Joe Michaels
Diamond
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2004
- Location
- Shandaken, NY, USA
I found an interesting youtube showing an openside planer in use. The youtube was made in a machine shop in Vietnam, and is entitled:
(in Vietnamese, a language I do not know) "CO KHI CHE TAO"
The planer is an openside planer, hydraulically driven, made by Fuji Seisakusho
The hydraulic cylinder for moving the platen is visible, and it is made in sections with flanged joints. I'd seen this construction years ago on some very long steam cylinders on "shotgun" carriage feeds in a sawmill.
The machinist is running the planer to cut some sort of slots in what looks like a long mill roller (rubber mill ? sugar cane mill ?). The roller is setup with what looks like a milling machine dividing head and footstock. The overall setup with the roller is too long for the platen of the planer, so the dividing head and footstock are extended beyond the ends of the platen on steel plates. Planer stroke is likely maxxed out.
The cutting tool appears to be an old style forged "swan necked" tool. Possibly, there is a cemented carbide tip brazed onto it (as I think I saw on a planer tool laying nearby).
The machinist and the planer are hard at work in the youtube. There are a number other youtubes of Vietnamese machine shops, all with titles in Vietnamese. In one, a machinist is cutting a helical gear on a universal horizontal milling machine with a dividing head geared to the table lead screw. He has a group of young people, all in blue work clothes, and is explaining the job to them. The young people are attentive, and it may well be an apprentice training program of school. That setting is in a working shop, grungy surroundings and hard-used machine tools.
Setting the history and politics of Vietnam aside, the people in the youtubes seem hard working and resourceful, and are doing real machine shop work with older manual machine tools. Seeing a planer in action on a real job was what drew my attention to the youtube. The planer is likely Japanese, and being hydraulic, it may well have been something that came into Vietnam after WWII, maybe for a rubber mill's shop.
I enjoy watching youtubes of people who are "making do" with old machine tools in today's world. I am sure there are shops with CNC machine tools in Vietnam, but the youtubes I have seen are taken in machine shops with manual machine tools. In another one of the Vietnamese youtubes, a machinist is milling a keyway in a large diameter shaft of mill roller. The roller is supported on steady rests and the tailstock center of a large engine lathe. The chuck is turning, but the work is not held in the chuck. Kind of a strange optical illusion, seeing a lathe chuck turning and work standing still. The reason is a machinist has mounted a magnetic based drill on some bracketing off the compound of the lathe so the spindle of the drill lines up with the centerline of the work. He has an end mill cutter in the chuck of the mag base drill, and is using the lathe's carriage feed to move along his "milling head" to cut the slot or keyway. Resourceful, for sure. Not according to the books, but when people do not have what "the books says", resourceful people find ways of getting the jobs done.
(in Vietnamese, a language I do not know) "CO KHI CHE TAO"
The planer is an openside planer, hydraulically driven, made by Fuji Seisakusho
The hydraulic cylinder for moving the platen is visible, and it is made in sections with flanged joints. I'd seen this construction years ago on some very long steam cylinders on "shotgun" carriage feeds in a sawmill.
The machinist is running the planer to cut some sort of slots in what looks like a long mill roller (rubber mill ? sugar cane mill ?). The roller is setup with what looks like a milling machine dividing head and footstock. The overall setup with the roller is too long for the platen of the planer, so the dividing head and footstock are extended beyond the ends of the platen on steel plates. Planer stroke is likely maxxed out.
The cutting tool appears to be an old style forged "swan necked" tool. Possibly, there is a cemented carbide tip brazed onto it (as I think I saw on a planer tool laying nearby).
The machinist and the planer are hard at work in the youtube. There are a number other youtubes of Vietnamese machine shops, all with titles in Vietnamese. In one, a machinist is cutting a helical gear on a universal horizontal milling machine with a dividing head geared to the table lead screw. He has a group of young people, all in blue work clothes, and is explaining the job to them. The young people are attentive, and it may well be an apprentice training program of school. That setting is in a working shop, grungy surroundings and hard-used machine tools.
Setting the history and politics of Vietnam aside, the people in the youtubes seem hard working and resourceful, and are doing real machine shop work with older manual machine tools. Seeing a planer in action on a real job was what drew my attention to the youtube. The planer is likely Japanese, and being hydraulic, it may well have been something that came into Vietnam after WWII, maybe for a rubber mill's shop.
I enjoy watching youtubes of people who are "making do" with old machine tools in today's world. I am sure there are shops with CNC machine tools in Vietnam, but the youtubes I have seen are taken in machine shops with manual machine tools. In another one of the Vietnamese youtubes, a machinist is milling a keyway in a large diameter shaft of mill roller. The roller is supported on steady rests and the tailstock center of a large engine lathe. The chuck is turning, but the work is not held in the chuck. Kind of a strange optical illusion, seeing a lathe chuck turning and work standing still. The reason is a machinist has mounted a magnetic based drill on some bracketing off the compound of the lathe so the spindle of the drill lines up with the centerline of the work. He has an end mill cutter in the chuck of the mag base drill, and is using the lathe's carriage feed to move along his "milling head" to cut the slot or keyway. Resourceful, for sure. Not according to the books, but when people do not have what "the books says", resourceful people find ways of getting the jobs done.
