, A-4, and the one A-2. At this point the gearbox should pull off, and all the gears and stuff in the gearbox will fall to the bottom of the gearbox!
 Don’t Hit the Key From the End and Damage it Like This! |
 Tap Down on One End of Key To Pop Up the Other End |
Problems you May Encounter
The gearbox is a fairly simple mechanism so there are really just a handful of problems you can expect to encounter. They are pretty typical of old arn, nothing that you wouldn’t expect to encounter on a tear down of an old machine.
The first one is likely to be Allen screws that you can’t loosen. I didn’t use one of the traditional “L” shaped Allen keys. I bought a set (Imperial, not metric) of Allen keys from the BORG that came in a plastic case that acts as a great handle and provides tons of leverage. It was long enough that I could reach everything I needed to with it. All the Allen screws in the Parks use a 3/16” key.
Another is that the gears are stuck on the shaft. I found a flat pry bar worked well for ‘breaking’ the attachment of a gear to its shaft. Be careful to avoid leveraging directly off the aluminum gearbox housing though! If you have to pry against the housing, make sure you back it up so that the pressure is transferred to the body of the planer. Penetrating oil can help here too.
A great tip (special thanks to Bob Vaughan for this one) for moving a stuck gear or collar is to take the Allen screw completely out, verify that there is not another screw hiding underneath, then thread a 3/8” bolt or threaded rod in place of the screw. Don’t let it bottom out, and you can use it to apply leverage to free up the stuck item on the shaft.
 Threaded Rod Replacing Allen Screw to Apply More Torque |
Another problem that you are likely to encounter is that one or more of the shafts is somehow damaged so that the gear(s) on it will not slide off. This may be due to rust on the surface of the shaft, or scrapes and gouges typically caused by improperly tightened Allen screws. A damaged shaft can be a serious problem, given that access is tight inside the gearbox and there is no way to put a gear puller on. Force is the only way!
If you are unable to remove everything from one of the shafts, you can always remove the gearbox with the shaft still in it, then complete the disassembly afterwards. It’s a lot easier to press/bash the outfeed roller shaft out of the gearbox when the combo is out of the main body of the planer. You can see in the previous picture that the gearbox was removed with the outfeed roller still attached.
This problem happens most frequently with the outfeed roller, as it seems to have the most stuff on it. To get the outfeed roller shaft out of the planer while still attached to the gearbox, you will need to remove the hex nut assembly (A-49, A50), spring (A-51), and threaded rod (A-52) from each end of the outfeed roller. This will allow the stud collars (A-54) to drop down enough that they will clear the body of the planer as the outfeed roller shaft is pulled out.
Gear Problems
The gears or sprockets in the gearbox can suffer from a wide variety of ailments, missing or damaged teeth, ‘chew’ marks, worn bores, etc.. These should be replaced with new pieces when the damage makes them unserviceable. Buying them locally is probably cheaper as many of them are common sizes, but DC Morrison has them in any case.
 Worn Slotted Hub |
 Chewed Up Sprocket |
 Poorly Repaired Eccentric |
The following videos illustrate common gear problems on the Parks.
Bad GearSlop in a gearboxBad gearbox sleeve
Disassembly of the Planer
With the gearbox off, getting the cutterhead off is not difficult. First remove the two bolts on each of the left and right bearing caps (A-58). Now gently lift each bearing cap off, taking care not to tear the two fibre shims under each bearing cap. Now gently peel up each ‘H’shaped fibre shim. Mark them so each one can be returned to the exact same location and the orientation come re-assembly time. At this point the cutterhead should just lift out.
 Fibre Shims |
The rest of the disassembly is straightforward and will likely go quickly.
Cleanup of Parts
The degree of cleanup will depend on the condition of the planer, and how far you want to go to restore it. In many cases, cleaning with a strong cleaner and scrubbing with a stiff brush will get the accumulated crap off and that may be enough. The original paint is often well adhered to the cast iron parts and repainting may not be something you want to do. Alternatively, you could repaint over the existing paint once it is cleaned up.
To completely remove all gunk, rust, and paint,
electrolysis (“spooge tank”) is highly recommended on the cast iron and steel parts. Do not put the aluminum base or the gearbox housing in the electrolysis tank. You will need to clean them a different way.
I decided to take all the parts down to the ‘bare metal’. I relied heavily on the spooge tank, supplemented by Simple Green, engine degreaser, Varsol, and a wire wheel on a hand drill.
I found that the gearbox and the parts inside it had a foul smell that I did not ever want to have in my house, it must have been the ancient dried up grease. Fortunately, there was virtually no rust on these parts. After several days of soaking, scrubbing, rinsing, and repeating, it all came clean.
Babbitt
The Parks uses an interesting design, where the main cutterhead bearings are secured in babbitt poured into voids in the main casting, and in the bearing caps. This avoided precision machining in the main casting. Problems can occur if the babbitt has worn or otherwise deteriorated so that the bearings are no longer held securely.
 Cutterhead Bearing Captured in Babbitt |
 Cutterhead Bearing Captured in Babbitt |
There are three options for dealing with bad Babbitt on a Parks.
- Buy new bearings from DC Morrison. These come with Babbitt in them, although they will have to be trimmed/filed or likely repoured in order to match up with the babbitt on the bottom. Since iron sand castings by their very nature are not exactly alike, it is only reasonable to assume that the babbitting done at the factory varied slightly for each machine. Therefore, it is puzzling that Morrison is selling pre-babbitted bearing caps, and expecting them to be a satisfactory fit. OWWM’ers have reported the fit of these to be off by as much as 1/16”, while other have reported a perfect fit.
- Use fortified epoxy like Acraglas or JB Weld to fill in any gaps. This will work somewhat for smaller voids in the babbitt.
- Repour your own. There is some good general info available in the wiki about pouring babbitt. If you do, make sure you use your old bearings as the mold so that you don’t wreck your new ones! Here is one thread that deals specifically with pouring babbitt for Parks, and the result is that it was easy to do.
Cracked Bearing Caps
The bearing caps have thin paper/fibre shims under them. If the bearing caps are over tightened they can easily be cracked. In that case, your only good option is to order new ones, and hope they fit. Later planers have bearing caps that were heavier than the earlier ones, and less likely to crack.
Bearing Cap With Fibre Shim Spacers |
Sleeve
The sleeve (A-25), also known as the bushing, on the cutterhead is never supposed to touch the shaft. The sleeve’s rim is held fast by the babbitt in the bearing caps. The flanged portion of the sleeve should abut the inner race of the bearing. The sleeve’s other end goes into the gearbox. The gearbox rides on the end of that sleeve and rocks back and forth as wood is fed into the machine. The critical dimension should be the end of the sleeve and the hole in the gearbox. Also, the condition of the babbitt that contains the sleeve.
A common wear problem with the sleeve is that the gearbox hole wallows oval. The solution is to bore out the hole until round. Make a new bushing to fit the new hole. Instead of a "T" shaped bushing (T laid on its side) there will be an "H" shaped bushing. As soon as the bushing emerges from the bearing cap enclosure, the new bushing's diameter will increase to be a rotating fit in the gearbox's new hole. I hope that makes sense.
If the outside of the bushing is worn down or (worse) the hole in the casting is wallowed, then the casting has to be removed and rebored then a new bushing has to be made to fit the new hole in the casting. OWWMer’s have done it before, but it’s risky as the gear teeth have to line up right to mesh.
 Sleeve |
Up and down movement at the feed rollers is as things need to be, but up and down slop at the drive gear coming off the cutterhead isn't good.
Other common problems are the ‘ears’ of the sleeve get damaged, or the sleeve itself cracks.
 Cracked Sleeve |
 Damaged Sleeve Ears |
Cutterhead
There is a great thread on how to clean a cutterhead
here. I followed it pretty closely, although I wasn’t able to find the exact cleaning materials he used. I also chucked the end of the cutterhead shaft directly into the drill, it worked fine.
Make sure you get several of the little brushes for cleaning the screw holes. I needed four, they fall apart quickly. Buy the smallest ones you can find, apparently they do come in several sizes.
Make sure when you reassemble your Parks that you install the chip breakers properly. The edge of the breaker with the round groove faces up, with the screws bearing on the angled face of the chip breaker, while the blade goes behind the chipbreaker.
 Chip Breaker and Knife in Correctly |
Cutterhead Balancing
I took my cutterhead to my neighbourhood machine shop. They sent it out to be balanced, and reported it was ‘way out of balance’. Although it would be nice to have a more quantifiable result than this, these folks have not sent me astray yet, and I considered the price to be reasonable, approximately $200.
It was balanced with the chipbreakers and screws in place, but not the knives.
 Cutterhead After Balancing |
Then, the next day after balancing, it rolled off the bench and landed on the concrete floor.
Roller Wear
I found that my infeed roller was wallowed in the middle about .002”, and that the outfeed roller was actually tapered .005” at one end. The infeed roller damage was easily seen by examining the serrations on the roller and noticing that they were wider in the middle. Although not a huge amount of wear, I took both of these to a machine shop and had them polished to the same diameter. In retrospect, I probably could have done this at home with a little ingenuity since the amount was small.
Feed rollers can also be damaged as shown in the following photo.
 Damaged Infeed Roller |
Parks bed rollers often exhibit heavy wear as well and may need to be repaired similarly. Me, I am planning on leaving my bed rollers below the table as is recommended by some when planing material that has already been jointed flat on one side. So I did not repair the wear on my bed rollers.
Bed Problems
Owners have reported bed wallowing up to as much as 1/64” Later Parks planers sometimes came from the factory this way. Well adjusted bed rollers do compensate a good bit for bed wear or poor machining. Mine was wallowed about .005” in the centre. Since I intend to install an MDF platen over the bed, so the bed will not be visible, I considered feathering on some bondo or JB Weld to fill in the dip. In the end I decided to use it with the wallow and platen for a while and see if it works OK.
Whether you choose to live with it or repair it depends on what type of work you plan on doing. A common suggestion is to try it out with the wallow and see if it is a problem for your work. If it is, well then I guess you are going to have to deal with it! Of course, it would be nice to know before you got it all reassembled whether it will be a problem or not. Sorry, no magic solution on this one.
Beds can also be badly scored. Scoring damage can be quite visible and jarring, although it is not as serious as wallowing. Scoring is normally confined to a narrow strip and is less likely to allow a wider board to sag as it passes under the cutterhead. Narrower boards may be problematic.
 Scored Table |
Another solution: Bob Vaughan reports that the Parks shown in the video of planer knife setting was resurfaced with a 1/2" carbide end mill. He flipped the table upside down, kissed off some corners so the bottom would straddle the casting and index flat, flipped the table, dogged it down, and went at it for several hours after figuring where the lowest spot was. The finish came out striped as you would expect, but it was plenty flat for its intended purpose. A little Scotchbrite got rid of most of the swirl lines.
Parts to Replace
The following are parts you should expect to replace as part of a complete teardown and rebuild of your Parks. I recommend examining each of these parts as you tear the planer down, deciding which ones you will replace, then getting them taken care of early so that when the time comes to re-assemble, you will have the new parts at hand.
Of course, other parts can be damaged, worn, missing, etc, but the ones listed here are most common.
Keep in mind too that a repair does not have to be beautiful, tucking a part away inside the gearbox means that esthetics are not an issue. Similarly, a coat of paint can hide a lot of sins on a visible part!
 An Ugly but Serviceable Repair of Eccentric Bracket |
Cutterhead Bearings (A-26)
The open 3204 bearings that the cutterhead spins on should be replaced with sealed versions of the 6204. For example the Nachi 6204 2NSE are a decent quality made in Japan bearing. Using sealed bearings means you won’t need to grease the bearings anymore, which means you won’t need the grease zerks (A-77) on the bearing caps any more either. You can keep them for authenticity if you like, just warn the next guy not to use them!
Lynn at Accurate Bearings is a longtime friend of the OWWM community and will be able to supply bearings for your Parks at a very competitive price.
Note that the original 3204 bearings will commonly cross to a modern 5204 family bearing. These are dual race bearings that are 20.6 mm thick. My bearings, although numbered 3204 were single race bearings only 14 mm thick and were properly crossed with the 6204 family, not the 5204 family.
 Original Open Bearing |
 New Sealed Bearing and Original Open Bearing |
Oil Seal
If your planer did not have the oil seal (A-80, A-81, A-82) on the infeed shaft, you should consider buying one ($8.73) and installing it. This will prevent oil from splashing out of the gearbox. There is a
great article on the OWWM.com site about how to install this part.
Bronze Bushings
The gearbox has a five bronze bushings pressed into it, these should all be pressed out and replaced. You should be able to buy these cheapest at a local bearing shop, they are common sizes and readily available.
 Bags of Bushings |
Table Roller Bearings. A-42
If yours don’t have the bronze sleeve pressed into them, consider upgrading to that version. You will require four, they are $7.17 each.
 Worn Table Roller Bearings |
 New Table Roller Bearings |
Felt Washer (A-24)
This keeps oil/grease from escaping from the gearbox and getting into the cutterhead. Make up a new one out of some sturdy felt or buy one for $1.77.
Gearbox Cover Gasket
Go to your local auto parts supplier and buy a sheet of cheap gasket material. Cork is fine. Use the gearbox cover to trace the shape. Use scissors to cut it out. Drill/punch for the two bolt holes, and cut out the inside. Although these planers did not come originally with a gasket, it is easy and cheap to do.
 Sample Gasket Material |
Knives
If your knives are worn down, or your planer did not come with knives, you will need to buy new knives. A rule of thumb (thanks again to Bob Vaughan) is that if bottom of the knife is higher than the bottom of the screws holding the chipbreaker and knife in place, then the knife should be replaced.
This thread discusses knife sources for Parks planers.
New Paint
Parks planers’ were originally painted machine grey. Rustoleum "Dark Machinery Grey" is a popular choice, as is Rustoleum “Light Machinery Grey”.
Craftsman-badged Parks came painted a slightly bluer grey than their Parks-badged brethren. Krylon Regal Blue is reported to be a close but not exact match. I used a Tremclad blue, which I found to be very very blue, but similar in colour to the
earliest Craftsman-badged Parks.
Here is a Parks that is a bit paler than most, with a belt cover and what appears to be an original stand.
A more typical Parks colour example
here.
A Craftsman-badged Parks
here, slightly bluer. No belt cover, non original stand.
Many other examples can be seen on the OWWM.com site in the Manufacturer’s Index under Parks Woodworking Machinery and under Craftsman.
I found after spooging and cleaning that the casting was shockingly rough. In addition to the expected wear and tear, there were numerous pits and voids in the casting, as well as grinding and scrape marks. You may wish to fill some of the more serious voids with body filler. I did not, I just gobbed on the paint a bit thicker in some areas. Sorry.
I used six rattlecans each of primer and paint to paint the planer. Quite a few more than I originally expected to use. I see now why some folks advocate buying an inexpensive spray gun instead of all these rattlecans.
 Gearbox, Base, and Sides Drying |
Belt Guard
It is possible, even likely, that your planer came to you without a belt guard. Needless to say it is unsafe to operate your planer without a guard, especially with the height adjustment being right between the belt! New ones may be purchased from DC Morrison for $86. Alternatively,
plans are available to fabricate one out of sheet metal. Note that the NOS guards and these plans are predicated on the use of a stand with the same dimensions as the original Parks stand, so that the motor shaft and the cutterhead’s shaft are a standard distance apart.
Alternatively, another way to make up a quick belt guard is
as described by an OWWM member:
To make a good serviceable belt guard for the Parks planer, just get a long (about 73 inches) piece of 28 gauge sheet metal cut to 2 1/4" wide. Also a piece 33 inches long by 5 inches wide. Radius the ends of this piece. Wrap the first piece around the second, and secure with angle clips made from the same material using small rivets. The shafts on my machine were 28 inches apart on centers, so the outer piece has 1 inch of overlap which I also riveted. You have to drill a hole for the crank shaft to go through. I secured my guard to the machine with two corner menders and a few bolts and nuts. Looks like it came with the machine after you paint it.
Stand¶
It is possible and likely that your planer also came to you without a stand. The original Parks stand is a sleek and sturdy little unit made of sheet steel. It is well worth replicating out of ¾” MDF or other suitable material. While no plans are available, the following dimensions have been bandied around The Shop and used successfully by a number of Parks owners:
Top OD 14 1/2" X 19 3/4"
Top ID 10" X 16 1/2"
So this gives you a flange width of 2 1/4" on the sides and a width of 1 5/8" on the front/back to mount the machine.
Bottom OD 19 3/4" X 25 3/4"
Height of 22" for the base
Dust Hood
The Parks planer did not come originally with a dust hood, although one was apparently offered as an option for a while. While DC Morrison sells them, they are quite expensive, and it is not difficult to fabricate one up, or to adapt one from a lunchbox planer. Several home made dust guards are discussed in
this thread. The photo below shows a planer equipped with the Parks supplied hood.
 Original Parks Dust Guard |
Buying Parts
Unlike most OWWM arn, there is one supplier who does stock Parks Planer parts, DC Morrison in Kentucky. You can call or email them and buy most any Parks part new from them. They are quite knowledgeable, although I found their pace to be a bit slow.
Two other standard arn sources are eBay and the OWWM’s BOYD forum, where they come up frequently.
One other company that sometimes has used Parks parts in stock is Plaza Machinery in Vermont.
ASSEMBLING THE PARKS PLANER GEARBOX
Assemble the gearbox parts into the three main groups. For instance mount the gearbox shaft bearing, 20- tooth gear, 88-tooth gear (plain hub), gear shaft bearing (3/4" bore) and shaft collar on the short gear shaft. Disassemble the parts and lay them out in the order they are removed for use later. Assembling them now will facilitate getting the right part in the right place smoothly during the actual gearbox assembly process.
Mount the smooth outfeed roll with shaft collar; the cutter head with head shaft spacer, head ball bearing and head shaft sleeve; and the fluted infeed roll on the machine.
NOTE: Leave all screws loose until the entire gearbox is assembled, then tighten securely after all gears and sprockets are lined up and meshing smoothly. Assemble the lower left shaft assembly (the one with the 88-tooth gear (plain hub) inside the gearbox. Be sure to loop the roller chain over the smooth feed roll 12-tooth sprocket before installing the 88- tooth gear (slotted hub).
Place the gearbox partially on the planer with the roller shafts protruding through side of the box.
Fit the parts from the two remaining sub-assemblies onto their respective shafts inside the gearbox as the parts fit while moving the whole gearbox onto the planer rolls. Be sure to place the roller chain on the 12-tooth sprocket before assembling the sprocket to the fluted feed roll.
NOTE: The whole thing needs to go together one part at a time, but all at the same time (This statement makes sense to me anyway). With the parts organized laid out in the order they are installed on each sub-assembly it is fairly easy to ensure placement of the right part in the right place.
If you install a part out of sequence, just slide the gearbox away from the planer a bit, re-order the parts and restart the assembly process.
After all parts are assembled and lined up to mesh smoothly, tighten all screws. Pack the gearbox with your favourite lubricant, such as one pound of EXXON Lidok EP-1. Screw down the gearbox cover and you're finished. Don’t forget to make a new gasket for the cover first.
ASSEMBLING THE PARKS PLANER
After weeks/months of cleaning, painting, organizing, fabricating, and buying, you are ready to start the reassembly.
Clear your mind of distractions and impure thoughts. Get a cup/glass/can of your beverage of choice, arrange for soothing music to be wafting gently through your shop. Let the day stretch out gloriously in front of you. Turn off your cellphone. Admire your bags of shiny parts and recall what a horrid mess the damn thing was when you got it. Allow yourself to dream of the happiness you will feel when your pride and joy takes its first sweet shavings. Ahhh.
Inspect all parts to make sure they will assemble smoothly by hand. Any burrs, rough edges or misplaced metal will complicate the assembly process. Also ensure that any sliding or threaded surfaces are free of paint.
Words of wisdom from OWWM’ers gone by: Keep everything loose for a while, especially the bolts (A-75) that attach the side castings to the base so they can open up at the top a bit.
Start with assembling the two side castings (A-59 & A-60) to the base (A-61) with the four bolts (A-75) and four nuts (A-76). Make sure you keep the nuts as loose as possible. Then put the shaft collars (A-63) on the elevating screws (A-64), install the elevating screws through the holes in the side castings’ bottom ‘ear’, and then put the bevel gears (A-64) on the elevating screws underneath the ‘ear’. Be sure to pay attention to the elevating screws, one is reverse threaded and the other is standard. They must be put on the correct side of the planer.
Now you will be entering the most perilous portion of the reassembly, with ample opportunities for error and frustration.
 Side Casting Bolted LOOSELY to Base, Elevating Screw in Place |
First, double check the threaded holes in the table (A-43) that the elevating screws fit into, to make sure they are free of paint and other crap. A touch of your favourite lubricant will help here. Install the table so that it rests on top of the two elevating screws. Make sure you install it the right way round, as the ‘front’ of the table is where the gibs (A-44) will later be attached in the three holes. The table is heavy and you will likely be fiddling with it a number of times, so make sure it is at a convenient height. If you have not kept the A-75 A-76 bolts and nuts loose enough you will not be able to scootch the table past the various protrusions on the inside top of the side castings, and you will also scratch the heck out of your new paint.
 Table Cannot be Lowered Because Elevating Shaft Installed Too Soon and Prevents Top From Opening. Also, table is on Wrong Way |
 Table Resting Correctly on Top of Elevating Screws |
Then install the elevating shaft (A-62). Note that there are two shaft collars (A-63) and two bevel gears (A-64) that must be slipped onto the elevating shaft in the correct orientation and locations as the elevating shaft is slid into place. Put the handwheel (A-67) on the end of the elevating shaft.
 Elevating Shaft |
Loosen all eight mechanical parts and thread the table onto the elevating screws. Get everything attached just enough to keep it from falling apart, but remaining as flexible as possible. The only connection that is fixed and non-adjustable is the threading of the table onto the elevation screws. So get that on early, then work on all the adjustable items.
I can say I put that da*n table/elevating shaft assembly together/apart at least half a dozen times trying to get it level and smooth. It was certainly the most frustrating aspect of the entire reassembly. The key is to adjust the locking collars and bevel gears in/out/up/down on both the elevating shaft and the elevating screws to get the gear teeth to intersect such that they move smoothly and also level the table. You'll find that you have eight adjustable parts, four locking collars and four bevel gears, that go together ultimately to set the table height/level. Once you fiddle with moving the gears and/or collars a couple times, you'll see how they affect the table adjustments.
Keep everything loose for a while, especially the bolts that attach the side castings to the base so they can open up at the top a bit. Loosen all eight mechanical parts and thread the table onto the elevating screw. Get everything attached just enough to keep it from falling apart, but remaining as flexible as possible. The only connection that is fixed and non-adjustable is the threading of the table onto the elevation screws. So get that on early, then work on all the adjustable items.
Once the table is on, gradually tighten different connectors, seeking a good fit for everything, making sure to run the table up and down the full length of its height travel. If you start out assuming the side castings are bolted/tightened down in exactly the right position from the beginning, you'll struggle. They may work for one table height, but cause it to bind as it raises/lowers. I don't remember exactly, but I believe the final tightening of the casting bolts may have been after I had figured out the mechanical parts. This was a frustrating activity and had to be redone several times before it was satisfactory.
The key is not to tighten anything down until it is assembled. And the table doesn't have to be perfectly parallel to the cutterhead. That can be adjusted later by fiddling with the bevel gears.
Two great articles to get your newly rebuilt planer properly set up are
here and
here.
Adjusting the Throwout Sleeve
The throwout sleeve likes to disengage itself, but there is a fix by adjusting the stop collars on the outfeed roller. The adjustment instructions are in the
Craftsman manual.