I have recently picked up a long out of production used lunchbox planer for a very reasonable price that was barely used but had surface rust on some parts as it was sitting in a garage with no climate control for 20+ years.
I completely disassembled the planer and repainted and re-lubricated many parts, so I became intimately familiar with all the internals. The planer that I bought was missing its dust chute, so I could not connect it to any dust extractor. At first I thought I can make a dust chute pretty easily out of some PVC pipe, so I decided to go and look at the designs of dust chutes on planers currently being sold.
And when I looked at the parts diagram of the new HF Hercules planer I was beyond surprised. It looked virtually identical to my planer.
And the dust chute looked identical to what originally came with my planer. So I ordered a replacement dust chute from HF for $5.82 with free shipping, and when it came, it fit like a glove.
Very much intrigued by this I decided to stop by a HF with some digital calipers and measure some things on the planer they had on display. All the parts I measured were the same. Harbor Freight must have purchased and moved all the factory machinery from the maker of my planer, since my planer was made in Taiwan, and the Hercules is made in China now.
I have done a little bit of research about the origins of my planer, so I will post pictures and details later about what I found. It's quite interesting.
I completely disassembled the planer and repainted and re-lubricated many parts, so I became intimately familiar with all the internals. The planer that I bought was missing its dust chute, so I could not connect it to any dust extractor. At first I thought I can make a dust chute pretty easily out of some PVC pipe, so I decided to go and look at the designs of dust chutes on planers currently being sold.
And when I looked at the parts diagram of the new HF Hercules planer I was beyond surprised. It looked virtually identical to my planer.
And the dust chute looked identical to what originally came with my planer. So I ordered a replacement dust chute from HF for $5.82 with free shipping, and when it came, it fit like a glove.
Very much intrigued by this I decided to stop by a HF with some digital calipers and measure some things on the planer they had on display. All the parts I measured were the same. Harbor Freight must have purchased and moved all the factory machinery from the maker of my planer, since my planer was made in Taiwan, and the Hercules is made in China now.
I have done a little bit of research about the origins of my planer, so I will post pictures and details later about what I found. It's quite interesting.
