(Warning: Several long posts with lots of pictures)
There is probably a thread here once a month or so that discusses the virtues of an 8” jointer over a 6” jointer. Most folks consider it a worthy upgrade. A few months ago I added the riser block to my 14” bandsaw, giving it now 12+” of resaw height capability. My friend, Rich (who helped with the riser kit), said, “Now you need a bigger jointer. And forget those 8” or 10” machines. If you can resaw 12”, you need a 12” jointer. Or 16” would be even better.” But I really couldn’t afford a new 16” jointer or combo machine. “Naaah,” said Rich, who is an “old tool” aficionado and who doesn’t trust machines newer than, say, 1950. “Get an old, used machine. Much cheaper. And so much better! I’ll look for you.” I said okay. Uh oh! What did I do?! There is not much that Rich likes better than finding deals on old machines, refurbishing them, and getting them to be used as they were intended. It didn’t take him long.
Meet “Frank”—the new man in my shop.
Frank is a two-knife, 16” Frank H. Clement jointer. The Clement jointer was the model for many “3-legged” jointers to come from Clement, American, Yates, etc. Based on that history and where Frank came from, we think he dates back to the late 1800’s (maybe 1890’s). While there is a “No. 98” written on the front left of the machine, that is not his serial number; they were probably numbering the machines in the shop for some kind of inventory when they were moving or selling it. He came from the Finch Machine Co. in West Pittstown, PA (originally, the Finch company was in Scranton). Finch was a general foundry and machine shop that made turbine water wheels, engines, coal mining machinery, circular saw mills, iron fronts for buildings, steam heat parts, manhole covers, and repaired trains on the Delaware/Lackawanna line. Most of the forms built for the foundry would have been jointed on Frank. But when he arrived at my shop, it appeared Frank hadn’t been in use for a long time and needed a lot of cleaning up to get into usable shape. Lots of rust, sawdust cakes, and unidentifiable gunk. Boy, did that make Rich happy. I just wondered what the heck I’d gotten myself into.
Here are a bunch of “before” pictures. You can see the rusty mess on tables, cutterhead, cutterhead bolts, pulley, and the mess on the underside of the table supports. The cutterhead bolts were torqued on there so tightly, we had a devil of a time getting them off. Yes, in getting them loose, I said several words that would make a devil proud. But we got them off and cleaned them up and you wouldn’t recognize them. I had to get a machinist buddy of mine to make a special wrench for these bolts (thanks Pete!). He let me help make it, so I got a great lesson in machining steel, to boot. Most of the jointer’s parts are original, although it appears that sometime in the early 1900’s the cutterhead was replaced with one by Oliver (a good move). The knives were in decent shape, although I splurged and bought a new set so I can have a spare when they need sharpening. Now before all of you old-tool-fans-in-the-know exclaim and caution me against this clamshell cutterhead, let me say that I read about some of potential problems with these bolts. We cleaned and closely inspected every thread on every bolt and were very careful not to overtorque when reassembling. For “hobbyist” usage, this machine is safe and just fine.