Rockford Planer

This fully restored 24" x 24" x 6' (bed) planer was the fourth of its type manufactured in 1919 by the Rockford Machine Tool Company of Rockford Illinois. It was given to the museum by George Cohen and Jim Lewis of C&L Machine Co., Brooklawn, NJ. 

Rockford, Illinois, located northwest of Chicago, was a major machine tool manufacturing center. Several well-known machine tool builders, including Ingersol, W.F. and John Barnes, and Rockford Milling Machine Co. were located there.

This is a motor-driven machine typical of the transition from lineshaft to electric motor power, which occurred over a period of about 20 years, beginning around 1900. Machines of this era were often adaptations of belt-driven designs rather than being designed "from the ground up" for motor drive.