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Whitcomb Planer finally home

JK in PA

Plastic
Joined
Jan 19, 2019
I bought this planer a month ago and finally got it home. The table is just shy of 6 feet long, so probably a 5 foot working length. Should be a good size for my small shop. Looking forward to getting it running and doing some work on it. Came with the original counter shaft. Not sure what if anything it needs. Did not see it run. The table is a little beat up, the the rest of the machine looks good. Has the number 3073 on the head. I’m guessing that is the serial number. Not sure how that translates to a date of manufacture. I’m guessing 1890’s. Has the gear table drive not the pulley system Whitcomb patented in the late 1890's. Weighs about 5000 pounds. Was a bear to move by hand. But a fun challenge. If anybody has any idea as to the date of manufacture I’d appreciate your thoughts. I could not find any references to date it.

Whitcomb 1.jpg
Whitcomb Gear Drive.jpg
 
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Was this one the subject of another recent thread where you got it out of a basement on the west coast or something, as I vaguely recall? I was looking at those photos with my wife because we were amazed it has sort of Art Deco styling around the side buttresses (as I have also seen as I just looked up Whitcomb planers in Kenneth Cope's book) even though at 1890 this would be very early for Art Deco. Could you take a few more shots especially one from the side? Anyway, congratulations on this cool project!
 
Thanks on the Congrats ! No this was not that planer thread. This planer came from Maryland. I'd be happy to post more pictures, although posting GOOD pictures here that remain part of the thread is a challenge. I don't like the thumb nails. In my opinion the style of the sides is not Art Deco. I'll post more pics tonight when I get home from work.
 
Here is a picture of the side of the upright frame. As you can see its simple grouping of nested triangles, and not very deco but still darn pretty cool in my opinion.
whitcomb side.jpg
 








 
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