Planer available on Cleveland craigslist

I want a planer, but not now, and not so far away. But someone closer needs to get this, and then share pictures. Consider it a duty to machine history if you are within a hundred miles of so.

Metal Planer
Working area approximately 14' x 3' x 3'
I can get more info and pictures for interested party.
Grandfather passed, mom wants it gone.
Currently being used as a Cat tower and catch all!!!

Metal Planer/Gray - business/commercial - by owner - sale

CarlBoyd

Curious what year, in business for a long time.

Do you think they mean it's 14" x3' x 3'? Otherwise it's a beast. I'd also like a planer, but sadly, no room.

-Reid

You need to find a Florida plane dealer, not a Cleveland plane dealer.
Sorry.
They need to post a price, since CL is not ebay. That would help you determine if price+shipping is feasible for Florida buyers.

Chip

Probably means what he wrote. Whitcomb Blaisdell 36" was 21,000 Lbs when only 10 foot "bed"

12 foot table came with 18 foot "bed" - that adds 8,000 lbs

Reid Zeigler said:

Do you think they mean it's 14" x3' x 3'? Otherwise it's a beast. I'd also like a planer, but sadly, no room.

-Reid

Click to expand...

I called the grandson of the now deceased owner / operator. The guy who owned it was a lifelong machinist named Seidlitz in the Cleveland area. Maybe someone in PM land knew of him. The grandson has a picture of the grandfather operating a giant planer of some sort taken in 1944. The current planer is made by G. A. Gray in Cincinnati, Ohio and likely originally a lineshaft operated model converted to electric motor. The grandson described a rack, gears and belts, so probably not a hydraulic unit. The original head is still in place, and has some minor modification to make the tool automatically retract on the return stroke, but it has not had a milling head installed. It is 220 volts, three phase, 39 Amps and 15 HP. It can run on 440 volts also. Overall size is about 26' long and ? almost nine feet high. The table is 32" x 14'. The majority of the planer sits on a slab, and is about 8 feet above the slab. A gear or pulley or something has had a bit of slab carved out to accommodate it which makes it almost nine feet high overall. The planer is in a garage with a seven foot high door and takes up two bays of a 4 car garage. Evidently when it was installed in the garage in the 70's some building modifications were necessary. The grandson described some work being so long that both the garage door and the back door needed to be opened to accommodate the length of the work. When it was installed the grandfather had it re-scrapped by a person of experience in the field. Evidently the planer was meticulously leveled and taken care of. Currently there is a puddle under the planer, but that is apparently a new problem. The planer has been inside since installed. It ran from the 70's to the late 90's at least, maybe the early 2000's. Tooling is included. The grandson is not sure exactly what all the tooling consists of, but if it works with the planer, it is included. Maybe that includes the phase converter also. We didn't talk price, but he said he would have to get the sales price approved by his mother. He is talking of scrapping the planer if there are no buyers, so maybe the planer will not go for more than scrap but not an outrageous amount either. The two of them are motivated to sell. So, I refer you to the Craigslist post for contact information if you are interested in buying it.

There is also a lathe by American Tool Works. It might swing 14". It appears to be a lineshaft lathe. The grandson is not sure he wants to sell that.

The grandson will be sending me some pictures and I will post them when I get them.

The grandson said likely the planer will require disassembly to get it out of the garage due to the 7 foot garage door. He didn't think a forklift would be able to get this out.

I see a dual head planer which appears 1900 to 1920 era. It appears in good shape except for the surface rust from sitting in the rust belt. What I see is going to take some serious lifting equipment, at least a pallet jack and engine hoist, maybe a portable crane and or a forklift just to lift the table. Maybe someone else has better knowledge and more experience than me.

The grandson thinks the two racks shown are tooling for the planer. That looks like a lot of tooling to me. I also see a relatively cramped working space. At least it is not in a basement. That is going to be a whole lot of work. But it looks like a planer in decent shape.

I asked. And unfortunately Mr. Seidlitz did not have a smaller companion planer laying around. This one is way way too big for me.

Gramps was hard-core. Probably had some great stories to tell. My hat's off to him for having this lovely machine in a tight garage space.

I'd love to have it, and could even make room for it, but the time and cost to rig it will be much more than the likely purchase price. I hope someone saves it.

Thornewmexico said:

The grandson said likely the planer will require disassembly to get it out of the garage due to the 7 foot garage door. He didn't think a forklift would be able to get this out.

Click to expand...

If they got it in there, it can come out.

I've got a 4k forklift, not sure if it's under 7', but it's pretty short. There are also stubby little forklifts to get inside trailers and containers.

One of those would aid in any disassembly and also provide a portable anchor point or to push/pull with.

And with today's cordless tools, any mods to the building that need to be done would be also be easy.

My planer, while a little smaller, is pretty easy to move. The weight is pretty evenly distributed and down in the base.

Never having seen the machine, or knowing the situation this is all conjecture. But rigging a 35,000lb planer (just guessing) out of way too small a space with no forklfit sounds like my kind of fun.

If you can find a rollback that's spec-ed right it can go on one, other wise a Landoll trailer and semi can move it,

Get it out in as large a piece as possible for some sort of tilt bed would be my plan. Removing more than the tool heads, motor etc would probably be more trouble than it's worth. Taking the table off with what can get in a 7' door and moving it around in tight quarters would probably be as much work as moving the whole machine.

I'm glad it's too far for me, I don't have the space or money of it, but I'd like it. I already know my 10' stoke planer is gonna be too small.

I can't believe he could use the machine in those tight quarters. I wonder how he loaded parts on it.

alskdjfhg said:

... And with today's cordless tools, any mods to the building that need to be done would be also be easy. ...

Click to expand...

Sawzall to the rescue!

Thornewmexico said:

The grandson thinks the two racks shown are tooling for the planer. That looks like a lot of tooling to me.
View attachment 202856View attachment 202857View attachment 202858View attachment 202859

Click to expand...

One would say that the planer is pretty well supplied with set-up tooling. It has a very nice assortment of drop-ins for the holes in the table. Those square heads are hardened. They are used to hold the job down on the table and work quite well with pins while providing tool clearance that a hairpin cannot. Only see two hairpins and no toolholders but they should be there somewhere.
The planer has three heads when the side head is counted.
A very desirable machine
John

Oh Mr. Thomas.....I-86 goes straight to Cleveland.....

johnoder said:

Probably means what he wrote. Whitcomb Blaisdell 36" was 21,000 Lbs when only 10 foot "bed"

12 foot table came with 18 foot "bed" - that adds 8,000 lbs

Click to expand...

I do mostly micro scale work, so this is beyond my imagination.

ewlsey said:

I can't believe he could use the machine in those tight quarters. I wonder how he loaded parts on it.

Click to expand...

Grandpa had an electric fork lift (still in garage, doubt it works) he flipped forks over and mask worked differently than most. Thats what I remember.

I am George Seidlitz grandson.

alskdjfhg said:

If they got it in there, it can come out.

I've got a 4k forklift, not sure if it's under 7', but it's pretty short. There are also stubby little forklifts to get inside trailers and containers.

One of those would aid in any disassembly and also provide a portable anchor point or to push/pull with.

And with today's cordless tools, any mods to the building that need to be done would be also be easy.

My planer, while a little smaller, is pretty easy to move. The weight is pretty evenly distributed and down in the base.

Never having seen the machine, or knowing the situation this is all conjecture. But rigging a 35,000lb planer (just guessing) out of way too small a space with no forklfit sounds like my kind of fun.

If you can find a rollback that's spec-ed right it can go on one, other wise a Landoll trailer and semi can move it,

Get it out in as large a piece as possible for some sort of tilt bed would be my plan. Removing more than the tool heads, motor etc would probably be more trouble than it's worth. Taking the table off with what can get in a 7' door and moving it around in tight quarters would probably be as much work as moving the whole machine.

I'm glad it's too far for me, I don't have the space or money of it, but I'd like it. I already know my 10' stoke planer is gonna be too small.

Click to expand...

I currently work for a towing company. We have a Landoll and a tandom axle rollback.

Who I am.

My name is Robert Shaffer, Grandson of George Seidlitz.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask, I will answer to the best of my ability. OR
check the craigslist listing for my number.
From what I have read above, it sounds pretty accurate.
I was about 10/12 years old when Grandpa put this Planer to work.
I will do my best to monitor this thread.
I do have a some machining experience, have run Manual mills (Bridgeport), Maunual engine lathes, surface grinders, blanchard grinder, shaper, hortizontal boring mill, drill press, bandsaws, tool post grinders, turrret lathe, 70 stamping press,
I do enjoy machining, however life sent me in a different direction a few times, I currently drive a rollback full time for a local towing company, I have been with them for the past 18 years either full or part time, the part time years I had a full time job in either a machine shop or my fathers warehouse/stamping plant.