Thread: Wadkin Super 500 parts manual

Originally Posted by localele

...Just bought a flood affected Wadkin Super 500 planer and would like to see parts manual before I pull it to bits...

How's this: https://www.daltonswadkin.com/wp-con...Parts-List.pdf

Could you kindly add a pikky of the "Wadkin Ltd" tag on your RD please. I'm building a database on Wadkin machines and the info on the tag would be appreciated.

Cheers, Vann.

Hi Micheal .

Nice machine . What sort of $ is a buzzer that's been under water cost $100?
It'll come up great of course. The bearings would be the only worry wouldn't they ?
Original guard gone and that thing on in its place ??

IMG_0716aa.jpg

Love to see your RD 16" and its tag as well if you have a pic . Lovely Buzzer those.

Rob

I have the same machine, some pics here (taken by previous owner before getting it back to my place)

pic 1.JPG
pic 2.JPG
pic 3.JPG
What parts are you looking for?

In reply to all.
I paid $500 for it off a mate as a fair price.Yes it does need motor and spindle bearings but I would have done that even if it hadn't been under a flood.It is after all about 40 years old and done a bit of work in that time.
Some photos for the register of my RD16 Jointer and DR36 Bandsaw.Both were disassembled and cleaned up before going into my shed where they have seen a lot of work over the years.
Can someone please educate me about these photos loading sideways.I am sure I once knew about it but that was a while ago and that sort of thing gets pushed out the back of the brain.
I was after an exploded parts list and some cutter head bearing numbers before I pull it apart.Trying to speed up the process a bit by ordering in the bearings.
I already had a copy of the Daltons manual but thanks for the link.
I found the original cutter guard in the old joinery so it will be going back on.That other guard is huge and would get in the way a lot in use I think.

IMG_0835.jpgIMG_0834.jpgIMG_0833.jpgIMG_0832.jpgIMG_0830.jpgIMG_0831.jpgIMG_0829.jpg

You just need to crop the image slightly before uploading in Edit Image or use (Ctrl+E) to launch it.

Originally Posted by localele

Can someone please educate me about these photos loading sideways.I am sure I once knew about it but that was a while ago and that sort of thing gets pushed out the back of the brain.

Are you loading pictures from a phone or computer?

Hope these arrive up the right way.

Photos were uploaded from computer ,slightly cropped but also uploaded them one at a time into the forum archive.

RD16.jpg RD16 side.jpg RD16 and power feed.jpg DR36.jpg DR36 Micro fence.jpg DR36 MAchine tag.jpg DR36 front.jpg

Originally Posted by localele

...Some photos for the register of my RD16 Jointer and DR36 Bandsaw...

Thanks for the photos.

I used to think the RD buzzer was ugly, but I've come to like them. If I didn't have two Wadkin RB 9" buzzers in bits I'd buy a 12" RD a friend has for sale.

Your RD, test number 31942, was completed towards the end of 1948. It's one of a batch of 36 RDs (RD 699 to RD 734) ordered on 8th November, 1947.

Originally Posted by localele

...I found the original cutter guard in the old joinery so it will be going back on.That other guard is huge and would get in the way a lot in use I think.

Yeah, I don't particularly like those "pork chop" guards, but you'll have trouble refitting the original guard unless you also found the casting that's been unbolted from the front of the machine.

RD buzzers (along with the RB and RM) have a two knife, skewed cutterblock. The skew is said to give a better cut than a straight cutter. An option on the RD was the ability to add moulding knives to the cutterblock.


As for the DR bandsaw, the "SC" test number indicates it was built for Wadkin by a sub-contractor. None of the test registers used by sub-contracters have survived (as far as we know). That style of "Wadkin Ltd" tin tag came into use in 1936 and was replaced by a cast tag from mid-1951, indicating the saw was made sometime during that 16 year period.

I believe Wadkin supplied raw castings and proprietary parts to their sub-contractors, with the sub-contractors doing the machining and fitting. I have no reason to think the quality is any different to Wadkin's machines from their Green Lane, Leicester, works.

Cheers, Vann.

Just because photos are a great thing to look at.Here are the ones from when I first saw the Super 500 in the old joinery.

The casting for the original guard is still there Vann.I will need to turn up a nice big knob for it though.

I have always thought the reason for the skew in the jointer knives was to cut down on noise as the blades go past the table edges.

A "pork chop" guard is what is on my RD16 where this one is more commonly known as "one of those flipping, rotating, rattling parallel arm slidey bloody things".I had one on an old 9" Wolfenden jointer at one stage.


1Wadkin Super 500.jpg 2Wadkin Super 500.jpg 3Wadkin Super 500.jpg 4Wadkin Super 500.jpg 5Wadkin Super 500.jpg

I see yours has got the Rack & Pinion fence option, which will be a great thing to have once cleaned up, mine doesn't have that option and with the weight of the fence is quite hard to move backwards and forwards.

The front of your machine looks different to mine in that mine has a extra removable panel, so not sure if yours is newer because Wadkin may have removed this panel to save of production costs.

I thought I had started a thread on my machine, but can't find it, so will will start one on put up a few pic's.

The fence has actually created a groove into the mounting surface from being slid across it so many times.

All the fence parts came apart and have been cleaned and lubed with anti-seize ready to go back on.

I will put up a photo of that when I get a chance to put it back together.It is wrapped in pallet wrap at the moment to keep the moisture off the tables.

Originally Posted by localele

These date from the early 1980's and are quite a nice 800kgs of cast iron.Tables are 2.8m long with a longer indeed table and a 4 knife cutter head 120mm in diameter.

At 2.8M long x 500
And 4 blades in a 120mm head.
Its huge compared to the RD!
That's going to be an amazing machine to try out on jointing long stuff.
The pictures don't allow the size difference to be so noticeable .

If you ever get the chance Micheal , while your moving things around . Get a picture of the RD and the Super 500 together in the same side on shot and show it. That would be good to see.

Rob

InkedSpings.jpg

Mine doesn't have these spring tension knobs, what do they do on your machine?

They are to set the extent of travel for the table.One for the way up and one for the way down.

Same things for the rear table.Obviously you need to set the rear table to the cutter head circle for the way up.

They could also be set to limit the maximum amount of timber able to be jointed at one pass.Say 5 or 6mm limit on depth rather than the 20mm the depth of cut gauge shows.

It does mean though that you can also set the rear table down to be able to plane in between two points as in the bottom of a table sled foot.Then hopefully be able to return to the zero point again.