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Planer Matcher and Molder

Photo of Planer Matcher and Molder Photo of Planer Matcher and Molder
Building: Car Shop
Machine Power: belt
HAER Map Key: KK
Date Built: ca. 1910's
Manufacturer: J. A. Fay and Egan Company
Model: No. 126
Serail Number: unknown

This was classified by Fay and Egan as a small machine capable as variety of tasks: planing, matching and moulding. This was in difference to their much larger machines dedicated to specific operations.

Planing is the process of milling the face of a piece, reducing its thickness and making the milled face parallel to the opposite face. This machine is a single cylinder planer meaning it cuts only one face at a time. The piece then has to be flipped and refed, and the machine adjusted if both sides are to be planed. this machine planes with a long cylinder with cutting knives under which the piece is pushed/pulled by rollers.

Matching is the process of cutting matching contours into the sides of the piece, such that one cut on one piece will fit into the other cut on anothe piece. Tongue and groove is the most common example of matching. This machine perfoms side matching, not end matching. Molding is the process of cutting a decorative contour into the side of a wood piece. This is machine performs either matching of mounding using a pair of spindle cutters on the blaner outfieed table. The machine is capable of using all three cutters simultaneously to finish three sides of a piece at once.

At the East Broad Top, woodworking machines like this one would have been used to to fabricate pieces for early wood freight cars and bridges which were later replaced with steel. Parts wood passenger cars and structures would have been made throughout the operation of the railroad. Based on Fay and Egan catalogs, this machine likely dates from the 1910's, a time when the shops were greatly expanded.

The Planer Matcher Molder has not operated since the shops closed in 1956. As of 2012 not restoration has yet taken place on the machine.

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