Kity 636 planer thicknesser

[Seb Palmer]

Hi

I'm tempted by a pretty cheap Kity 636 planer thicknesser I found online. It's a three or four hour drive away, and the ad doesn't have much info/many pics.

I found you guys - i.e. this forum/message-board - whilst searching for info and manuals, etc, for the Kity 636. I found a few threads on here. But the only manuals they had links to were for a different newer model. I have found and downloaded a French manual, but it ain't easy to use for a poor Franglaiser like me.

Anyway, rather as with my previous post, about a vintage Tauco bandsaw, I'm looking for advice on what to look out for if I doecide I want to buy this tool. I've spoken to the seller, and I know there are numerous parts missing: there's no rotary handle for raising one of the beds (plastic, and easily replaced or worked around, I've heard); the current owner - son of the former owner/user - couldn't tell me if it's a one or two speed model; there's no motor or workshop base either (I can build a base, but I need advice on a suitable replacement motor); all the dust collection paraphernalia is missing.

I reckon I can fabricate my own dust collection stuff, using the parts illustrated in the French manual, or via viewing YouTube vids by users of this tool. Or at worst I can just hoover any crud up after each use. The seller says the fence and beds are in good nick, and that there's a belt with it. So the major issue, assuming all else is well, is finding a suitable and cheap but decent motor.

Anyone able to help?
Cheers

Sebastian

 

[heronviewer]

You might like to look at this video and see what might be necessary to do, and also see what is missing from your prospective buy. Kity parts are very hard to find !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfHZoaWpkRY&t=278s

 

[Seb Palmer]

You might like to look at this video and see what might be necessary to do, and also see what is missing from your prospective buy. Kity parts are very hard to find!

Hiya,

Thanks for the reply. Funnily enough it was seeing Marius' video (I watched it yesterday) - found when googling 'Kity 636', after having found the machine for sale here in the U.K. - that convinced me it might be worth buying.

Regards, Seb

 

[Sideways]

Compare against the going rate for newer 3636 and 3637 machines on ebay complete. Allow most of £100 for a new motor and maybe £50 for a no volt release switch, a box to put it in and a drive pulley ...

Kity used flat belt drives with crowned pulleys on a lot of their machines. It works fine but I've never had to find a replacement pulley. You may find that you have to buy a replacement set of two pulleys and (say) a poly V drive belt to update the whole rig if you can't get a motor pulley to match what's there.

 

[Lons]

Don't know if these help Sebastion, I've had to reduce the size to post

 

[Seb Palmer]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Wow, Lons,I love those old catalogue pics! And in English. The only similar stuff since could find was in French.

 

[heronviewer]

If you do look at it, I think you should check that the planer infeed table does move freely over the full range, the thicknesser table also moves up and down over the full range and the feed roller gear change works. You obviously won't be able to run it ! Sounds as if it may not have been maintained very well. You might have a strip down, clean and reassemble, as the video illustrates, on your hands.

 

[Lons]

Unfortunately that's all I have on that Machine Sebastion. The brochure I have is for the 7 series combi machine which incorporated those individual machines. I love old catalogues, missus says it's all junk. :lol:

Bob

 

[powertools]

Compare against the going rate for newer 3636 and 3637 machines on ebay complete. Allow most of £100 for a new motor and maybe £50 for a no volt release switch, a box to put it in and a drive pulley ...

Kity used flat belt drives with crowned pulleys on a lot of their machines. It works fine but I've never had to find a replacement pulley. You may find that you have to buy a replacement set of two pulleys and (say) a poly V drive belt to update the whole rig if you can't get a motor pulley to match what's there.

Do you actually own a Kity machine or motor that has crowned pulleys or are you giving advice on an assumption?

 

[Hot stuff]

Flat belts on both my 636s.

 

[Sideways]

Got a 3636 and yes i've handled the older combos with central motor where you swap the flat belts on and off the crowned pulley. Bought my first Kity around 1990...
Here's the part of the manual (French) for the 636 showing the motor pulley.

There are plenty of images out on the web that show you what they look like if you've never seen this system before. It's exactly the same in principle as used on the the long common drive shafts running the length of a floor in a cotton mill and driven by a steam engine or water wheel

 

[powertools]

As the owner of an old Kity combo machine I am well aware that all the functions run via flat belts from a single motor. My question was in your experience do the machines and motor have crowned pulleys because mine all have flat pulleys and the op may well find them easier to source and would be better than crowned in this application.

 

[heronviewer]

I thought the pulleys on my machines were flat too - but I put a straight edge on them, and they have a very shallow crown. I think crowns are necessary to keep flat belts running true, if my old lessons are remembered correctly !

 

[powertools]

Well I have to say I stand corrected. After reading heronveiwer post I checked the pulleys on the motor of my Kity machine with a square and they do have a slight crown that after 35+ years of ownership I had never noticed
Did op buy the plainer?

 

[kevinh]

I have one of these planer/thicknessers but the less stylish newer version (3636 I think).

I was singing it's praises a few months back at the nice finish it was leaving on figured maple when the magic smoke started coming from the motor... It was running for about an hour and a half. New capacitor - not a big deal, but new bearings in the motor were needed as well. Expensive enough fix. The guy fixing it said it would be tricky to find a replacement motor as well due to the unusual mounting screw alignment.

Maybe I was just unlucky

 

[Seb Palmer]

Hi guys, nice to see this thread rumbling on. Having got a smaller cheaper bandsaw than I'd planned on, I think I will buy the Kity 636, and source a motor from somewhere. Thanks for all the input.

 

[Seb Palmer]

Well, despite still coughing horribly from my bout of Aussie-Flu, I drove from March (the town, not the month!) to Exeter and back today - ''twas a 12 hour round-trip odyssey - and bought the Kity 636. Paid £150 for it. I'm going to strip it down and clean/lube it. I'll post some pics once that's done.

 

[MikeJhn]

We used to use the railway sidings at March as a turning point in Gliding competitions, in fact I completed my Gold distance using that very point, total of 300km out and return from Chalock in Kent.

Back on the Kity, sounds like you payed a good price for it, does it need a lot of work?

Mike

 

[heronviewer]

It will be interesting to hear how you get on with it. The Youtube video will be a help. I could copy my manual into a pdf if you would like it, but it might not be much help.

 

[Seb Palmer]

Hi Robert, I'd definitely like to see your manual. This one has a 'gatefold' A4 document with it, but mostly comprises pics, and not a huge amount of info. I'll scan and post it here when I get a minute...