Photo Index - Yates-American Machine Co., Inc. - J-147

Machinery Photo Index

Manufactured/Badged by:
Yates-American Machine Co., Inc.
Beloit, WI; Roscoe, IL; Liberty, NC

Machine Specifications
Machine Class:	Wood Working Machinery
Machine Type:	Sander
Machine Size:	16" disc, 6" X 60" belt
Submitted By:	Doug Westlind

Machine Specifications
Description/Model:	J-147
Date of Manufacturer:	early 1950's
Serial Number:	(View SN Registry Entry)
Last Updated	6/11/2004 12:00:00 AM

Comments:

(You better grab a cup of coffee as I got long winded with this one) I purchased this online from Government Liquidators. It was located at Hill AFB in Utah, I live in Oregon. The terms of the auction were that I had to pay for and pick up the machine within 10 days of the close of the auction or forfeit the goods back to GL,in addition pickups were scheduled for tuesdays through thursdays between 10 and 2 by appointment only. I figured I would have no trouble meeting those requirements. The auction ended on a Tuesday and was awarded on wednesday. I paid for the machine got all my paperwork in order and faxed it to a shipping company in Salt Lake with clear instructions about pickup of the machine. The driver arrived at the AFB gate on Thursday (day 3) to pick it up and was turned around because he did not have the paper work. He then arrived at the gate on Monday (day 7) with paperwork in hand but was again turned around because they don't load out on Mondays. He arrived on Tuesday (day 8) at 3:00 pm with the paperwork and was again turned around because they don't load out after 2:00. On Wednesday (day 9) the driver showed up at 1:00 with the paperwork but was sent away again because he did not have an appointment. Finally an appointment was made the driver showed up on Thursday (day 10) with the paperwork and the sander was loaded. This whole time I was sweating bullets and trying to remain calm while dealing with a dispatcher in Salt Lake who would prefer never to hear from me again. The machine arrived in Corvallis, OR two days later. My first look told me it was incredibly ugly but not in too bad of shape. A closer inspection found a couple of pretty good sized chips out of the discs rim and it had noticable runnout. The sander also had 7 seperate coats of paint on the main castings and with the various trim colors it had a total of 12 different colors. I figured that it was used as a form of punishment and when some poor sap did something stupid he was told "go paint the sander".

I completely disassembled the sander and spent countless hours with laquer thinner and paint stripper removing several pounds of paint. For the disc I welded up the chips that were in the rim and took it to Capitol Grinding in Salem Oregon where I met a wonderful man named Clarence who was maybe 5 feet tall and weighed all of 130 lbs. He had the biggest equipment I have ever seen. One was a Mattison grinder that had a 40 foot bed that could surface grind tables 42" wide. He took the disc and trued up the hub and then ground both sides to be perfectly flat, it turned out beautiful.

This sander is a pain in the rear to work on as everything is hard to get to. All parts were cleaned up, repainted, bearings were replaced, all the wiring was re-done. and now it runs like a champ. The disc table moves up and down vertically as well as tilts. The table for the belt is a little small. Everything else is pretty well built. It is powered by the original 3/4 hp 3 phase motor. It takes about 5 seconds to get up to full speed but it seems to have good power once up to speed. In the end this sander cost me more than I would have liked but it is a nice one.

Photo 1:

Comments: disc side
Source: Doug Westlind

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Photo 2:

Comments: close up
Source: Doug Westlind

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Photo 3:

Comments: belt side
Source: Doug Westlind

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