planer parts

[TBoomz]

I've a Vance planer mill #6?, made out of Winston-Salem. It's babbitt bearing with zerks; we've been pumping grease into its bearings for years. So far no problems. We've got it rigged to run off our tractor's PTO. If I ever needed replacement parts, where might I find some.

 

[Roy G]

Are you sure they are babbitt bearings? All the ones I have seen use oil for the lubricant. But you don't seem to have any problems, so I guess it doesn't make any difference what kind of bearings you have,

Roy G

 

[TBoomz]

I was basing my assumption on a shaft [located about a foot below infeed rollers] that looks to be babbitt. Don't know if they all are. I've posted some pics over at owwm.org. Someone thinks it may be ball bearing - which would be great, as far as getting it up and running w/out a lot of hassle. Will take a closer look tomorrow.
As I wrote, we never had any problems w/planer, but if anything were to ever break, the idea of having to fabricate replacement parts.........

There's a youtube vid of a keith rucker who did a restore [2015] on a similar model for a georgia museum.
Ours has four cutter heads. Max cut is 12" wide x 4" thick - for the size of [side] heads we used... Could probably run an 8" timber thru.

My brother never had any problem selling the shavings. Now that we have a small sawmill business, having a planer of this size would be a good fit. We did a lot of T & G on that planer.
Dad had an even bigger planer that was likely twice as heavy as this one and maybe 6' longer.. He sold that one to an outfit north of greensboro.