Rebirth of a legend - M H Southerns invest in classic design
Tyneside based timber importers and sawmillers M H Southern and Company Ltd were recently faced with an interesting dilemma. No strangers to large sections of softwood, the company have prolific quantities of stock up to 24” square sections in their extensive yards at Jarrow and require day to day availability of a heavy duty Planer/Moulder with 12” x 6” capacity.
The machine they have relied upon for so many years however, a 38 year old Wadkin FD 6-head machine, was showing distinct signs of wear and tear after years of operation producing the large sections which form a significant proportion of Southerns’ output but which could not be accommodated by their three Wadkin XE220 Moulders.
Wadkin 12” x 6” FD 6-Head Planing and Moulding Machine in Daltons works after completion of modifications and rebuilding for M H Southern and Company Ltd.
Director James Southern and Mill Manager Mick Anderson had in effect a straight choice between a major investment and finding the expertise to bring their Wadkin FD Moulder up to a standard which would enable it to cope with current and future requirements or quadrupling the expenditure in order to obtain a new model to match its capacity and performance.
This is where Nottingham based woodworking machinery specialist suppliers Daltons came into the picture. Daltons had an excellent ongoing relationship with Southerns, having previously supplied the company with tandem Stenner ST100 Resaws and a Wadkin XE 6-Head Planer/Moulder as well as providing them with an aftercare and maintenance service going back a number of years. In the event Daltons Sales Director Andy Walsh visited the mill at Jarrow together with Francis Dalton to discuss and advise as to the best available solutions and to take a good look at the machine in operation. To be fair Francis’s initial reaction was not to recommend spending large sums of money on a 1960’s built machine. On the other hand the Wadkin FD is nothing if not a tough machine and the heavy duty nature of its build and high quality design and construction endeared it to Mick Anderson and his team who felt that if its original condition could be restored and the operation of the machine updated and improved they would be very happy to continue using it.
Mr James Southern (left) with Daltons Sales Director Andy Walsh after the successful re-installation of the Wadkin FD machine at Messrs Southerns Jarrow Mill.
Accordingly Francis and Andy returned to Nottingham with a brief to come up with a comprehensive proposal to rebuild the moulder and where possible bring it into line with current design practices in order to extend its working life with an emphasis on effective control and ease of operation.
Nigel Dalton and Technical Director Steve Balchin sat down to discuss practical ways of meeting M H Southerns’ requirements with the result that a quotation was subsequently prepared for not only rebuilding/ remanufacturing the machine, thereby restoring it to virtually new condition, but also removing the frequency changer drive to the cutterheads (originally necessary to provide a cutter spindle speed of 6000 rpm) and replacing with electrical inverters. All the original controls and obsolete braking systems were to be removed from the machine and replaced with a new stand-alone cabinet providing electrical braking to all cutterheads, control systems, etc, and in addition an electrical inverter provided for the feedworks enabling the original feed speeds from 18 to 150 feet per minute to be employed without the need for belt change. An up-rated feed motor was also included in order to provide the necessary power for heavy duty operation using the full range of feed speeds.
After completion the machine would be equipped with new type multi-knife circular cutterblocks to replace the original square type blocks and the machine would be covered by two-year warranty. All at a fraction of the price of a new machine.
After due consideration of these proposals at a further meeting at Southerns’ Jarrow Mill the go ahead was given to Daltons to proceed with the result that the FD machine (incidentally weighing in the region of 8 tons) was removed from site, transported to Daltons’ Nottingham engineering facility, stripped to a base casting and virtually remanufactured in accordance with the proposed specification. Whilst all this was going on Southerns were able to continue machining large sections of timber, albeit without the performance and finesse provided by the FD, due to the fact that Daltons were able to provide on loan a Robinson GR/T 4-Side Planer.
The
Wadkin FD Planer/Moulder in the course of being stripped down in the Dalton
workshops prior to the work commencing.
The Wadkin FD in its new guise is now back producing the heavy sections of timber for which it was designed at Southerns’ Jarrow Mill and Andy Walsh and Francis Dalton were able to see the machine performing once again during their recent visit to officially hand over the machine. James Southern and Mick Anderson were on hand and able to confirm the success of what had been an ambitious and extensive upgrade and part re-design of a classic Wadkin Moulder and a significant investment in machining capacity for the future.
M H Southern are a fourth generation family timber business with facilities at Jarrow and Berwick-on-Tweed and supply to all parts of the UK.