Vintage Davis&Wells 6"Jointer

[davewyo]

I was given this jointer a month or two ago and was delighted.

https://picasaweb.google.com/davewyo1/DavisWellsJointer?authuser=0&feat=directlink

My little jet 10" benchtop jointer/planer is not up to accurately jointing longer stock and I can't afford to upgrade.

As you can see from the photos, it's an older machine.

 

I am not at all familiar with refurbishing old machines, which brings me to the point of my post.

Dan at Davis&Wells http://davisandwells.publishpath.com/ was incredibly helpful in getting the machine up and running.

The first thing I had to do was switch the motor from 220v to 110v so I could run it in my shop (which has only 4 x 10amp circuits).

Then the machine was running backwards, so thanks to the interwebs I got that fixed.

My primary problem at that point was that the machine would run for a couple of minutes and then shut down.

 

In the meanwhile I had contacted Dan and he was walking me through a few basic things about the machine.

He explained that a belt guard is no longer available and I should fabricate one.

He told me I should just get a screendoor spring for the blade guard (something slimmer than what was rigged up.)

By the type of stand and other features it looks like it was manufactured in the early to mid 1960s.

As the cracks in the casting show, it was probably dropped as some point.

Nonetheless the infeed and outfeed tables are pretty darned coplaner. By that I mean that it's significantly better at making square edges than my benchtop Jet even if it's not entirely "dead on". It has the ability to be made "dead on" whereas the Jet is pretty much "as is" from the factory and non-adjustable as far as I can see.

 

Just through his kindness and love of these machines Dan spent quite a bit of his valuable time explaining how the "heater element" was for running it at 220v and I could get the appropriate one on Ebay for about 6 bucks.

He walked me through what it would take to get it running and he expected, and was correct, that it wouldn't end up actually benefiting his business in any concrete way (like with $).

 

As of today the machine is running and it does good work.

It is a nice piece of good 'ol fashioned cast iron.

 

Once again (shameless plug), Dan at Davis&Wells was a true champ.

If you have, or come across, one of these old machines, by all means contact him and give him some business.

 

Dave