Photo Index - Rollstone Machine Works - "lag" or "endless" bed planer

Machinery Photo Index

Manufactured/Badged by:
Rollstone Machine Works
Fitchburg, MA, and Anniston, AL

Machine Specifications
Machine Class:	Wood Working Machinery
Machine Type:	Planer, Wood
Machine Size:	24 inches
Submitted By:	Benjamin Campbell

Machine Specifications
Description/Model:	"lag" or "endless" bed planer
Date of Manufacturer:	1870's or 80's
Serial Number:
Last Updated	6/11/2006 9:17:32 PM

Comments:

I recently unearthed this photograph of an old friend's planer which as I recall is not tagged by its manufacturer. At the time I thought it was built by the Rollstone Machine Works of Fitchburg Massachusetts and sure enough after examining vintage advertising images here at OWWM, it clearly was. The frame design and unique shape of the belt tensioning lever are an exact match. The right hand cone pulley on the planers opposing side sports unusual circular cut outs.

This planer was rescued in the mid 1980s from a waterpower mill site on rout 101 in Wilton New Hampshire. All that remains today is the mill's turbine and a beautiful split granite dam of terraced construction. The story goes that the mill's owner was just beginning to undertake a preservation effort only to awake one morning to find the building a collapsed heap of twisted iron and broken beams. When I first came upon the site much remained including parts from an earlier up and down sawmill and earlier turbines. The mill's lowest level was still intact. The shafts where rough forged square wrought iron stock with turned ends mounted in wood bearings. The pulleys were millwright built of dimension lumber.

I was able to purchase the circular saw mill from the site which is by C M Flint of Fitchburg Mass or his successor, Lovell of Fitchburg and then Gardiner Mass.

Photo 1:

Comments: Has never run on anything but the power of water
Source: Note the cone pulley on right with circular cut outs.

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Photo 2:

Comments: Some one lifted the cutter head and chip guard while the machine was still in Wilton.
Source:

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Photo 3:

Comments: An earlier model.
Source: 1869 Business Directory

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