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Whitehead Junior Planers/Thicknesser Warning

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Whitehead Junior Planers/Thicknesser Warning

Postby Trevanion » 29 Jul 2021, 19:46

I'm mostly writing this thread as a future warning reference for anyone looking at one of these machines and may happen across this thread as they look for information.

If you're looking to buy one of these I would be very wary of the cast iron surfacing beds, for years I've kept an eye on eBay listings of various machines and I've seen a few Whitehead Surface Planers and Planer Thicknessers for sale in that time, and something I've noticed is that an alarming amount have cracked beds around the cutter aperture. A few years ago I actually saw a Whitehead 12" x 4" Planer Thicknesser in person with the idea of buying it to do it up but when I saw it I noticed it had a cracked portion in front of the cutter block about the size of a fist which was only just hanging on, I, of course, walked away from it.

There's obviously a serious flaw in the design of the castings on these machines as it is so common, I've seen several repaired with brazing, cold stitching, and plates fixed on the underside of the tables, as the pictures below I've pinched off eBay of a 6" Surface Planer:

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I believe Whitehead's machines were generally aimed at schools where they wouldn't get much use and when they did it was only light duties, possibly they skimped on the casting design to save money, as you can see in the pictures there's no structural webbing to the tables and are very weak in design. In the real world where timber has loose knots that can be pulled out when planing or if some idiot planes timber riddled with nails the edges of the tables obviously do not have the support required when a collision happens between the table, a hard object, and the cutter block.

Of course, the machines with cracked beds are likely in the minority compared with the rest of the Whitehead planers (and they're reputed to be a good machine) out there and it could be attributed to dodgy castings in small batches and I've happened by chance to have seen several machines from the same batch (although cracking is prevalent on both the standalone surface planers and the planer thicknessers), but it is something I would definitely keep in mind if you're ever considering one of these machines, ensure you check it over thoroughly for cracking at the cutter aperture.
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Trevanion
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