A planer is one of the most useful tools you can have in your wood shop. ES&S purchased our latest model from Grizzly Industrial in 2016. But there are very few things cooler than seeing a piece of equipment approaching it’s 100th year of life and still going as strong as the day it was installed.

This rough lumber planer was built by the Newman Machine Co in 1922. I’m not certain where it spent most of its days but in the late 1970’s it made itself a home near Pine Grove, PA. Since then it’s been tearing into rough cut at a lumber mill I frequent. I asked the owners what kind of maintenance has been required on heavy iron like this. Their answer, “We sharpen the blades, other than that is hasn’t needed anything since the 70’s”. That’s no small feat in this day and age. The Newman Machine Co has been in business since 1907 and is still going strong. They mostly make the kind of equipment you’d see in large manufacturing facilities but from their website it looks like you can still contact them for parts and maintenance help on these old beasts. Not that they need it of course.