Photo Index - RichLine Machines LLC - Sliding Dovetail and Tenon Machine

Machinery Photo Index

Manufactured/Badged by:
RichLine Machines LLC
Hortonville, WI

True Manufacturer:
RichLine Machines LLC, Hortonville, WI

Machine Specifications
Machine Class:	Wood Working Machinery
Machine Type:	Shaper, Wood
Machine Size:	21"
Submitted By:	justin Tocci

Machine Specifications
Description/Model:	Sliding Dovetail and Tenon Machine
Date of Manufacturer:	unknown
Serial Number:	none
Last Updated	3/7/2020 12:43:10 AM

Comments:

I discovered Richline in early 2020 through a magazine article online. From there I tried to find the website but it was down. I found a copy here: https://web.archive.org/web/20160326071339/http://richlinemachines.com/

Back to the magazine article, it said the owner was Richard Seidler. I found his number and he was nice but stated he had sold the business years ago. I told him they were out of business but he already knew about it and expressed his frustration to me that the machines were no longer being sold. I told him maybe we'd try to fix that. I asked if he still used his machines and he said, no, in fact, it's probably time to sell them. I offered him full price for his personal sliding dovetail machine. I had hoped to get legs with it but paying full price for a used, unsupported machine with no parts available is not the stupidest thing I've ever done. He was very nice, like a grandfather, and I haven't had a grandfather in many years so I didn't want to deal sharply with the guy.

Richard was very accommodating. He sent me a brochure, price quotes and samples of various joints. The joints didn't fit tightly but only because they were old samples that had dried out a bit. He let me know he wanted me to call when I got the machine so he could answer any questions and make sure I understood how to best use the machine. I looked forward to receiving the machine as this would give me an excuse to call him back. Here was my latest friend.

Some days later he called back and told me the shipping price so I offered to send him a check and he said that would be great. We chatted a bit and that was the last I heard from him.

The next call was from his son who stated Richard was in the hospital. He wanted to talk about shipping. I told him he had more important things to worry about so when it ships, it ships. Shortly after that, Richard died. There is a very nice obituary here: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/richard-seidler-obituary?pid=195434341

A few days later, the machine shipped. When it showed up there were no legs. I'm really happy with the bench I built for it, but it is unfortunate that I have no pictures of the legs to show. You can see very small photos of the legs on the web.archive.org link above, they look really nice, so I hope someone else can post us some good photos of them someday.

Also, there was no template for making the sliding dovetail sockets. As advertised, this machine came with a template to make a matching tapered socket with a handheld router. I'm going to try to make one out of a sheet of acetal. If anyone has a photo of an original please post it.

I haven't used the machine yet because it needed a little work. The top handle was unusably small. I cut a keyway and mounted a decent size handle. The stop block bracket was loose so I re-tapped the threads and it's on tight now. The stop block itself was missing so I mounted a piece of red oak for now. Unfortunately, I will need to sell this soon. I need twenty six inch capacity for my executive desk designs and this machine can only go to twenty one inches or so. After examining the machine closely it would be too difficult to extend it so we're going to probably make a new machine and then sell this one.

While all this was going on I got in contact with the owner of the 'Richline' company that went out of business in 2019. Ultimately we decided to do our own thing.

Sadly, this machine has no manufacturers plate or serial number that I could find. Some of the castings do have numbers but they appear to be part and revision numbers.

Photo 1:

Comments: mounted to a stand, making alterations
Source: justin tocci

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Photo 2:

Comments: This is the adjustment for tapering sliding dovetails. First you loosen the four lobe handle, then lift the table, this allows the bolt end to clear the '0' setting. Move the selector to 'L' or 'R', retighten handle.
Source: justintocci

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Photo 3:

Comments: shown with handle loosened and selector moved to 'L'.
Source: justin tocci

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Photo 4:

Comments: close up of clamps
Source: justin tocci

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Photo 5:

Comments: original handle next to new one. the original handle was unusably small for me. Hurt my hands to use it.
Source: justin tocci

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Photo 6:

Comments: close up of porter cable mount.
Source: justin tocci

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