Automatic Machine Company Coulter Toolroom Planer for sale Elkins WV

I have no affiliation with the seller, but I ran across a cool smaller planer for sale on the Facebook marketplace.

Machinery - Miscellaneous Tools - Elkins, West Virginia | Facebook Marketplace

I messaged him, and he did say he could possibly have a forklift available to help load, but it only had a capacity of 4000lbs (machine lists at 4600lbs). I figure you could take the table off or so and get under weight probably. I also asked him what the price of the planer would be separately, but he hasn’t gotten back to me yet.

I want it, but honestly it would take some serious finagling to go get it and make it fit in my shop. So if someone wants to grab it, have at it! It would be neat to see it saved. (Or if someone lives near it and wants to help me get it because I am encouragable )

Here is an older thread about them. There are some good links to old information about them.

https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...tory/antique-metal-shaper-planer-sale-354500/

It's five miles from my shop. I have an appointment to check it out.

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I bought the Coulter planer. The DoAll saw and Acme turret lathe are still available. I didn't spend a lot of time inspecting them. All the machinery was functional when the shop was shut down about 20 years ago, but the building is unheated, so surface rust has formed on any unpainted surfaces.

The DoAll saw is a V26, and has a blade welder, fence, parts of a power feed, and a good assortment of guides. It also has as stand-alone DoAll storage cabinet with blades, band files, and other stuff. Not sure what all is in there, but the cabinet is nearly the size of the saw. Probably a good deal for someone, but its bigger than the space I can devote to it, and I can only handle one project at a time.

The Acme turret lathe is a big one, and includes a bar feed setup. I know little about turret lathes, beyond the fact that almost nobody wants them... big ones especially.

I'll post photos of the planer once I have it back in my shop. Not much information out there on them. I did find a sales brochure in the Hagley library's collection, which I paid to have scanned and emailed to me. I've uploaded it to the Automatic Machinery Co. page on vintagemachinery.org:

Automatic Machine Company - Publication Reprints - BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN PLANER AND SHAPER | VintageMachinery.org

The one I just bought appears to be slightly newer than what's shown in all the available documentation, as it incorporates a clutch and brake in the drive pulley... a necessary addition for motor drive. It also has a pointer that indicates the stroke length setting.

Andy


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Nice that you could get the planer/Shaper

Looks like there had been another one or the same one for sale earlier.
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...r-planer-sale-354500/?highlight=Shaper+planer
A similar machine by a different maker.
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...shaper-planer-342695/?highlight=Planer+Shaper
Regards,
Jim

Jim Christie said:

Nice that you could get the planer/Shaper

Looks like there had been another one or the same one for sale earlier.
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...r-planer-sale-354500/?highlight=Shaper+planer

Click to expand...

Not the same machine- this one has been in the same place for many years- but it's interesting that the only two examples I've ever heard of showed up within three hours drive of each other. There is a dealer tag on the one I just bought... can't recall the name now, but it was a major dealer that I've seen before.

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You lucky dog. I am glad it didn’t get scrapped for sure. (I was kind of hoping someone would convince me that I just *had* to have it )

The little openside planer looks like a very handy machine tool. I appreciated reading the "Automatic Machine Company" advertising, as it did make a good point about planers vs shapers. The ram of a shaper is an interesting proposition to consider from an engineering standpoint in that it is both a column and a cantilevered beam. To add to the mix, there are two different bending forces acting at the business end of the ram- tool pressure wanting to force the ram upwards, and the actual cutting force (causing the tool bit to shear away the work) which produces a bending stress with a moment in the direction opposite the one forcing the ram upwards.

Then, there is an axial force acting along the centerline of the ram put in by the slotted link. Unlike a structural member, a shaper ram is not statically loaded, and loading on it is constantly changing. The sliding surfaces of the ram and the guides for the ram have quite a job to do to keep the ram on a straight course as it makes its strokes. Add the natural tendency of the ram to want to 'droop' (static deflection) when fully extended due to its own weight, though this is hardly worth considering when put up against the other forces acting on the ram.

The little openside planer addresses all of this handily. Probably not much more footprint than a 24" shaper would occupy, and an inherently more rigid machine tool.

I first became acquainted with the name "Automatic Machine" when a buddy dragged home an ancient gasoline engine driven 2 drum winch off a stiff leg derrick. The engine was made by "Automatic Machine" of Bridgeport, Connecticut. It is an ancient 1 cylinder gasoline engine, cylinder vertical, water cooled, and has the usual design features early gasoline engines had. In old marine engineering texts, I've also stumbled across ads and listing for Automatic Machine Company of Bridgeport, CT as a manufacturer of gasoline marine engines in the early 1900's-teens.

There is no telling whether the principal business of "Automatic Machine" was gasoline engines or machine tools. They may have arrived at the idea for the small openside planer to address a need either they or a customer had. Maybe they got into gasoline engine manufacturing to have a steady workload as orders for the small planers may have been more hit and miss (sorry about the pun - could not resist it). Like so much of the US machine tool industry, Automatic Machine, being a smaller manufacturer, likely vanished without a trace other than their name in gasoline engines. In its day, Bridgeport, CT was quite a manufacturing center, part of the "New England cradle of precision". With Bullard, Bridgeport, and Moore being the well known firms there.

The Automatic Machine Co. made some quite impressive engines. I found the first photo some years ago on the internet and think the big four cylinder was in an old trencher, but don't recall the details. The photographer Robert E. Pence had died, so no further info was available.

The 2nd and 3rd images are adverts found on the Smokstak forum.

The last photo shows a four cylinder "Automatic" engine mounted across an early Case tractor.

I find it interesting that the Automatic Machinery Co. machine and the Lynd-Farquhar machine in Joe's old post, while not identical, are so similarly constructed that one must have been built in emulation of the other. I wonder if there was some connection between the two companies... maybe an engineer or designer in common.

Got my machine staged in front of the door. Will have to go back next week with truck and trailer. Hoping for a warm day so that I can blast off some grime at the car wash before putting it in the shop.



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The planer is in my shop now. I'll post some better photos in a day or two. It's every bit of 4600 lbs... I'm curious to pick it up with the crane scale and get it's opinion.

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A few photos. Needs a lot of cleaning and some rust removal, but everything is free and functional.

The "automobile-type sliding gear transmission" is inside the base, and is just that... sliding gears. No oil sump, not even a drip pan, just open gears above the floor. I'll probably try to fab up some kind of catch pan, to keep my floor from getting too oil saturated.

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I found a Machinery article from February, 1921, describing the new clutch and brake system on the planer, so it appears mine was made after that date.

The clutch will be the first thing I look into... I can see there's an open cage ball thrust bearing between the two halves of the drive pulley that is trashed.

Andy

Nice score Andy.

-Doozer