Hi all,
Some of you may have noticed the Swift Summerskill planer that has been up for sale for the last year or so. I recently spoke with the owner and went to look at the planer. It is a beautiful machine in excellent condition. He has been trying to sell it without success for a long time. It belonged to his tool maker father who died a little while back in his 90s. He obviously took great care of it as it is in 'as new' condition. His son is a lovely gentleman who is trying to clean out the workshop to allow him to rent it out. I think this is the last of his machines.
The main issues have been the size of the machine and therefore the cost of moving it along with the fact that planers are really an obsolete machine from a modern engineering point of view. He was getting close to sending it to the scrap merchant which I could not see happen. So in the end we came to a mutually agreeable price.
So now I need to move it. This machine is BIG and HEAVY. He estimated the weight at 20 tonnes based on his recollection of the weight when it was moved from Melbourne to Sydney. I think this is a bit of an overestimate. My guess is maybe 15 tonne. This would still make it the biggest machine I have moved (behind the 10 tonne Kearns horizontal borer). The dimensions are also a problem with length 6.4m, height 2.6m (with pieces removed) and width 3.1m. The main issue here being the width of 3.1m ..... meaning 600mm hanging over the side of the truck. I am hoping I can get away with permits,flashing lights,flags and signs and not require a pilot vehicle. Will have to make the relevant enquires about this. The RMS have no sense of humour when it comes to oversize loads. It may be possible to remove the big motor on the side which would bring it done to 2.90m but would require a bit of work.
The main issue though is that it is in a smallish building with a roller door exit that only just looks big enough for the planer to pass through. He assures me in fitted on the way in. Coming out the door though you need to turn the planer hard right and go up a rise to the small carpark above. There would be barely enough room for a semi and the crane to load it on the truck. But then the exit for the workshop is up a SMALL laneway which borders on the M1 freeway just before the long,low roofed tunnel at the airport (height 4.4m max). It would all have to be done on the weekend so the car park and laneway could be empty.It's all possible but not easy. I thought I had finished these big moves after the slideway grinder but just ONE MORE!! I have 3 Pacific type roller skates that I use but think I will need an upgrade for this job. Phil (Machtool) recommended to me some time ago these skates from Team Systems
6 Tonne Skates - FW06 - Team Systems
SS60N - Skate - Team Systems
A set of three will set me back $744 plus GST . Will just have to factor these into the overall price.
Now for some history and photos.
The planer was brought new by a government dept in the early 70's for a specific contract job. It apparently did very little work before being brought by the current owners about 20 years ago. It has also done very little work since then. It originally had an 80 inch stroke but the government had this increased to 146 inches ( a more useful 12 ft 2 inches) according to the owner. Its an all electric control spiral gear drive machine. Originally it had a Ward-Leonard DC drive system (think Monarch 10EE type system) but this proved troublesome so some 10 years ago this was updated at great expense to an AC electronic system. This gives infinite speed control in both cutting and return stroke. It has power feed in the horizontal and vertical plane. Also automatic tool lift for the return stroke. The ways have no signs of wear at all and are pressure feed way oil automatically.
This is with no doubt the best planer I have ever seen.
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Finally I would like to thank my wife for agreeing that everyone needs two planers in the shed.
Mark