Deadeye
Established Member
I was the lucky recipient of this act of kindness: ftagh-multico-6-planer-t122948.html
I promised Loo that I'd send him a picture once it was fettled, and thought it might be worth adding some comments for anyone that does this in future.
I've not really done much strip-clean-restore before, so it's not perfect... but it does have a new lease of life! What follows isn't a full restoration thread (or even a full restoration) but I've learned a lot (some the hard way) and have noted some of this down in case it helps others.
Although it ran, it was quite rusty and the adjustment knobs were very stiff. The outfeed knob had very limited travel before jamming completely. I made a spanner out of plywood, shaped to the 8 lobes of the knob, but still couldn't get it open. The tables work as parallelograms with fixed-length links; 2 each side so 8 axles in all.
The sequence I used (I took photos to help me reassemble, but they're not that great to post here):
- Take the fence and all other bits and bobs off.
- Remove the rear belt guard and get the belt off.
- Unmount the top assembly. Two of the nuts are hard to reach, round the side of the chip chute. I used a socket and lots (and lots) of swearing.
- Turn the top assembly over and undo 4 grub screws, one on each axle.
- Get the cotter pin out of the handles and remove the handles.
- As gently as possible, drift out the axles - I removed the grease nipple and used a rod to the foot of the well. This frees the tables, which can be lifted off
- Now undo 4 further grub screws and remove the upper axles.
Here I must pause and say a HUGE THANK YOU to Trevanion - who turned up a replacement axle for one I couldn't shift for love nor money and ended up having to cut. Someone more skilled (and, let's be honest; there anren't many less skilled) might have avoided this but I tried heat, oil, force, incantations and rust remover. he also put metric grease nipples in the other axles.
So then reassembly.
I put the links back on the tables first, then put the tables on the body. I htink this is the correct order as otherwise you can't get at the grub screws. Getting the link to align properly with the holes in the body was tough, especially as the axles are pretty snug. I used a very lightly tapered dowel from the otherside to nudge the axle into alignment and then tapped the axle with a rubber mallet.
Getting the motor back in is also a faff; wedges enable holes to be aligned without needing octopus arms.
And there it is:
I'm ordering blades, so no cuts yet, but I've put a straight edge on the tables - absolutely coplanar and stay parallel, and it runs with no strange noise/vibration. The other thing I need to do is attach a 100mm dust port.
A few things I learned:
- I used diesel to degrease and then had trouble getting the oiliness off. Acetone wins though.
- I had help with the painting...and the sides of the tables got done too. I'd probably have preferred polished but there's no real harm.
- Citric acid (25g to 500ml) rocks for rust removal
- I'm sad about having to replace the axle and soooooo grateful to Dan for saving the day
- It took about a fortnight of a few hours here and there. By no means economic but hugely satisfying
I promised Loo that I'd send him a picture once it was fettled, and thought it might be worth adding some comments for anyone that does this in future.
I've not really done much strip-clean-restore before, so it's not perfect... but it does have a new lease of life! What follows isn't a full restoration thread (or even a full restoration) but I've learned a lot (some the hard way) and have noted some of this down in case it helps others.
Although it ran, it was quite rusty and the adjustment knobs were very stiff. The outfeed knob had very limited travel before jamming completely. I made a spanner out of plywood, shaped to the 8 lobes of the knob, but still couldn't get it open. The tables work as parallelograms with fixed-length links; 2 each side so 8 axles in all.
The sequence I used (I took photos to help me reassemble, but they're not that great to post here):
- Take the fence and all other bits and bobs off.
- Remove the rear belt guard and get the belt off.
- Unmount the top assembly. Two of the nuts are hard to reach, round the side of the chip chute. I used a socket and lots (and lots) of swearing.
- Turn the top assembly over and undo 4 grub screws, one on each axle.
- Get the cotter pin out of the handles and remove the handles.
- As gently as possible, drift out the axles - I removed the grease nipple and used a rod to the foot of the well. This frees the tables, which can be lifted off
- Now undo 4 further grub screws and remove the upper axles.
Here I must pause and say a HUGE THANK YOU to Trevanion - who turned up a replacement axle for one I couldn't shift for love nor money and ended up having to cut. Someone more skilled (and, let's be honest; there anren't many less skilled) might have avoided this but I tried heat, oil, force, incantations and rust remover. he also put metric grease nipples in the other axles.
So then reassembly.
I put the links back on the tables first, then put the tables on the body. I htink this is the correct order as otherwise you can't get at the grub screws. Getting the link to align properly with the holes in the body was tough, especially as the axles are pretty snug. I used a very lightly tapered dowel from the otherside to nudge the axle into alignment and then tapped the axle with a rubber mallet.
Getting the motor back in is also a faff; wedges enable holes to be aligned without needing octopus arms.
And there it is:
I'm ordering blades, so no cuts yet, but I've put a straight edge on the tables - absolutely coplanar and stay parallel, and it runs with no strange noise/vibration. The other thing I need to do is attach a 100mm dust port.
A few things I learned:
- I used diesel to degrease and then had trouble getting the oiliness off. Acetone wins though.
- I had help with the painting...and the sides of the tables got done too. I'd probably have preferred polished but there's no real harm.
- Citric acid (25g to 500ml) rocks for rust removal
- I'm sad about having to replace the axle and soooooo grateful to Dan for saving the day
- It took about a fortnight of a few hours here and there. By no means economic but hugely satisfying
