Rockford Planer

[Richard King]

Looks like a it was a square cut final pass or I doubt it was a cosmetic make it look better job before the auction. Many dealers do that to improve the chances of a sale. Some call it a Chicago Job. If it runs as good as it looks, someone will buy it. I have seen others sell for a lot less too, but that was before everyone wanted one as it seems the market is now.

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I have already had a dealer offer me more that $5k so this tells me it is then worth much more than that.

BUT-with this being said, you need to have a buyer, right time, right place to buy the machine.

The 2 Radial arm drills went for over $12k, this was about $5k over market at an auction but I can tell you both guys absolutely needed them and one of them was me!

There's always work for a decent sized radial arm drill.

Regards Tyrone.

 

[Derek Smalls]

yea-the scraping does not "look" the best. Remember-scraping is for bearing and oil pockets. With this pattern they did produce oil pockets but they did not scrap 90 deg to each other each time. I assume Busch rescraped this maybe at some time?

That's exactly what I was thinking. Busch probably did add the extra flaking for oil. The scraping on those old Rockfords is very faint, that is to say the low spots are not that low. Even in unworn areas it is not very pronounced. It is beautifully done though, in a very regular perfect pattern. I was married to a Rockford, a bit larger but otherwise very similar, for a short while, saw quite a bit of her before and after as well.
I'd say the scraping on the bed ways is original, they get auto oiled from the hydraulic system. The stuff on the column and rail has definitely been worked over.
The scraping on the gray machine in the video is what the machine should look like.

 

[danil]

That is a fantastic looking machine. I don't know enough about them to understand how they cut brake press tooling and items with curves and radii like brake press tooling. I think many of the brake press tooling guys have cnc planars nowadays.

I am heading up there next week to pick up my items. The 2 lots I am kicking myself on were 547 and 548 which were the Rotab 36" Rotary table and the Walter 30" rotary table-- they went cheap and I just blew it. I will try to contact the winners to see if they are resellers.

Good luck with the Rockford Planar-- I say with nice machines like that we are only renting it-- because if it's well taken care of it could/would outlast us.

I'll see it first hand if its still there-- when are you moving out?

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Looks like a it was a square cut final pass or I doubt it was a cosmetic make it look better job before the auction. Many dealers do that to improve the chances of a sale. Some call it a Chicago Job. If it runs as good as it looks, someone will buy it. I have seen others sell for a lot less too, but that was before everyone wanted one as it seems the market is now.

Over here they call it " Manchestering ". Seeing as I live in the Manchester area I'm slightly offended by the term.

Regards Tyrone.

 

[cash]

I know for a fact this was not a job before the auction. I have been in Busch several times over the last couple years. This machine was next to the grinders and I always took a look at it.

In the end they only have one scraper left, he was from MSC and I think he was laid off as there was basically no work anyways.

I will talk to my rigger next week to see his schedule. He is already going to be in my shop to unload a CNC mill I bought on the west coast a couple weeks ago.

I will be in a Busch this Thursday to talk with somebody on an item they bought but now they don't want. Hopefully I can bring some good news on this in the near future.

 

[danil]

And the answer to my above questions on the curve/contour cutting is the hydraulic tracer option. A link to this on youtube: Rockford hydraulic planer with tracer - YouTube

Now I really want one-- but price like the other auction.

 

[cash]

I was over at Busch today looking at some other equipment that somebody wanted to sell me. We were in the office and looked in some file cabinets and low and behold-THE MACHINE FILES!!!!!

I found the files and books for this planer so I am pretty happy about this. They bought it back in 1969.

It was pretty sad but I know already others who took machines out were asking some rebuilders if they could get info on the machines they bought. Many machines that were already gone had the files still in the office.

The auction company made no mention of books and I just assumed they were already gone on the older machines.

Well worth the trip today.

So far most the small machines are gone. the 2 medium grinders were still there. some riggers were dismantling the boring bars.

The VTL's had not been touched yet.

 

[Warren]

I was over at Busch today looking at some other equipment that somebody wanted to sell me. We were in the office and looked in some file cabinets and low and behold-THE MACHINE FILES!!!!!

I found the files and books for this planer so I am pretty happy about this. They bought it back in 1969.

Good find Cash, Most of what is left in the office will probably tossed in the skip in the coming days.

I would be curios to see what they paid for such a machine back then and what that dollar value would be today. I would bet it was very expensive.

 

[cash]

With some bells and whistles they would have paid about $40,000 back in 1969 for the bigger planer, it was a a 48" x 48" x 144". This is a quote for close to what they had. in todays money that would be $265k. For todays standards I would say that is a pretty hefty price for what many of us would consider a simple machine, but a necessity when planning straight edges and large tables just like Busch did.

My guess on the small machine- lets say mid $20's max?? So today that would be $132K!!!!

Boy-what a deal I have on ebay, and all documentation including the original machine porn brochures!

I know this will be the centerpiece of somebody's shop on the forum here soon!!

Rockford Hydraulic Openside Planer Model UH S/N 112-UH-8 | eBay

 

[MCritchley]

Non metalic table ways that early! I wonder what material they used?

 

[RC99]

I see that one that sold at that auction for $2000 is on ebay now.

Rockford - Hydraulic Openside Planer | 72" #7354P | eBay

 

[cash]

I see that one that sold at that auction for $2000 is on ebay now.

Rockford - Hydraulic Openside Planer | 72" #7354P | eBay

Which auction was this?

 

[RC99]

The one I linked to above. post #6

 

[Garwood]

Hard to wrap my mind around the dollar amounts suddenly attached to every functional planer out there.

If I had $15K for every nice planer I saw sell for $1000 or less I could retire!

Recently watched a 10' planer/planer mill with two yancy heads and a Fanuc 10M control go to scrap metal. It was built by Yancy and never used. It worked perfectly.

 

[ewlsey]

I know where there are at least 3 planer mills slowly sinking into the Illinois farmland...

 

[Brian@VersaMil]

Five years ago I bought six larger machines from Benson High School in Portland Oregon. One of those machines is a Rockford 24 X 144 inch planer, bought by the US Navy in an order of NINE of these machines right at the end of World War Two. I have ALL of the original manuals, blueprints, and packing list for this absolutely like new planer. I even received the toolholders listed on the packing list. With an optional 2nd rail head, side head and toolholders, this machine cost $14,479.00 in 1945. The scraping on your machine is different than the scraping on mine, which is unblemished, with really no signs of use.

Your planer is newer than the 12 footer, but I also have a UH machine that is a three foot stroke with just the top head. I think it was manufactured in the mid-fifties.

 

[cash]

Non metalic table ways that early! I wonder what material they used?

I looked through the Machine Brochures last night, they mention the non-metallic way material but no further info. So my guess would be rulon??

They called their tracer attachment the KOPY-KAT system, pretty simple but good marketing.

 

[cash]

One of the photos in the brochure caught my eye on the scraping. If you look close at the left vertical way it appears to be very similar to my machine, individual linear lines, or as Richard referred to it as a square cut final pass.

I am not saying whether this would be original or not but it does appear possible. If this machine was not run hard over the years, which I think many of the smaller machines were not at Busch, this could be original. I bought a 7' Carlton radial arm drill at the auction and the scraping on this was barely worn. They had a 5' Carlton and that was in even better shape.

 

[Mebfab]

Planers (asking price) does seem to have gone up. I bought one with a 6' table on fleabay years ago for a few hundred.