653

Behold the Porter-Cable/Rockwell 653 Planer. In my opinion it's one of the gnarliest planers ever made. It's much more powerful than a skil 100, it can cut much deeper, and it's just mean. 

But it has several limitations- it's heavy, no real on-the-fly depth adjustment, and it's awkward to use.  Mine has always been used to do deep passes here and there as a fall back plan when serious foam needs to get taken off blanks in a hurry. But I've always fantasied about fixing the limitations of the machine so it could be used as a universal shaping machine. A long conversation with maestro Wayne Rich about the tool really got my mind turning on how to solve some of the problems... so I finally got around to a total tear down. I'm going through all the parts to figure out where I can cut weight by drilling holes and also fabbing new ones to replace un-needed heavy ones. Poor thing looks pretty sad in this picture. :( I think I'm gunna powercoat the whole thing black when I'm done... should be pretty awesome. CNC mill is on the left, I'm gunna be using it to make a few custom parts.

When it's all said and done, I'm hoping that it'll be lighter to lug around and be able to cut a whopping 3/8" pass- twice that of the popular Skil 100.

 Sweet lucky green hat left over from St. Patty's

 Got some boards going through the shop- Paulies fish/Shortboard

 And Tim's Midrange.

 Betty is getting ready for an overhaul for the 2012 contest season. She won't make the trip to the bu without some real work. So I figured one last shot for posterity before she starts getting taken apart too. Bodywork, new suspension and a few other updates are in the works. That's a good girl. :) -C