The End of an Era...

In June I visited Baker Hardwoods in Gilroy an amazing resource for claro walnut. The inventory is thoroughly photographed and detailed on the website like in the picture below. Jim and Ami also know their inventory like the back of their hand and are experts when it comes to selecting boards to fit specific project requirements.

While there Jim and his son asked if I knew any one who could give their old machines a tune up, then they asked if I knew anyone with a planer for sale... A month later my favorite machine in our shop was sold!



This Orton D-1 planer was built in the 1956, it's classified as a 8x36 because you can feed a piece of material 8" thick by 36" wide through it. It's a beastly machine that can take over 1/8" off in one pass, it's super loud and has an automated conveyor in-feed.
It's original home was Disneyland. In the process of getting the planer ready to build Disney World, it was sent back to Orton to get rebuilt. Before the rebuild was complete Disney requested a planer that could take material up to 19"thick so Orton built Disney a whole new planer and Leon bought this one.
It was always my favorite stop on the tour of the shop so I'm pretty sad to see it go. Though I know it will be used and appreciated to it's full potential at Baker Hardwoods where they make big slab tables like the one below...