• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

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  1. V

    Development of the Wadkin RB Surface Planer.

    Of the next batch in the list - I've found two machines. Batch A 1315 - RBs 414 to 437 - 24 machines commissioned 3rd November, 1938: RBA 418, test 10699, of 1938 - United Kingdom - Wadkin Ltd. tin tag; RBA 422, test 11103, of 1938 - United Kingdom - Wadkin Ltd. tin tag; These two machines...
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    Development of the Wadkin RB Surface Planer.

    Starting with the lowest numbered batch on the batch list - so far we have just one machine from this batch. Batch A 1257 - RBs 390 to 413 - 24 machines commissioned 14th January, 1938: RBA 399, test 9174, of July, 1938 - New Zealand - Wadkin Ltd. tin tag; RB 409, test 9969, of December, 1938 -...
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    Development of the Wadkin RB Surface Planer.

    Having another look at the Batch List. The list does not go back to the start of production in 1926, but starts with order "#1257" at the beginning of 1938. Going by the note in red, it would appear that the first five machine numbers had already been used, and so five new numbers were added...
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    Development of the Wadkin RB Surface Planer.

    Having found the first Wadkin RB surface planers made, I was curious to find the last. I asked my contact and he came up with this batch list. Which indicates that the final RB (from the batch of 48 ordered in January, 1953) was RB 1025. He then checked out the Test Books and found a further...
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    Development of the Wadkin RB Surface Planer.

    In an attempt to identify just which RB surface planers make up these twelve, I've consulted the test sheets for the first 15 RB surface planers off the Wadkin production line. These test sheets have enabled me to pick out the twelve machines with certainty as being RB 106 to RB 117. A quick...
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    Development of the Wadkin RB Surface Planer.

    The next RB in my photo collection is Guineafowl21's RBD 212 - already shown on the previous page RBD 212 (Test 700), of July, 1932. It shares most of the features of the previous three - except for a change to the second type of fence. This change eliminates the dovetail groove in the...
  7. V

    Wadkin PK Sliding Tables.

    On closer examination of mine, I find the small hole in that location is actually a 1/2" BSW tapped hole that was (until yesterday) full of gunk. So I too can screw in a handle like Jack does. Cheers, Vann.
  8. V

    Wadkin PK Sliding Tables.

    Well, if you don't know what a PK is then chances are you won't be able to answer my query ;) . Wadkin made their PK dimension saw from ~1928 through to 1960, producing around 2100 PK saws over that period. About 2014 Jack Forsburg (in Canada) made the PK every Wadkin fans quest machine...
  9. V

    Wadkin PK Sliding Tables.

    I've just watched Jack Forsberg's great Youtube video on the Wadkin PK features. Using the picture of mine, I've marked up the holes in his: Blue circles indicate 1/2" BSW (12 tpi) threaded holes; Red circles indicate 5/8" BSW (11 tpi) threaded holes; and Green circles indicate preset holes...
  10. V

    Wadkin PK Sliding Tables.

    Hi PK owners out there. I have a query. But first some background. I bought my PK (PKA 800 of 1945) in 2015. It came with two mitres - and it soon became apparent it had some accessories from a second PK (the second being a 1955 machine). Originally PKA 800 was not supplied with an extension...
  11. V

    Development of the Wadkin RB Surface Planer.

    Here are three more RB surface planers: RBA 158. RBA 190. RB 190. Like the first machines, all three have the early Main Casting with arch, the first style of Fence. They also have the early base casting with arch opening front and back, and no provision for electrical switchgear. However...
  12. V

    I Keep Getting Logged Off.

    Hi. Like the title says, I keep getting logged off. It happens sometimes in the middle of doing a post. It happened to me a few minutes ago. When I tried to preview a post I was told I was not logged in. Having had that before I know that means I lose everything I've written - so I hit the...
  13. V

    Development of the Wadkin RB Surface Planer.

    Looking through my collection of Wadkin RB photographs, I find four significant different arrangements of fence. The first is a short(ish) fence with a single gate. The second arrangement is that shown in the catalogues. The fence looks to be approximately the same length, again with a...
  14. V

    Development of the Wadkin RB Surface Planer.

    Another component of the RB surface planer that evolved over the years, is the handwheels. The first machines of 1926 had steel handwheels - small (2½" diameter) knurled knobs - to adjust the height of the infeed and outfeed tables. Early Wadkin PK saws used a similar (or identical) knurled...
  15. V

    Development of the Wadkin RB Surface Planer.

    Continuing to work through the significant components of the RB, the next item on my list is the tables. The RB, like it's big brother the RD, and cousin the RM buzzer/thicknesser (which I believe shares the same base and other features), has "draw out" motion to give better access to the...
  16. V

    Development of the Wadkin RB Surface Planer.

    Central Casting (for want of a better name) - the casting that mounts the cutterblock. I've found two styles of the central casting: First the "high arch" model... ...found on the first RBs and up to at least RBA 231 (of 1932). Followed by the later "slotted" central casting... ...found on...
  17. V

    Development of the Wadkin RB Surface Planer.

    So looking at the developement of the RB, I'll start with the 'Base' or 'Stand', or in Wadkin speak 'Main Frame' - which probably had more changes than any other part of the machine. Firstly there's the Bench variety, which came without a base. Base 1: Then there's the first design of base, as...
  18. V

    Development of the Wadkin RB Surface Planer.

    As well as the herringbone gear drive shown above, Wadkin RB came with two other drives: flat belt drive (no motor supplied) and what became standard - electrically driven via vee-belt. Flat Belt Drive: Here is RB 409 (test 9969) of 1938. Somehow it has survived the years without the drive...
  19. V

    Development of the Wadkin RB Surface Planer.

    Hi Gf. Yes, RBD 212, test 700, of July, 1932 - United Kingdom - Wadkin & Co. cast tag. I've added it to the post three above (and will add each RB to that list as I work through them). Thanks for the nudge. Cheers, Vann.
  20. V

    Development of the Wadkin RB Surface Planer.

    Right from when I first saw RB 117 advertised on Trademe I've wondered about that drive - so different from the vee belt drive on the later RB (and just about every other surface planer out there). So here it is close up Three photos with the gearcase assembled: Note the inspection cover in...
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