Multico planer

[Colinham]

Hi there, I've been lurking on this forum for a while but this is my first post. I'm a bit of a bodger and like making things. Not always in wood. Most of my wood working has been limited to more sheds and general building type stuff but I am getting much more interested in 'proper' woodworking. Last week I was very lucky and bought a very nice old proper table saw from a chippie who was retiring. When I was picking it up from his shop he also offered me a 9 inch multico surface planner. The price was super reasonable so I bought it. I've never used anything like it. The planing seems ok, he took me through it in the shop and there are loads of you tube videos. The bit that worries me is the thicknesser attachment. It is a big lump of cast iron that bolts on top of the machine and you wind a plate down which holds the wood onto the blades. There are no feed rollers or the like. I cannot find any videos showing how to work it and I think I may have read that this type of attachment has now been banned. Any advice on using it (or not) would be gratefully received.

Cheers
Colin

 

[Trevanion]

They're a good, solid machine. I've got the later 12" "NS" model. The thicknessing attachment can be a little bit dangerous and a bit finicky from what I've been told, I've never used one myself. From what I understand there should be a couple of strips of spring steel attached to the planer bed that pushes the workpiece up into the thicknessing table, once passed over the cutters you should immediately start pushing/pulling it through from the outfeed side rather than the infeed side. I think they do have a tendancy to fire a piece back at you if you're not careful and you take too heavy of a cut, hence why they're illegal for commercial use, you won't have the coppers knocking on your door just because you're using it in your shed :lol:

If you plan on doing a lot of thicknessing it might be worth you buying one of those cheap lunchbox planers, they do a better job and they're safer to use. Better yet you could get a Multico TH thicknesser off eBay for not a hell of a lot of money.

I do have parts of the original manual here if they're of any use to you.

 

[Colinham]

Thanks for that. Looking at your photos the drawing of the thicknesser attachment makes a couple of references to springs. I definitely don't have any with mine. You don't gave the page from the manual that covers it's use do you?

Cheers
Colin

 

[Trevanion]

Sorry, I thought I had included it

 

[Colinham]

Thanks for posting that. It looks like I need to source some springs, and ideas?

Cheers
Colin

 

[Trevanion]

I have no idea of where you'd find something similar, it's probably one of those "rare as hen's teeth" things.

I suppose the same effect could be achieved with a piece of wood with a strong compression spring underneath it.

 

[MusicMan]

It's not clear to me but it does look as if they are essentially flat springs, maybe shaped a bit. A source of those is discarded springs from a traditional clockmaker/repairer. I do have a couple, which I use for making springs for woodwind keys (big ones). If you can find a picture or drawing of those springs and approximate measurements I'll see if a length of mine would fit. Otherwise it is a path for you to consider.

 

[heimlaga]

Saw blades from discarded non-resharpenable handsaws would probably make good spring material. I think you can get saw plate from somewhere if discared saws are the wrong size. Those who make their own saws should know.

I had an Ejca planer with a rather similar thicknessing plate. Though on it you removed the infeed table and bolted down a series of hinged pressure fingers (anti kickback pawls) held up with coil springs.
With the pressure fingers in place it was a pretty decent substitute for a thicknesser but without them it would have been a suicide machine.

Now I have a 24" Stenberg which has proper powered food rollers let into slots in the planer tables both on the outfeed and the infeed side. The rollers press the workpiece upwards against the thicknesser plate. It also has a row of anti kickback fingers let into the infeed edge of the thicknesser plate.
It isn't quite up to the standards of a separate all cast iron 24" industrial thicknesser but it is certainly better than most lighter built thicknessers.

 

[MarkClare]

I have one of these that was my grandfathers. It works OK but the beds are not co planar, does anyone know how to adjust the angles of the infeed/outfeed tables so that I can get this fixed. Thanks.

 

[Jameshow]

Just seen one of these for sale.

I presume they are s decent machine?

Cheers James

 

[Jay Ben]

Thanks for posting that. It looks like I need to source some springs, and ideas?

Cheers
Colin

Hello Colin, I'm new to this but I think I have the parts (the hens teeth) you are discussing.

I can't let you have them but if it helps I could send photographs.