Ames Chicopee Planer in Calif

Ames Metal Planer - tools - by owner - sale
Scored ways. Those legs may put a name to a lathe that was for sale in Maine last year. I would post the picture but I have still not found another source for hosting yet.

This is Archie Cheda's Ames planer.

Last post

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/antique-machinery-and-history/g-gray-planer-264466/

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...ve-shop-full-machine-tools-265791/index2.html


Rob

Here are the pictures.

Here are the rest.

Not plug & play, but very nice. Significant even. I would put this post Civil War in styling - but not much post.

Ames Chicopee were known by then primarily as a producer of edge weapons - I own a Ames Chicopee Bayonet that came down through the family from a great-great-great uncle who did time on Union Ironclads as "engineer."

Ames did a LOT of contract work for the government. IIRC, the bronze doors of the East Wing of the United States Capitol were provided by Ames Chicopee.

Ames Manufacturing Company - Wikipedia



Joe in NH

Yes, I am still at it . . .

Hi everyone,

It looks as if I have been "outed", so I might as well join in and answer any questions anyone might have.

I intended to scrape in the scored V-ways, but my progress on big projects has not been very good of late. I decided that I should focus on machine tools I have in operation and get them in good tune. For example, I have a B&S tool & cutter grinder that I have had for two decades and am now very close to having it in operation. (Hauled the sucker from CA to MD and back to CA . . .)

Now that I have the planer listed, though, it is tempting me, so someone please save me from myself. If someone seriously wants to do the scraping and properly restore this machine, I am willing to negotiate on the price. I would also point out that this machine is light enough for serious work with its 60" x 20" x 20" work envelope, but still light enough to transport economically. It is not a machine for heavy metal removal.

Thanks for the dating Joe -- I suspected it might be older than a century.

Archie

P.S.: I actually have gotten one big machine tool restoration project completed: Lucas horizontal boring mill going to Tuckahoe

I understand long term projects, I have a Havir Shape Rite laying in pieces all over the inspection room floor, and in boxes, for years now, despicable.

It looks like a "two belt planer" - which is an improvement from around 1870.

Joe in NH

I was studying the belt shifting yesterday and like it better than that of the Rockford at Tuckahoe, which is over half a century more "modern". There are three pulleys on the input drive shaft of the planer. The center, wider pulley is "fast" (fixed to the shaft) and the ones on either side of it are "free" (rotate freely on bearings). The belt shifter uses a drum cam to shift the belts in a timed sequence that (I assume) was carefully thought out to minimize belt squeal by only putting one belt on the center pulley at a time. At any given time one belt or the other has its turn driving the center pulley, while the other idles on one of the free pulleys. The nice thing about this is that the belt on the drive pulley cannot fall off the edge and, although the idling belt is near an edge, it is not as critical so long as the driving belt is in place. I never dumped a belt on the Rockford, but it did not appear that it would be impossible.

For those who have not had the experience of watching a typical planer in action, of the two belts, one is installed in the normal manner, while the other is crossed in a figure 8 shape, reversing the direct of the output rotation. What might seem to be a strange way to dynamically reverse motion actually works quite well. A few "niceties" are that involved are that the crossed belt has a better "wrap" (longer contact) on its pulley and is less likely to slip at a given tension and that the upper pulleys can be different sizes, which gives the desirable "quick return".

Archie

P.S.: (OPTIONAL, but read to the end) I just got a message from a Craig's list potential buyer offering me the full $2K in the form of a certified bank check. English skills are lacking and I took the time to do an internet search on "bank check scam". I will leave the details to the reader, but I will not be replying.

Some other "tip-offs":

o I got an initial message within minutes of posting my listing, asking if it was still available. A human can read the time of posting at the top of the listing, but a robot does not bother.

o Craig's list username of "Alice precious". An hour later got an identical query from Alice's cousin: "John afred" with identical wording.

o Alice's second query, offered to mail the bank check mentioned assuming that the item was in "good condition, with no faults". I thought I was clear in the listing that this machine needed some TLC.

o Also there was no interest in loading or shipping method. Maybe typical for many Craigslist items, but we all know that this sort of detail is critical for handling machine tool sales.

Again, I will not be accepting this offer.

FINALLY, to quote one of the results of the above scam search: "Never, ever, accept a cashiers check from someone on Craigslist!"

One more thing ! ! !

Another anti-scamming note:

For some it might be news -- a pic taken with a smart phone has the location (lat & long) where it was taken stored in a corner of the pic data called EXIF. I have been striping this data on pics I post on a website I am running -- there are free utilities (apps) that will do this. I was careless yesterday and forgot this step when I posted my listing, so I just checked on it and it appears that craigslist does this for you.

I'll have to do a test to see of the PM forum engine does this. If anybody already knows, please post.

Thanks,

Archie

P.S.: I have location info turned off on my phone camera, so I might be wrong about craigslist. I need to do some more checking.

I had a similar experience with Craigslist. At first it didn't raise any red flags. But eventually reality set in. Before I dumped all the correspondence I showed it to a Sheriffs deputy friend. He told me that it's very common and most of them originate in Nigeria.
I saw your ad this morning and briefly thought about at least a tire kicking look. But I'm not one to waste people's time. Good luck with your sale.

Experiments concluded . . .

OK -- I took a pic with known GPS info (latitude & longitude) in the EXIF location and uploaded to both craigslist and the PM forum. When I viewed the display of the pic in craigslist and this forum, the GPS data was no longer present. I cannot say that this is the last word, but it would seem that both craigslist and the PM forum engine are doing us the favor of stripping out this data. It may be that most places you can leave a pic protect you, but I know that I can put pics on my website that contain the GPS data.

In many cases, you can turn off the GPS location "feature" that phones & tablets offer when taking pictures. This eliminates the problem at the source.

Archie

For those who have not had the experience of watching a typical planer in action, of the two belts, one is installed in the normal manner, while the other is crossed in a figure 8 shape, reversing the direct of the output rotation. What might seem to be a strange way to dynamically reverse motion actually works quite well. A few "niceties" are that involved are that the crossed belt has a better "wrap" (longer contact) on its pulley and is less likely to slip at a given tension and that the upper pulleys can be different sizes, which gives the desirable "quick return".

Click to expand...

What Archie describes is the "two belt" version - nice in that it is cheaply adjustable for either cut or return speed (return is typically faster) by sizing overhead pulleys "external" to the planer - and depending on timing of the belts or auxiliary intermediate pulleys (a five pulley drive) can be made belt squeal free (nearly.)

The earlier single belt planers involve three pulleys. The center is an "idler." The inner pulley drives in one direction, the outer pulley drives in the other. Gearing within the planer determines the platen speed, and can be made to vary between cut and return. Single belt planers are more prone to squeal, and cut/return speeds can only be varied by changing the gear ratios INSIDE the planer - a structural thing and serious constriction on speed choices. What you buy in planer speeds forward/reverse, or at least their ratio, is pretty much what you get.

This planer seems to have an "angle downfeed," a separate drive shaft in the bridge connected to the angle head which allows one to power downfeed as in doing dovetails - and not have to "hover" over and manually feed. Power downfeed dates to about 1860 or so, but was usually included for later machines.

Joe in NH

Joe is correct . . .

Yes, this "old dog" has the ability to feed the tool-slide automatically. I was surprised that it was an option all those years ago. (My Hendey shaper has that feature and I use it all the time.)

The lower shaft drives the saddle across the cross-head and the upper one drives the tool-slide feed-screw through bevel gears so that the angle of the slide can be set at will. In order to choose which shaft is fed by the ratchet mechanism, all one does is to slide a keyed pinion gear off the outboard end of one shaft and onto the other -- total simplicity! (These are the same shafts that are squared for a hand-crank, so these same motions can be controlled by hand during operation.

Archie

Joe in NH said:

Power downfeed dates to about 1860 or so, but was usually included for later machines.
Joe in NH

Click to expand...

Power down feed in planers dates to 1850.

Here is the Ames planer in 1875.

American Artisan and Illustrated Journal of Popular Science - Google Books

Rob

Change of plans . . .

Someone with a sharp eye may notice that my avatar has changed . . .

I have decided that I will work on restoring this Ames planer myself. (The craigslist listing is deleted -- the price was an "I don't want to sell it price" anyway.) I assume that a few folks may be interested, so I will start a new thread and document the process. I have promised myself that the planer will not come apart until I have finished putting my B&S 10N tool & cutter grinder back together. This will not take long because I am only polishing up the hand wheels & other controls.

I will at a post to this thread when I start the new thread.

Thanks for the interest,

Archie

P.S.: I just could not let it go -- I should have let my wife sell it . . .

Way to go Archie! Looking forward to the scraping in posts!
Jeff P

PS: Working on getting my new to me ca 1900 22 x 22 x 60 GA Gray planer operational again!