New Haven No. 5 Restoration

[Braeden P]

I got a New Haven No. 5 metal planer in early January from the Tuckahoe Steam and Gas Association in Easton, Maryland. I have been working on it for some time and its coming along nicely since there is no need for Bondo unlike the Hardinge. Estimated to be made in the late 1890s based of catolagues even though is has a 1869 patent date that would have expired. There is specifications from the 1899 New Haven catalogue, courtesy of Robert Lang on Facebook. The New Haven factory color is black. It was bought by the Holland Manufacting Company in Baltimore. They painted it a nice sort of olive drab with lead paint. It was later painted a bright green, most likely by an apprentice, They painted over grease and chips. I am currently painting it black and a rust orange on the moving parts. I might switch to olive drab since that's how it was in the factory and will look good that way.

Problems
It has a cracked side of the clapper box which I will braze back on then machine.

There was a chunk missing from a "handle spacer". Since it will only experience compression I welded it with a MIG and tried to get the proper heat cycle with a propane forge. I then machined it and you cannot tell that it was fixed.

It is missing two of the four oil cups, but I can make a pattern and get them cast. Inside of one of the oil cups I found a tack which is what Holland Manufacturing Company made.

Missing the nuts to raise and lower the cross beam. They are quite simple and I got pictures from Keith Rucker of his so I can remake them.

The T-slot for the table stops has a section broken off, I will probably machine some of it off and bolt on a plate to get the correct profile.

Other than that it is complete and in very good condition. I used a depth gauge and gauge pin to measure wear on the bed. It is 3 thou low in the back and 1.5 thou low in the front. The middle 70ish percent of the table has no change in wear. The last 15ish percent go from 0 to 21 thou in about 8 inches. If I can get it machined I will, otherwise it wont matter unless I do a very long stroke.

More pictures and writing to come.

 

[Braeden P]

Here are the photos from the catalogue. I cannot get them to be big if I download them. Via Robert Lang on Facebook.

 

[Braeden P]

Inspecting the ways. The bed is in very good condition with the front of the ways ways being a thou and a half low and the rear being three thou low from the center. To measure this I used a depth mic and dowel pin and wrote down the numbers. For the male ways on the table I had to make a tool that uses a dowel pin on one side of the way and a tool makers ball on the other side. In between I put a starrett indicator. There is visible wear on the table on the last ~8” of the ways (about 15% of the total ways) at the very end of the ways the wear is 21 thou and after 9” it is zero all the way to the last 9” of the other end. I would like to get the table machined. I will flake it at the very least.

 

[talvare]

Very interesting tool you made for measuring the ways. Very nice.

Ted