Tomobe – Setting Up Shop 1

When we first discovered our house here in Tomobe, one of the big attractions for me was an existing building on the property that looked perfect for a woodshop. I’ve been dreaming of having my own shop space for way too long, and the fact that that dream has now become a reality still hasn’t really set in. Our move here to Tomobe, and the subsequent work that has ensued has been amazing but intense, and I find myself having a hard time stopping and simply enjoying the reality of our new situation.

One of the first hurdles for turning the building above into a true woodshop was getting power. Initially when we moved there wasn’t power of any kind heading to the shop, but after talking to a local electricain we got some quotes on how much it would be to bring in 3 phase 200v power for machines. The cost was much cheaper than expected, but the timeline for getting power brought over from the nearest power pole was several months out. So when we bought the property in July I was expecting not to have power in the shop until the end of October, which meant I needed to continue working out of the shared shop in Tokyo for a while longer.

Then in August I got an email from the shop in Tokyo saying they would be closing up the woodshop for four weeks for maintenance. With a bunch of projects on my calender a general sense of panic ensued, but after some brainstorming I started to think about how I could draw 100 v power from the main house in Tomobe over to the shop to at least run basic 100v machines, enough so that I could complete the projects I had lined up. The plan seemed doable, but it also meant having to purchase some “temporary” machines that I could run on 100v.

So without further ado, here’s the first machine to enter the shop:

It’s a Hitachi P100RK jointer planer combo. Runs off of 100 v power but has a 315mm width planing capacity and a 250mm wide jointer. The width of the jointer is what really sold me on this machine… that and it was cheap (though not without issues). I also love the slighty weird sci-fi look to this machine.

I found it on JMTY, which is essentially Japan’s version of craigslist. I rented a small kei-van and drove out to Saitama where the seller and his buddies helped me load it in the van. Then I very carefully got it out of the van on a couple of planks and a ratchet strap to slowly slide it into the shop.

Here it is in the shop, looking kind of lonely when this shot was taken:

Fast forward a couple weeks later, and I fianlly had a chance to put this machine to the test. I needed to make a few sample serving trays for a tea company that is opening a shop in Tokyo, and the jointer on this machine worked out really well. The planer on the other hand showed some issues right off the bat. There was horrible snipe and overall the quality of the cut was terrible. Thankfully I had another contractor grade Makita planer to use for thicknessing stock.

But eventually I started to dig into the Hitachi to try and figure out what the issue was, and this is what I discovered:

Those are the back feed roller bearings. The one on the right is how it’s suppose to look.

This is the first time I’ve dug into a planer like this, and the first time I’ve ever encountered this type of bearing. My machine is from the mid-90’s but apparently these bearing are still in use for the feed rollers on new contractor grade planers. I took a look at my Makita 2012NB and could see the same bearings, and somewhere on the internet I caught wind of them in Dewalt machines as well… maybe these are pretty standard across the board?

Anyhow, whatever happened to the Hitachi, the back left roller bear was in terrible shape, and clearly the roller itself just ground away at the bearing until it wore straight through the side. The shaft of the feed roller also wore into the sheetmetal case on the side of the machine as well:

Looking from below the machine you can see where the roller shaft also wore into the cast body of the planer itself.

Despite how bad it all looks, I figured with some fresh parts I could still get this thing up and running. After some searching and a call to Hitachi power tools (now Hikoki) I discovered that the company doesn’t sell parts directly to customers, nor do they even allow you to see parts diagrams (at least not if they aren’t already pictured in the manual). Hikoki will only sell parts through dealers.

Here in Tomobe Hikoki recommended we call the nearest home center. I was super skeptical that the home center would be of much help, after all the machine is 30 years old, and it seemed unlikely the staff would have much to offer let alone any interest. Well I was wrong about that. Not only did the home center call Hikoki and search for the part, they were able to order two new roller bearings and feed rollers as well, and they supplied me with a parts diagram for future refernce. Service in Japan, even at the home center, truly is remarkable! About a week after we first called the home center the new parts were in.

Below is a new feed roller next to the bad one. Notice how worn the shaft is on the old one.

And another shot of the fresh and old feed rollers and bearings.

After some cleanup on the internals, the new parts fit right back in place. Below you can see the new feed roller being held in it’s proper location. The worn sheetmetal shows just how much the old feed roller shifted as it tore into the bearing.

Next I put the gears and drive chain back in place. The feed roller in question here is on the bottom left, and it’s the back feed roller on the machine. The front feed roller and bearings were mostly fine although the rubber on the roller was terribly cracked, so I figured I might as well replace those parts as well.

So now the machine has two new feed rollers and 4 fresh bearings. Looks clean underneath.

And it’s planing beautifully, with zero snipe.

Machine repair is kind of the last thing I need to worry about at the moment, given everything else that is going on in regards to our new house, but it feels really satisfying to have restored the planer back to good working condition. I don’t plan to keep this machine long term, but I figure I have a better chance of reselling the thing if it’s been restored rather than only half-functional.

And speaking of it’s replacement….

To be continued…