Planing Machine





 For more than a century the planing machine was an important tool in the engineers armoury.

This machine was used to make flat surfaces in metal. The cutting tool stayed still while the piece to be cut was clamped to the flat table below, which moved back and forth on rollers.

The table moved slowly on the cutting stroke but the return stroke would be twice as fast to save time. The cutting tool was quite narrow but could be moved gradually sideways to shape wider surfaces.

This particular machine came to the museum from the Fulwood Foundry in Hamilton but is thought to have previously been used at the marine engineering firm of Dunsmure and Jackson, Govan.

© Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of

Scotland. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

This photograph shows similar planing machines at work at the Tullis factory in Clydebank.

You can see the blur of the moving table on the centre machine.

AUDIO: Daniel Mackay describes this machine