Wilson combination saw / planer
- Thread starter Jameshow
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heimlaga
Established Member
If you post photos of it I could probably make out something. Usually one can see fairly easy if a machine is obsolete or not.
Wilson was a reputable brand back in the days if it is the Wilson I am thinking of.
Wilson was a reputable brand back in the days if it is the Wilson I am thinking of.
Jameshow
Established Member
Here I realised it's just too big for my single garage!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wilson-t...=p2349624.m2548.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0Cheers James
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wilson-t...=p2349624.m2548.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0Cheers James
heimlaga
Established Member
To me it looks rather suitable for a single car garage. Provided that there is no car in there. I had my Stenberg KEV600 combination in a single car garage fior years and it worked.
It is very obviously a high quality machine. Does not look outdated in any way except the planer which lacks the rear guard. That guard is easy to make from wood and after that the machine is pretty much up to date.
It is very obviously a high quality machine. Does not look outdated in any way except the planer which lacks the rear guard. That guard is easy to make from wood and after that the machine is pretty much up to date.
Vann
Established Member
Definitely worth it. It looks to be a good machine. Very robust. It is large - probably too large (and unstable) for a mobile base - but not as large as two (or three) individual machines of similar capacity.
Like all old machines it probably needs a bit of TLC to get everything working correctly. But once that's done you'll love working on it - for the rest of your life (none of this 'throw-it-in-the-landfill-and-buy-a-new-one-every-5-years' business). You'll need 3-phase power of course, or stump up for a VFD/converter/single phase motor.
The advert doesn't say what width and length the tables are, nor diameter of blade.
Cheers, Vann.
Like all old machines it probably needs a bit of TLC to get everything working correctly. But once that's done you'll love working on it - for the rest of your life (none of this 'throw-it-in-the-landfill-and-buy-a-new-one-every-5-years' business). You'll need 3-phase power of course, or stump up for a VFD/converter/single phase motor.
The advert doesn't say what width and length the tables are, nor diameter of blade.
Cheers, Vann.
Jameshow
Established Member
I've asked a couple if questions...
What's the size?
Is it possible to pick up weekends etc.
Would be a big job to get into back of tandem garage!
Remove bikes, turn freezer 90° move into place repeat!!!
Would it be possible have it on rollers so it moves side to side but not back to front? So I could bring out in front of double internal doors?!
What's the size?
Is it possible to pick up weekends etc.
Would be a big job to get into back of tandem garage!
Remove bikes, turn freezer 90° move into place repeat!!!
Would it be possible have it on rollers so it moves side to side but not back to front? So I could bring out in front of double internal doors?!
JobandKnock
Amateur curmudgeon
You do realise that it is a non-tilting rip saw and a planer without a thicknesser, I hope. One of the customers for those was the NCB who used them in colliery maintenance workshops where they only needed fairly basic functionality. The grey colour makes it very old - Wadkin and others changed to green in the early 1960s, didn't they?
heimlaga
Established Member
Very old?
In the long lifespan of good woodworking machinery "very old" would imply before the first word war. Which it is not.
In the long lifespan of good woodworking machinery "very old" would imply before the first word war. Which it is not.
JobandKnock
Amateur curmudgeon
Before the 1940s there was still a lot of machinery which was on belt drive, not integrated electric motors. The industry quite rightly scrapped a lot of that by the 1960s. Before the mid to late 1920s a lot of machinery still used plain bearings rather than roller bearings. Again a lot of that got scrapped early. Older machinery like this is often missing features that more modern equipment has - such as a tilting arbor and a thicknesser. Sort of reduces the usefulness of this machine in the modern world, doesn't it?
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heimlaga
Established Member
Well.... puoring and scraping new white metal bearings once in a while is not a problem in my books. Such machines are still fairly earsy to find and usually very cheap because lots of people think it is impossible to do anything to the bearings. I repoured the bearings in my rip saw (manufactured in 1885) a couple of years ago but it is still waiting for a place in the workshop.
My bandsaw in in use since several years. It was line shaft powered in it's youth in the 1910-s. Somebody had attempted a conversion before I bought it but he never could mae it work. I started from scratch and made it work. A home made motor mount and two v-belt pulleys of which one came from the scrap yard and a secondhand motor and a home made belt guard and that's it.
My bandsaw in in use since several years. It was line shaft powered in it's youth in the 1910-s. Somebody had attempted a conversion before I bought it but he never could mae it work. I started from scratch and made it work. A home made motor mount and two v-belt pulleys of which one came from the scrap yard and a secondhand motor and a home made belt guard and that's it.
Looks a bargain to me.
Especially if you compare it against something like an Axminster basic saw, which has no planer and now costs a thousand. And i dont see the Ax lasting as long.
What a shame ive no good sized W/shop(and i dont live in Oxford, nor have transport
)
Especially if you compare it against something like an Axminster basic saw, which has no planer and now costs a thousand. And i dont see the Ax lasting as long.
What a shame ive no good sized W/shop(and i dont live in Oxford, nor have transport
)
JobandKnock
Amateur curmudgeon
Congratulations on the hair shirt. Some of the other issues with pre-war machines include deficient guarding, potential electrical safety issues and the fact that a lot of old stuff is simply worn out and generally time expired. It depends on whether you want to spend your life doing mechanical repairs or actually woodworking, I suppose.
heimlaga
Established Member
No hair shirt unfortunately. Only a slow thinker.
Dad use to say :The boy is a slow thinker. Before he has had time to realize that it is impossible he has already finished the job.
There are plenty of pre world war 2 machines and even more pre world war 1 machines which are exactly as bad as you describe them. There are plenty that are even worse. Primitive and/or outright dangerous designs that thould be forever forgotten behind the mist of time.
However there are plenty of very good machines among them too. It is just a matter of finding out which particular machines provide a good base for upgrades and which don't.
I have rewound a burned out electric motor at home so I know from experience that sometimes it is easier to get an older machine working. Fitting a new or secondhand electric motor to a belt driven machine is way easier that repairing a burned out integrated motor as found on later machines.
Concerning the combination machine that set off this dicussion I don't think it is outdated at all.
It has a riving knife on the saw and a cutter guard on the planer. The electrics usually have to be renewed anyway so whatever condition it is in doesn't matter much.
I have never had a tilting saw blade in the workshop. It would be nice when working for profit but I can make do without it a few more years until I can afford to get a sliding table saw with tilting blade. If I can make do without it many hobbyists certainly can.
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