modifying hitachi parts info

To all you guys out there modifying your own hitachi’s, Ive been doing mine. I got a old skil 100 but my first planer was an unmodified hitachi and I always wanted to modify it myself. I got the handle switched around, the front base plate rounded and fiilled, longer cord, new bearings, cut belt cover and housing and now I’m doing the hard party, the depth adjustment. There is a whole right up in swaylocks and also calema.com on using a bendix nut and bolt to get that coarse pitch needed for on the fly movement. I found out that this mechanism exists in a bicycle brake hub which I got off ebay. Now im not saying there all like that but the one I got is from an old shwinn and its very similar the clark mechanism. The other thing I found was the same knob the new clark uses is available at reidsuppy.com part# rk-115. You can get the shaft collar and small ball knob at ace hardware. Just wanted to share that. I will be installing mine the same way the guy did it on calema.com which the end result looked just liked the clark.

the drummer from def leppard only got one arm ha ah aaah cant delete double post

luckily i have a clark modified hitachi. i was just messing around with an extra 2nd hand planer to see if i could do it. mine was pretty sloppy - yours looks really good! you are stoked!

Thanks grasshopper your write up got me started, I kind of stubbled over this mechanism looking for a bendix bolt, turns out theres a brake hub manufacturer named bendix and when I saw the pic i was like thats it. Its pretty much the same as the bolt you used. Curious how are those fag bearings you got working, I bought mine online from a bearing supply place instead of the surfboard supply place to save money too. Mine are a japanese brand called nachi which are supposidley good. We shall see, there are so many dfferent brands and styles makes my head spin, prob should of just got the clarks.

thanks for sharing dtb - that is a great way to do it! your mod looks super clean too - nice job!

Yea man, bicycle coaster brake hubs have em but the threads can vary as you see in the pic. Im sure you can go to a bike shop and they can get you the part or just buy a cheap brake hub. I paid $.99 for those shafts plus 6.00 shipping. The knobs at reid supply are like 2 bucks.

NIIIIIIIIIICE  I need to find some of those shafts

some pics

 

 




So I completed my knob modifications and it works AWESOME!!! What I did was cut out the old bolt stem and then jb welded the female part of the mechanism into the front shoe. Then I threaded a 3/8’’ bolt (this is what the knob screws into) through the male part of the mechanism as well as other minor mods.Used some nylon washers, put the shaft collar on, screw down the handle and ready to go.I get 3/16’’ cut in quarter turn, very loose and smooth with very little play. I also put a thin spring between the mechanism which causes it to kind of wind up as you open it and it shoots back towards 0 when you release the knob. I really like that part. Also if you want a fixed depth you can tighten up the mechanism by simply holding the collar shaft while you screw down the knob. STOKED

 

 

Ya ive been messing around to see which one to use and the one on the top left might be a little to aggessive. It travels over a 1/4’’ in a quarter turn the other one is a little over an 1/8’’ in a quarter turn. Still have to modify my hitachi to do over 1/8 deep cut, think you gotta grind the inside of the plastic housing a little.  Do you guys know how deep the clark does wide open. Anyway I did a little more research on these mechanisms and there basically in all bicycle coaster brake hubs, which are the brakes that work by pedaling backwards. Note: it is def. worth buying the clark hitachi, if I was getting paid for modifying this planer I could buy couple clarks but I need that gratification. Thats why we shape right, it sure aint the money

Top left is your winner. You can definately make that one work

the one on the top left looks very much like the Clark modification, 90 degrees of movement from zero cut to full depth

This is a picture of the bendix bolts i got off ebay which came off a bicycle brake hub. These seem better than the bendix bolt that was taken off a starter cause the threads are the same direction of the clark’s thread. You can mount the nut inside the shoe cylinder and have everything contained inside the housing so the knob is as low as possible

 

Any chance of some pics of the internal mods???

 

Thanks