Pro Planer restoration

[SeanR]

I recently purchased a Pro Planer off of craigslist. It has some extensive rusting (see pictures below; the bags are over the rollers to keep them clean), and I'm in the process of cleaning it up. I have two questions:

1. Is it worth removing the cutterhead to facilitate complete rust removal? Or is it better to simply deal with it as best I can without removing the cutterhead? If I do remove the cutterhead, would I have to replace the bearings when reinstalling? The bearings are currently in good shape, the cutterhead spins easily and doesn't have any wobble.

Cutterhead rust

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2. If I end up removing the cutterhead, is it advisable to completely disassemble the planer to clean up all the rust in hard to reach places and oil up the old machine? I'm fairly mechanically inclined and feel I could handle it. My concern is that perhaps there are some systems that would require fine tuning when reassembling that might necessitate special tools, skills, etc.

Rust

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I'm pretty excited to have a Shopsmith Pro Planer and look forward to having it operational. Thanks for any feedback you can provide!

[br549]

First, welcome!

I would completely disassemble it to the point of removing all rusty parts if it were mine. The posts that change table height need to operate freely, and any rust on those and related parts would be difficult or impossible to remove without further disassembly. If you don't have an Owner's Manual and knife setting gauge, recommend getting those too from Shopsmith. Manual will cover the fine tuning adjustments, and other than knife setting gauge, I know of no other special tools required that you probably don't already have if you own a Shopsmith. Many very knowledgeable and helpful members here will walk you thru any snags you may encounter in disassembly or re-assembly process. Removal of rust methods and replacement of bearings ... others know more than me about that.

[SeanR]

Thanks for the feedback. I went ahead and completely dissasembled the planer. Many of the parts are in excellent shape, and I'm confident most of the rusty pieces will clean up just fine.

Just in case anyone is interested, here's the state of the planer discovered once I took it apart.

Two of the table mounting posts are warped, so I think I'll need to replace those. The table height adjustment mechanism chain is quite rusty, but I think I can rehab it. The 3" aluminum pulley on the cutterhead lost its key at some point and began to wobble. The pulley is toast, and unfortunately the very end of the cutterhead shaft is worn over from the pulley. But I'm not anticipating that being a problem. I'll order the Planer Pulley Retro-Kit to replace the cutterhead and motor pulleys with steel ones and also get a new belt.

The infeed and outfeed rollers are thankfully in good shape, the planer motor seems to run fine and the feed motor was working before I disassembled the planer. Even if I sink a bit of money into parts, as long as the motors and control box don't give out on me it'll be worth the expense. I'm impressed with the quality of this machine, and I think it'll give me a good number years of use once I get it rehabbed.

If anyone want to chime in, I'd still be interested in guidance on reinstalling the cutterhead. Thanks!

[SeanR]

Here's an update on my Pro Planer rehab:

After completely disassembling the planer, I soaked all the rusted parts in Evap-Rust. It's quite effective, but it does leave all the metal parts a dull grey. A few strokes with a brass brush worked well enough to brighten up the pieces. I'll spend some time polishing up the parts that will be visible.

Cutterhead
I decided not to soak the cutterhead in Evapo-Rust to remove the rust. I was able to remove most of the rust using 400 grit sandpaper. Sanding the cutterhead did, of course, also remove the paint. As the cutterhead was painted black, I'll spray paint it black again. I'll take the cutterhead to a machine shop to have the bearings pulled off and new bearings pressed on. I've ordered new bearings from Shopsmith (along with quite a few other parts).

Table Mounting Posts
The posts were unfortunately bent. This was evident before disassembly as the table wobbled when cranked up or down. I've ordered four new posts from Shopsmith.

Pulleys
As I need to replace the pulley on the cutterhead, I ordered the Planer Pulley Retro-Kit from Shopsmith. It comes with two steel pulleys (for the motor and the cutterhead) along with a new belt and belt cover.

Feed Rollers
Both feed rollers are in good shape. I disassembled and soaked the metal infeed roller to remove rust; it cleaned up very nicely. One of the plugs that turns to adjust tension on the feed rollers was rusted into the planer body assembly. I had to drill it out, so that's another part ordered from Shopsmith.

Feed Motor
The gears on the feed roller were quite rusted as was the gear on the feed motor shaft. Thankfully all three gears cleaned up very nicely after soaking in Evapo-Rust. The feed motor runs well.

Planer Body Assembly
The two cast aluminum sides of the planer are in good shape but a fair amount of paint has chipped and worn off. I'm debating whether to completely strip them before painting or simply hand sand as best as possible and go for it. Any thoughts?

Planer Bed/Table
The cast iron planer bed had a fair amount of surface rust. I gently sanded with 400 grit sandpaper to remove the rust, and I'll buff to brighten and polish it up before reassembly.

Next up: painting the parts that need to be painted (including the stand). And wait, wait, wait for the ordered parts to arrive from Shopsmith.

[JPG]

I doubt the cutter head was 'painted', but rather 'black oxided'.

IIWM, I would NOT paint the cutter head.

[SeanR]

Good to know! Would you have a recommendation on what to do with the cutterhead now that the black oxide finish is sanded off?

[JPG]

Good to know! Would you have a recommendation on what to do with the cutterhead now that the black oxide finish is sanded off?

Wax it at least.

Penetrol may be less 'temporary'.

Keep it indoors and relatively dry and it will not rerust.

[RonKlein]

Try googling 'Liquid Gun Blue" for a possible alternative.

Ron

[dgreen810]

Oxpho-Blu from Brownells.

Don G

[SeanR]

Thanks for the feedback, especially the suggestions on dealing with the cutterhead. Today I removed the capacitor cover on the planer motor. There's a significant amount of rusting in there, and I think I ought to replace the capacitor. The motor operates fine, but the capacitor looks pretty bad.

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Unfortunately, I can't read enough of the print on the capacitor to figure out what to purchase to replace it. Does anyone know what the specs are for a capacitor? My planer has an Emerson 1 3/4 hp motor.