I just got my Big Hitachi Back from US Blanks. Jeff Holty put new brushes and blades on is and tuned it up for me like the old Clark days.
The Larger Hitachi is great for doing large SUPS and Wooden Boards.
Trouble downloading the photos:
The size different is baffling: Deadshaper was really kind to have gifted this baby to me!
Barry jones bought one for Hynson to use, he then gave it to me when he surrendered the helm of Velzy, Gawd what a mowing machine, but the bearing on the cutter head froze up and it is locked onto the shaft, even my small bearing puller won’t unfreeze it.
I have contemplated putting it into the oven to expand it and then trying to pull it off.
Hi JIm:
I just got it back and will start using it for bigger projects. A friend of mine (Casey McCyrstal) does longboards with his. Seem him whip them out in less than an hour. With no flaws!
I don’t want to go as fast I just don’t want to waste time. I have been trying to get a Skil 100 for years but every one I know in Orange County wants over a $1,000 for one. So I’m stoked on this big Hitachi as it is way more powerful than a Skil 100. My little one is so easy to use for short boards so it’s a keeper for sure. Plus that’s what I learned with.
I hope you get your planner back in commisson!
surfding,
I’ve got one thats s/n 1012. Do you think that Clark converted that many of the big ones? It was my first planer back when we were shaping the 4-5"+ thick Clark windsurfer blanks. I did the up-right handle mod to mine. I guess the Rockwell is the only thing out there that will mow more foam than one of them.
regards,
Dave_D
#1097 is the serial number.
I don’t think too many were made?
I wonder what number Jimmy the Genius’s is?
is this a service they are regularly providing now? I have a couple older clark hitachis that need rehab…
US Blanks still provides this service. Jeff Holty who ran the planner service for Clark back in the day is still the best in the business concerning Planners. My planner runs like a brand new one and it’s many years old!
What’s cool is you get your blank delivery and the driver can direct you as to the best way to handle your planner.
US Blanks still provides this service. Jeff Holty who ran the planner service for Clark back in the day is still the best in the business concerning Planners. My planner runs like a brand new one and it’s many years old!
What’s cool is you get your blank delivery and the driver can direct you as to the best way to handle your planner.
WOW! That thing is a MONSTER!
What’s the amp’s on that thing?
I’ll check it today but I think it’s 11.0 AMPS?
I just looked on Ebay and there is 10amp Hitachi for sale right now with a “buy it now” for around $250. It looks sweet. Just search “Hitachi Planer”. Hell I may get it. Nahhhhhhhhhhhh…maybe…nahhhhhhhh. I am a recovering tool addict.
Not me! I don’t have a problem.
Now where is that planer again?
NO! I’m not in denial!
Good Lord! With the right blades…you could plane STEEL with that thing!
It’s pretty powerful. I will do some solid wood boards with it. The one on ebay sounds like a good deal. I’d buy it and give it to US Blanks to convert it!
I used one for a while back when Clark first brought them out, but that was when I was having shoulder trouble and I decided that lighter tools might be easier on my body. But I know a couple of guys that love 'em. When Kirk Brasington of Coil was doing his stint as 1000 board/year shaper for another label (long time ago), he used one extensively. Ricky Carroll has won the timed shape-offs lately, largely because he’s a hell of a shaper, but the rough-out speed he gets from that tool certainly helps.
Definitely not for the faint of heart, though. Nothing delicate about the beast.
Although that planer IS “many years old”, it was my backup planer so it came to you with few boards shaped on it. That’s why it runs like a new planer…it basically is!
MD is right…there’s nothing really delicate about the big Hitachi, but I got so used to using them during my big run of sailboards throughout the 80’s. I also loved the long tail that allowed me blocking action with them as I mowed a lot backwards while restructuring Clark’s sailboard blanks for particular needs.
However, I also was still doing a few surfboards (350+) during that time, and just stayed with the big H cuz I was so used to it. This is where I started devising what I call ‘roller cuts’ to fit into the increased deckline of shortboards up around the shoulder to ear sections. By this I mean, by turnng the planer sideways (perpendicular to the stringer) and cutting narrow bands with the cutter head, I could get a different type of cut that helped me foil out the rail and adjacent area to redefine thickness flow/foil for the blanks, then hand or soft pad power sand out to the finish line. I still use this method to this day.
So this was a way to make the “beast” a little more “delicate”! I bought the smaller Hitachi from Clark that everyone was raving about when I was with Beatty with everyone else down at the Quonset hut in SB (mid 90’s) and I sold it to Brom halfway thru the first board…guess it all comes down to what you’re used to.
I learned on a Skil 100, fine tool, but due to a crazy woman that tool disappeared…but that’s another story.
I was thinking wow! As old as this beast is it runs like new. Thanks for the Stoke!
SD