The Rockwell Uniplane
In this line of work, there's always a safer alternative that sometimes falls under the radar.
Jun 23, 2022
I have a habit of cruising Craigslist for old machinery. Last week, Craigslist suddenly started serving me listings from all over the country, causing me to stumble upon a new type of machine I never knew existed. I figure if I didn’t know about the Rockwell Uniplane, some of you might not have heard of it either. In this video, legendary guitar maker Ken Parker shows off his Uniplane and goes pretty far down a rabbit hole demonstrating how he trues up the tables.
Legend has it that it was created for school woodshop environments to use as a safer alternative to a jointer for edge jointing. I don’t know how much safer it may or may not be, especially for a face-jointing operation like Ken demonstrates at the end of this video.
I love cool old machinery, but for me the Uniplane would likely be a pass. Nonetheless, it is an interesting bit of kit!
If you found that video interesting, here’s some more information about the Uniplane!
- A PDF of the manual is available on vintagemachinery.org.
- Google books has a very interesting review from a 1969 issue of Popular Science
-Made You Look are videos that we’ve found on the web that we thought were worth sharing with our audience. Let us know if you find anything you think is worth a look in the comments below!
Comments
I had never heard of those, so thanks.
It definitely does not look safer for face jointing.
A cross-grain jointer? Kinda kooky. I cringed as his back hand with the tiny push stick passed the cutter pan.
I was a middle school shop teacher in Ontario and there was one of these in the classroom when I started the job. The boards in the shop were purchased face planed because all the Uniplane was somewhat good for was edge jointing.
Within a year I was able to source a Canadian made General jointer and a Rockwell planer.
fascinating
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