A remarkably versatile yet essentially simple and cheaply constructed machine tool, the planer is able, in a limited space, to handle large components that would otherwise require the services of a huge, expensive and heavy milling machine. Indeed, so adaptable is it, that even very old ones, fitted with powered milling heads on the bridge and uprights (when they are known as a plano-miller), can still be found working in shipyards and other places dealing with large and awkwardly-shaped components For the amateur the benefits of the shaper were also recognised and from around 1870 to 1920 a number of miniature versions were manufactured; even today these are still sought-after machines, very handy as a working tool and, of course, as an interesting and mechanically delightful artefact. Of a type still illustrated in some of the hard-bound catalogues of the larger machine tool dealers as late as the 1930s, the examples below are typical of the hand-operated models offered to amateurs and smaller professional workshops. While some are now relatively well known, for example: T.Taylor, Milnes, Senior, Fomm, Selig Sonnenthal, Kennan, Hesketh Walker, Brittain, Kennan, Britannia many others remain unrecognised as they (in common with some other small machine tools of that time) lacked any maker's mark.
If you have a small planer of any description, known or unknown, the writer would be interested to hear from you.