Not one of those toy planers- there's enough steel in this guy to build a few dozen of those Chinese models. This is a very tight smooth running industrial planer which has been used in my one- man custom wood shop for the last 25 years. It has seperate starts for the cutter head and drive feed heads. The feed head has a reverse button so you can back the board out of it gets stuck. I've always jointed one face of the board before planing and have never had any problem even with the biggest of boards. Deluxe heavy duty Crescent Planer takes wood up to 24" wide and 8" thick and will actually plane the piece of wood smooth without moaning or groaning or tipping over. Motor on head is a 7 1/2 hp 440 3phase. Head has FOUR knives for a nice smooth finish. Includes two sharp sets of knives. The feed rollers are belt driven by a seperate motor. This machine has the knife grinder set up with the bar and guide but does not have the grinder motor. I got it like that and have always removed the knives for sharpening. I think the grinders are easy to come by but I found it pretty easy to switch knives so it has never been an issue.
Crescent Machine Company was floundered in Leetonia, Ohio in 1893. It manufactured a line of industrial woodworking machinery, particularly band saws. In 1940, it was bought by Pittsburgh Equitable Meter and Manufacturing Company, which became the Rockwell Manufacturing Company in 1946.
I just checked the motors. The motor on the head is a Woods and it will run on 220 or 440v 3 phase. The motor for the feed rollers is a Westinghouse and will also run on 220 or 440v 3 phase.
The footprint of the machine base measures 45 1/2" side to side and 39" front to back. The overall size of the machine is 60" wide and 58 1/2" from front to back. The machine is 46 1/2" tall without the chip shute, which is easily removed.
