Photo Index - Calvin J. Weld - Early wood framed planer

Machinery Photo Index

Manufactured/Badged by:
Calvin J. Weld
Brattleboro, VT

Machine Specifications
Machine Class:	Wood Working Machinery
Machine Type:	Planer, Wood
Machine Size:	22"
Submitted By:	Walter Phelps

Machine Specifications
Description/Model:	Early wood framed planer
Date of Manufacturer:	1850's-1860's
Serial Number:
Last Updated	1/20/2023 8:52:21 PM

Comments:

This early wood framed planer was purchased at a farm a few miles from where it was made. It is very similar to a planer in the collection of the Lebanon Shaker Museum, well photographed and documented online at their website. This example still has an intact paper label. The words "Weld" "Maker" and "Brattleboro" are visible. In comparing with the Shaker planer, it can be seen that this version may be an updated design from that example. The Shaker planer has one corrugated infeed roller with rubber pads used as springs above. This example has an additional yoke casting added to accommodate a second infeed roller, and more effective cylindrical rubber springs have been moved to a position below the rollers.
The planer was made in the Weld shop, but it is not clear whether that would have been when the shop was under the ownership of Luther Weld, as it was in the 1850's, or Calvin Weld, who took over in the 1860's.
This planer also bears a strong resemblance to the "Yankee Cylinder Planing Machine" pictured in the 1856 Fay & Co. machinery catalog. That planer is advertised as utilizing "Goodyear's Patent Rubber Machine Springs", a technology that preceded steel coil springs in woodworking planers.

Photo 1:

Comments: Weld planer left infeed side
Source: WP

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Photo 2:

Comments: Weld planer right infeed side. Note black paper label on frame.
Source: WP

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Photo 3:

Comments: Weld planer outfeed showing rubber spring below roller. Both rollers and cutterhead are held by a self aligning yoke, rather than being bolted directly to the wood frame.
Source: WP

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Photo 4:

Comments: Infeed rollers and rubber springs. Note rollers run directly on iron casting below, and held down by wood blocks above. One set of blocks is integral with chip deflector and has been removed to show rollers.
Source: WP

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Photo 5:

Comments: Weld planer cutterhead end view. Note inlaid lip in cutterhead.
Source: WP

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Photo 6:

Comments: Closely coupled small diameter infeed rollers preceded the use of chip breakers on later machines.
Source: WP

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