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I get along just fine without a jointer in my shop. My router table can serve as a makeshift jointer for edges, and I’m not completely useless with hand planes and winding sticks for getting rid of twists in the faces of boards. Plus, I can’t fit a long bed jointer in my shop, and few people have good things to say about most of the available small jointers out there. But I have been keeping my eyes peeled for a Rockwell Delta Uniplane, due to the praise for them from Charles Fox and Ken Parker, and the general descriptions I’ve read regarding the Uniplane’s strengths and drawbacks. It seems like a pretty good jointer-like tool for a guitar maker, and I can fit one in my shop. The largest hurdle to buying one with which to experiment has been availability within a reasonable distance.

Well, I ran out of excuses for not buying one. A fellow has one for sale at an acceptable price just a few hours from me. It appears to be in good shape, including the plastic guard. He even has a mobile base and some spare parts he will toss in. My wife (truly a saint) and I are headed up to this fellow’s shop on Saturday to bring this odd duck Uniplane to its new home in our little island of misfit toys, aka The Undercroft, aka our walkout basement workshop.

If any of you own (or have used) a Uniplane, and have any information that could be useful, I would love to hear it. Even if you think this is a waste of money, please tell me why. I have downloaded the manual, I know where to buy cutters, and there are a few useful YouTube videos about the machine. But hearing about your experiences with it would be extremely valuable as I experiment with it. Thanks for your help.

I've had one for years--I don't use it frequently, but it's super useful for certain operations. For instance, I have a sled that rides in the miter gauge slot that I use for facing pegheads after they're bandsawn. It's also really useful for jointing smaller pieces that wouldn't be safe to do on a jointer (although I usually use a shooting board and plane for this kind of operation any more). At any rate, once you get the hang of setting the cutters properly, it can leave an amazingly good surface.

Don't run it without the guard though, as big a pain as the guard is. Use a jig whenever possible--keep your fingers as far away from that cutterhead as possible! I know of couple of builders missing parts of fingers from Uniplane accidents.

Dave

Don

My experience with the Uniplane wasn't as good as Daves. Local high school had one where I taught evening furniture classes and I always thought it was "a poor excuse for a jointer" (just my thoughts).

They work but cutting across the grain didn't leave a "planed" surface. I'd wonder about replacement parts or cutters, and sharpening, maybe Dave can address that since he has one.

Today jointers with carbide cutters produce phenomenal results, If I were looking for something small, I'd keep an eye out for a Delta 4" jointer or equivalent, and invest in a Byrd Shelix carbide cutterhead. They can't be much bigger footprint than the Uniplane.

https://shelixheads.com/SHELIX-heads_for_Jointers/SHELIX_Heads_for_Jointers_by_DELTA

They are amazing cutterheads. I wouldn't have a jointer (or planer) without them.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

I actually have a regular jointer with a Shelix head that I use for standard "jointer" use. I use the Uniplane on pieces too short to run safely through a regular jointer (like peghead faces--it's also good for segmented lathe work like block built banjo rims). It is finicky from my experience to get the blades all set just so, but when they are, it leaves a nice finish. The key is very light cuts and a slow feed rate. My only real worry about the Uniplane is what to do when the bearings are shot. It looks like that would require a trip to a good machine shop for proper installation and balancing. Probably a pretty expensive repair. The bearings in mine are still fine, but one of these days.

The Shelix is a truly wonderful cutterhead. When I moved to my new shop, I nearly sold my regular jointer and moved the Uniplane into regular jointer use, because the footprint is a lot smaller. But, I have most of my machinery on wheels and pull it out only when I'm going to use it, so I found a place for my jointer after all.

Dave

I like the idea of the Uniplane but it looks a bit larger than I have room for. I’m getting good results from a Cutech 6” jointer, it has a spiral cutter head. It is a small unit so stock need to be around 36” or less.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I appreciate all the info. We’ll see how this experiment works out. As I mentioned, I get along fine without a standard jointer, so this really isn’t an attempt to have a direct replacement for a jointer. I’ve thought about getting one of those old 4” jointers and installing a Shelix cutter; it’s definitely a possibility if this doesn’t work out. But I’m intrigued by the reported capabilities of a well-tuned Uniplane, as opposed to a standard jointer. Money-wise, once you gussy up the 4” jointer with a new Shelix cutter, it’s not a money saver, compared to this Uniplane. I’ve got good sharpening gear, so I look forward to getting the Uniplane HSS cutters super sharp and seeing how good of a surface I can achieve. A machinist friend might help me with any needed flattening. Steve, the Uniplane looks big and industrial in photos, but it’s actually about two feet wide, just the right size for a spot in my machine room. I’ll follow up in this thread after I have a chance to mess around with it a bit. In the meantime, any other info is obviously appreciated. Thanks much.

I'd never heard of that. Very interesting machine.

The GAL Big Red Book #5 (my favorite Big Red Book, by far) has the Crazy Like A Fox articles about Charles Fox. It describes his fondness for the Uniplane and how he uses it. Ken Parker has a YouTube video about his Uniplane, including how he flattened the split fence (it looks like a miserable amount of work). Once tuned up, he claims it does things regular jointers cannot. Max Krimmel mentions his Uniplane in the section of his website where he describes how he machines the segments that make up his turnings.

The overall vibe I get is that the Uniplane is not a great substitute for a regular jointer, but it does the work of a jointer, only in a different way. Because it does the work in a different way, you can run small parts through it and joint end grain with it (both bad ideas with a regular jointer). But for regular jointer work, a person would probably be happier with a regular jointer.

I rarely need a regular jointer, but this thing might come in handy. We'll see.

I would say that your assessment is correct. End grain jointing is one of its fortes for sure. Stuff that you might do with a disc sander but a cut rather than sanded joint. I would think that if you use butt joints on necks, it would be great for that. I've used mine for making headblocks too. It's a beast when you crank it up--that cutterhead is heavy and it spins fast! Good luck with it. I've enjoyed mine.

Dave

Quick update: My wife and I brought the Uniplane home yesterday. It turns out that I got about 1.65 Uniplanes for the price of 1.00. This guy had bought all of this second hand himself, and the fellow from whom he bought it had everything needed to make a second Uniplane other than the stand, motor and belt! So, my SUV was a bit more crowded with Uniplanes than I had anticipated.

I dated the two Uniplanes via the serial numbers. One is from 1971, and the other is from 1972. I puzzled a bit on why somebody would have this many spare parts, and then it occurred to me that these machines were manufactured in Pittsburgh, and this guy lived in a Pittsburgh-adjacent farm town. I speculate that some worker at the Pittsburgh plant lived out the scenario described in Johnny Cash’s 1976 hit One Piece At A Time!

Anyway, I will set about the business of cleaning this stuff up and getting at least one well tuned Uniplane in place here in The Undercroft. I’ll provide updates if/when there is something interesting to report. Thanks again for all the info.

EDIT: Further research runs counter to my One Piece At A Time theory. While Rockwell/Delta was headquartered in Pittsburgh during the relevant period, these Uniplanes were built in Tupelo, Mississippi, the birthplace of Elvis Presley. I guess the original owner was just a person who liked to have a lot of spares.

Of course, depending on how you feel about Uniplanes, my “luck” might remind you of this old joke:

My friend has the WORST luck. He parked his car downtown, with his accordion in the back seat, and forgot to lock the doors. Wouldn’t you know it? When he got back, some louse had left a second accordion in the back seat!

Definition of perfect pitch--toss a banjo towards a dumpster and it takes out two accordions on the way...

I'm a banjo player. My dad was as an accordion player, so the provenance is there anyway.

Good score with the Uniplanes!

Dave

Here is the Uniplane:



I was thinking about building a more open base in the pursuit of lower noise. However, I have decided to put that off. I'm going to be wearing hearing protection any time I use this. I ran it briefly at the seller's shop, and ran it a bit here in The Undercroft. It is not as loud as I had feared it would be. The motor is a Rockell/Delta original, 3/4 hp, 3450 rpm beast. I put a new belt on it. Now I need to assess the fences and table, touch up the cutters a bit, and set them at exactly the correct depth. I will probably build a better dust hood/belt guard with a 6" dust collection connection.

Looking forward to seeing how well this will cut once I get it tuned up!

Hey Don, try lining 25% of the interior surface of the stand with Stinger Roadkill. It’s a heavy rubbery material designed to dampen resonances and vibrations in enclosed stands, car doors, etc. the difference between covering 25% to 100% is negligible. People typically cut it into small squares and checker board the interior surface. From my car audio days.


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Good to know, James! Thanks for that. I want to use the empty space in the base (there's a lot of it) for storing all of the extra Uniplane parts I received as part of this deal. I was considering using some spare EVA foam pads as vibration dampers, protecting the parts from each other, etc. If that doesn't help enough, I might invest in some Roadkill. That sounds weird, coming from someone in West Virginia. We get our roadkill for free.

I was trying to think of the industry term for the stuff, but it's slipped my mind. I wanted to sound cool. Like saying, "CA glue" instead of "Hot Stuff."

It's really cool stuff though. Very thin and very effective. I was shocked at how similar the body panels on a car are to the soundboard on a guitar. As soon as I lined the big ones, like my doors and the bottom of my trunk, I felt like I Was in a luxury car.

Just an update on this thread, after using my Uniplane for about a year and a half:

I love it! This thing really does well at jointing short pieces of wood. The biggest pieces I use it on are neck blanks, which a regular jointer would also handle fine, but I can safely flatten faces on short blocks with the Uniplane, which is super handy. The cutters seem to be holding up well, but I only take light passes. I was concerned about dust collection, but the little port works fine hooked up to my dust collector. If you have room for one of these and can find one at a decent price, I can now say I am a happy Uniplane user, and would recommend it to instrument makers.

After I saw Ken Parker's video on using a Uniplane, I decided I needed one. Haven't snatched one up yet, but someday...

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince