A few years ago i arranged a foundry tour as my contribution for our informal "Friday night machinists" group. Afterwards, Dave came up to the shop and saw my Whitcomb Blaisdell Naturally he just had to get one a little bigger.
I also twit him about how fast (slow) he runs his. Since i helped muscle the line shaft up (with the rest of the Friday night group a couple years ago), it's ok.
Now you've got an even bigger one yet!
John O was a great help getting mine set up.
That is correct, few older planers (before ww2 as a WAG) had lifters. It is more complex to add a mechanical lifter than it is for a shaper, on which they became common fairly early.
Yes. In fact, if your clapper is free and you run the table at a fair clip, the clapper might fly up on the return.
You can put a light spring limiter on it. I found it expedient to put an pneumatic lifter & positive setter on mine.
Be aware that the step-over can be set to happen on either the return stroke, or as the cut stroke begins. Mine used to bounce along on the return stroke, slightly marring the work. So it made sense to have it step on the return stroke, although that was not a complete solution & perhaps inadvisable on a deep cut. But you need a fair bit of over travel to set it to get over fast enough on the cut stroke.
No. Dave's does not have a lifter, and probably won't add one. Though you never know, if someone contrives a suitable mechanical design.
Besides the powered rail lift that you discovered (I was not aware of that option); "yours" also has 2 heads that can work independently/simultaneiously. Mine only has one, so i don't know what those parts look like.
You mention no second-belt drive - does yours have an open gear arrangement on the "other" side, like Dave's?
Dave R is a phenomenal, generous spirited guy who is into all sorts of projects.
I've still never watched a video for more than a few minutes, but i believe that good-hearted yet non-nonsense nature shines through.
smt