It has been an up and down few weeks around here. My work has kept me really busy with some bad stuff, for those who don't know I am paramedic, and its time for the carnage to begin. I don't know what it is about this time of year but its here again and been ugly.

 

Anywho, I have decided to restore my Crescent 8" jointer instead of sell it and buy the Oliver. I spent yesterday tearing into the ol girl and have found it to built like a tank. All of the major pieces are off and will be cleaned up and then repainted. I still have to decide on what color, original would have been a flat black. Here is what I started with

First to go was the electricals. It is a 2hp single phase that does run quiet but will also get a new set of bearings. As you can see the wiring is also a little brittle. When I opened up the box the wire nuts fell off.

Then I went about removing the tables. 90 years of rust and grime but things came apart with relative ease.

In removing both table I did find that they have been shimmed, probably to make them coplaner. I will be interesting when reassembling getting everything all lined back up. You can just make out the shim in the pic below.

Today I will tear into the motor to get some numbers for bearing replacement and get them ordered. The motor weighs about 200 lbs and makes it difficult to move by myself. Luckily I had some help last night to get it on the bench. But she is being stubborn not letting her secrets be revealed and keeping closed. In other words, I cant get it open.

 

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My job is to give my kids things to discuss with their therapist

Ken,

I was wondering if you would change your mind on replacing the Crescent, with the Oliver.

I know it had to be a hard decision, but I myself liked the looks of the Crescent better than the Oliver. It just has a more classic look in my opinion.

I look forward to watching your restoration progress.

Regards,

Larry

should be fun Ken. i like those jointers.

 

jack

English machines

Looks like a project well under way Ken. That is one nice jointer and should be fun watching. I am sure it will be a great transformation.

 

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John Moody
John Moody Woodworks
http://www.johnmoodywoodworks.com

It looked in dang good shape to begin with.

Overall it is in good shape. The paint is chipping and peeling, the belts were gone and both the motor and cutter head bearings were getting noisy. Cut quality was beginning to suffer even with nice sharp blades. I figure a little work now and it will be good for another 90+ years


Darcy Warner said:

It looked in dang good shape to begin with.

I'm sure it probably will last another 90+ years. The very reason I myself like the old-timers, they were built to last a lifetime and then some.

Larry

Ken Rasmussen said:

Overall it is in good shape. The paint is chipping and peeling, the belts were gone and both the motor and cutter head bearings were getting noisy. Cut quality was beginning to suffer even with nice sharp blades. I figure a little work now and it will be good for another 90+ years

Darcy Warner said:

It looked in dang good shape to begin with.

 

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My job is to give my kids things to discuss with their therapist

I have been working slowly on getting the jointer stripped of the years of paint and grime. When I bought the jointer I sharpened the blades and put her to use. The past couple of I have found a few minutes to get a little done. The main casting was wire brushed with a knotted wire wheel in a angle grinder, works really well at getting the loose and flaking paint off. I then used a 20 grit sanding pad to smooth out the old filler that was used. The filler is a black substance that is really nasty. I came out looking like Al Jolson...lol. I will do a final sanding and then use some modern body filler and smooth out the imperfections and then sand, sand, sand.

The Crescent name plate on the front of the machine never did look quite right to me. I figured it was a mediocre casting and I would just have to deal with it. I have since discovered the casting is near perfect and with a little work the metal is now seeing the light of day, something that has not happened in over 90 years!!

You can just make out the Crescent name in the pic below

What I found was that all of the letters were filled with the old nasty, black filler. After about an hour with a razor blade, small dental pick, small grinder wheel and wire brush on a die grinder this is what was revealed.

Time to get the safety glasses and mask back on and get to sanding. Hopefully the rain will hold off long enough today to get the filler on and roughed back out.

 

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My job is to give my kids things to discuss with their therapist

Ken,

Looking good, that black filler is some nasty stuff for sure. It'll realy look nice when you get it done, now that your removing the thick layers and getting the details to show. Have you decided on paint colors yet?

Larry

I an thinking about the same color as my Oliver table saw. It is a dark gray. I am also toying with the idea of flat black which would have been the original color. If I go with black, accents would probably be gold or maybe white. I am still undecided, maybe black, maybe gray.....wont know for sure til that time comes


Larry Buskirk said:

Ken,

Looking good, that black filler is some nasty stuff for sure. It'll realy look nice when you get it done, now that your removing the thick layers and getting the details to show. Have you decided on paint colors yet?

Larry

Ken,

I know the feeling, decisions, decisions, decisions. 

I finally went with the black/brass/red on my Delta's just so they would be different from the normal gray. 

I think for my small machines the colors worked well by giving them a classic "old-time "appearance.
Larry

Ken Rasmussen said:

I an thinking about the same color as my Oliver table saw. It is a dark gray. I am also toying with the idea of flat black which would have been the original color. If I go with black, accents would probably be gold or maybe white. I am still undecided, maybe black, maybe gray.....wont know for sure til that time comes

Larry Buskirk said:

Ken,

Looking good, that black filler is some nasty stuff for sure. It'll realy look nice when you get it done, now that your removing the thick layers and getting the details to show. Have you decided on paint colors yet?

Larry

 

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My job is to give my kids things to discuss with their therapist

Looking Good Ken!

Satin black and gold would look great.

 

Some day I hope to get the new head in my 18 inch Crescent that I restored a couple of years ago so I can use the dang thing. Both my Crescent planer and jointer came with square cutter heads. It works great in the planer but scares the hockey sticks out of me using it with the jointer.

The tables can be a pain to align so when I restored mine I made a couple of little jack screws similar to this one to help get everything lined up perfectly.

Shane....I do remember the jointer restoration you did as well as the jack screws. If I a not mistaken you made them from high density plastic. During disassembly I noted which part went where and also there were a lot of shims under the table. I am assuming this was to level and make the tables coplaner. Some of the shim material was a wax covered cardboard and others were metal. I am thinking to cut up some aluminum cans and use as shim material.


Shane Whitlock said:

Looking Good Ken!

Satin black and gold would look great.

 

Some day I hope to get the new head in my 18 inch Crescent that I restored a couple of years ago so I can use the dang thing. Both my Crescent planer and jointer came with square cutter heads. It works great in the planer but scares the hockey sticks out of me using it with the jointer.

The tables can be a pain to align so when I restored mine I made a couple of little jack screws similar to this one to help get everything lined up perfectly.

Ken

The letters look much better. In the past I have mixed JB and metal fillings and built up missing parts of the letters too. The JM mix is real strong and can take a hit and won't chip like bondo. Looks like you got a Kool starter too Ken.

 

jack

English machines

Jack....I love the Cutler Hammer starter. I don't however like the location. It gets hit with every board I joint, so it will be relocated. I will be mounting it to the rear of the jointer on a pipe and bracket just behind and above the fence on the infeed side.

I am also having trouble getting the motor apart. But that is for another time to discuss.

tool613 said:

Ken

The letters look much better. In the past I have mixed JB and metal fillings and built up missing parts of the letters too. The JM mix is real strong and can take a hit and won't chip like bondo. Looks like you got a Kool starter too Ken.

 

jack

English machines

I need some help with an issue on the jointer. Let me preface this by saying it is only a cosmetic issue and it does not affect performance what-so-ever. The infeed table is chipped pretty significantly and my guess is that a previous owner pried against it in an attempt to remove the knives. I did not see any other damage that would lead me to believe that the knives came loose during operation. If that were the case I would be replacing the cutter head!! My thoughts on this are to mill out a rabbett  along the leading edge and insert a steel or aluminum strip in its place to clean up the edge. What ya think?

 

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My job is to give my kids things to discuss with their therapist

I would just grind it straight and slide the table forward. They do do that don't they?

 

jack

English machines

I like that idea. I think I will scribe a line and grind to it and see how it fits. If I cant slide the table far enough forward then I can mill it out.


tool613 said:

I would just grind it straight and slide the table forward. They do do that don't they?

 

jack

English machines

Bondo is done and the first coat of paint is on the main casting as well as the under side of the tables. I am hoping it will dry fast enough and I can get another coat on in a couple of days. I used Sherwin Williams direct-to-metal in graphite. It is the same as my Oliver 232. I sprayed the outside of the casting and the tables but had to brush the inside. there just isn't enough room to spray. I am going to go with a gloss black as an accent to the hand wheels and some of the other parts. I think it's looking pretty good so far.

 

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My job is to give my kids things to discuss with their therapist

What I like about the DTM is the high solids in that paint. On areas  around the casting letters I spray 2 coats each time to bring the surface up  as smooth as  the surrounding areas with bondo. first coat on spot areas like  the letters   or other rough casting and let it set for 1hour and the whole body at  ounce after that. then 24 hours for cure. 

 

love that color.The DTM does take for ever to dry but man is it sticky.

she going to look good with your 232

 

 

jack

English machines