I am in the process of building my Brand New 100 year old shop.. Here's a recent addition... 100% teardown, clean, Degrease, Sand blast, repair damage, Powder Coat, Reassemble.. All new bearings, bushings, etc. Hardware is reused unless absolutely necessary to replace. I had to replace 4 bolts on this one and I made a sliding seal with leather and aluminum which was an addition/revision to the original version in 1940

Nice Job!

54 minutes ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

Nice Job!

Thank You..... 

Excellent rescue and restoration. That'll survive into the 22nd century. Thanks for sharing and especially all the pictures. We love pictures here.

 

BTW, Welcome to the Patriot Woodworker. Glad you found us and WOW, what an opening statement with this thread. Looking forward to seeing more of your work as well as your shop progression. Great to have you on-board.

Edited July 7, 2025Jul 7 by Grandpadave52

First off welcome to The Patriot Woodworker. 

Very nice restoration of that Craftsman/Parks planer! 

13 hours ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Excellent rescue and restoration. That'll survive into the 22nd century. Thanks for sharing and especially all the pictures. We love pictures here.

 

BTW, Welcome to the Patriot Woodworker. Glad you found us and WOW, what an opening statement with this thread. Looking forward to seeing more of your work as well as your shop progression. Great to have you on-board.

Thanks.. The machines are coming along, as for the shop (building), it doesn't quite exist yet. The Forest in my work shop for now

4 hours ago, Larry Buskirk said:

First off welcome to The Patriot Woodworker. 

Very nice restoration of that Craftsman/Parks planer! 

Thank you.. I have 3 Delta's coming up. One of them is only 40 years old so I might sell it, OR I might keep it for sentimental reasons..  The pair after that should qualify but I am having a little trouble IDing them.. I'll get it figured out, I just haven't spent the time yet.. 

7 hours ago, Woke up with wood said:

Thanks.. The machines are coming along, as for the shop (building), it doesn't quite exist yet. The Forest in my work shop for now

 

Another with an outdoor shop. 

6 hours ago, Woke up with wood said:

Thank you.. I have 3 Delta's coming up. One of them is only 40 years old so I might sell it, OR I might keep it for sentimental reasons..  The pair after that should qualify but I am having a little trouble IDing them.. I'll get it figured out, I just haven't spent the time yet.. 

 

Post some photos, I've got mostly Delta's dating from the first (1923) but mostly 1930's, & 40's with the newest being my age. (67)

 

5 hours ago, Larry Buskirk said:

 

Another with an outdoor shop. 

 

Post some photos, I've got mostly Delta's dating from the first (1923) but mostly 1930's, & 40's with the newest being my age. (67)

 

I am just finishing a unisaw, just a few finishing touches. It is the first machine I was assigned to at the first job I got on my own when I was 15 years old and I've always wanted one..  I had to make the lock bolts and trap door. I bought some knobs but I don't like them so I am sending them back and I have more ordered I'll put some pix up soon. The 2 on deck is a jointer, table saw combo. I can't find any numbers on either.. I'm sure I can ID each of them.. Below.. Trap door from back of an old oven..

Parks made some good stuff, they are now out of business but when operating, they were here in town.  At one point, my office was just a couple miles from their factory and depending on traffic and construction, I drove nearby on my commute.  A good friend who was a patternmaker and helped me in my woodworking journey bought one of their planers for his home shop when he got laid off and did custom woodwork to finish out his career.  Sadly, the company he'd worked for since he apprenticed there right out of high school got sold to a Japanese firm and within a few years shut down their US manufacturing base.  They made commercial  machinery, often lathe type machinery.

4 hours ago, kmealy said:

Parks made some good stuff, they are now out of business but when operating, they were here in town.  At one point, my office was just a couple miles from their factory and depending on traffic and construction, I drove nearby on my commute.  A good friend who was a patternmaker and helped me in my woodworking journey bought one of their planers for his home shop when he got laid off and did custom woodwork to finish out his career.  Sadly, the company he'd worked for since he apprenticed there right out of high school got sold to a Japanese firm and within a few years shut down their US manufacturing base.  They made commercial  machinery, often lathe type machinery.

I didn't hear about the Japanese company. The story I heard is: (sounds like it's all the same story)When Parks shut down a company here in the USA that made Keyway cutting machines (I think) took on all the inventory and continued to manufacture and sell parts but not entire machines. Then the keyway company sold to a big conglomerate that had no interest in selling the parts so that ended just a couple years ago. Now some guy took all the inventory and sells the parts.. SO, you can still get brand parts for a Parks Planer.. They manufactured 44,000 of those things spanning 4 decades so there is still a calling.... Parts4parks.com   When I checked, every part was listed

The company my friend worked for was LeBlond.  Right now, their factory  location is an upscale shopping center with only the chimney remaining.  It was bought by Makino, who has a distribution center a few miles from me.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makino

 

1 hour ago, kmealy said:

The company my friend worked for was LeBlond.  Right now, their factory  location is an upscale shopping center with only the chimney remaining.  It was bought by Makino, who has a distribution center a few miles from me.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makino

 

LaBlond was a huge company at one time and they made the big lathes.

I am late to the party, but this is an amazing old piece of woodworking equipment.  Beautiful work!