Photo Index - Crescent Machine Co. - 16" jointer - after restoration

Machinery Photo Index

Manufactured/Badged by:
Crescent Machine Co.
Leetonia, OH

Machine Specifications
Machine Class:	Wood Working Machinery
Machine Type:	Jointer
Machine Size:	16" belt drive conversion
Submitted By:	Cliff Sommers

Machine Specifications
Description/Model:	16" jointer - after restoration
Date of Manufacturer:	'28 to '30 (my best guess)
Serial Number:	55614 (View SN Registry Entry)
Last Updated	1/30/2011 9:12:19 AM

Comments:

This is the same machine I posted back in February following a complete ground up restoration. I stripped all parts down and refinished her complete using a recent vintage Delta paint scheme. Given that Crescent was bought out by Rockwell who in turn sold to or merged with Delta, I figured 'Why not, I like the look'. The as-found machine setup was a hastily engineered retrofit of what had originally been a machine designed for an overhead line drive powered shop, a not very elegant design solution slapped on an aging design to forestall basic redesign for a couple years. The one advantage of this shelf casting setup was that a special frame motor wasn't required as in most D.M.D. machines. The last image below is from a 1928 Crescent catalog and shows the original configuration of the motor and coupling affixed to a cast shelf mount bolted to the rear of the base casting. The same image appears in their 1930 catalog.

I decided to do away with the space hogging rear motor mount casting and huge early frame motor connected to the cutterhead via a flexible coupling, and converted this machine to a much more compact belt drive setup. Changing over to a belt drive arrangement reduced the machine’s footprint about 28 inches in depth. The refitted jointer now consumes hardly any more space than the long bed 8-inch jointer it replaced. The motor, a modern frame Rockwell 5 hp, is tucked away into the massive base casting and mounted on the custom mobile base I had a local welder fabricate for me. You can see it peeking out from underneath the base casting. The original motor mount built into the mobile base wasn't stiff enough; I had to backtrack and beef this up with some strongbacks. A split shaft coupling and a short piece of additional shafting positions the drive sheave coplanar with the driven sheave mounted directly on the cutterhead shaft. I also had a belt guard made up which is removed in the photos so you can see the drive components.

I've included other photos to show how I relocated the pushbutton station and starter from the front of the base casting to more convenient locations, and the fittings made to facilitate dust collection. The cutterhead in this jointer uses large diameter self adjusting dual row oil bath bearings. Accurate Bearing and I were both rather surprised to encounter metric size bearings installed on old American iron! They didn't have either of the bearings but ran the larger one down for me from another supplier. I managed to find a NOS Fafnir replacement for the smaller bearing on eBay. A local machine shop made up new felt seals for me to complete restoration of the cutterhead. The next to last photo shows two brass tags I kept to preserve some of the machine's history as a naval veteran.

Photo 1:

Comments: front view
Source: my Fugi Finepix

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Photo 2:

Comments: rear diagonal view
Source: my Fugi Finepix

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Photo 3:

Comments: starter tucked into base
Source: my Fugi Finepix

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Photo 4:

Comments: dust collection fittings
Source: my Fugi Finepix

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Photo 5:

Comments: brass seller/military tags
Source: my Fugi Finepix

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Photo 6:

Comments: original configuration
Source: 1928 catalog this website

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