Tyneside-based timber importer and sawmiller MH Southern & Co Ltd was recently faced with an interesting dilemma. No stranger to large sections of softwood, the fourth generation family timber business, with facilities at Jarrow and Berwick-on-Tweed, has extensive quantities of stock up to 24in square sections in its Jarrow yard and requires day-to-day availability of a heavy duty planer/moulder with 12x6in capacity.

But the machine the company relied on to process the large sections that form such a significant part of its output – and which its three Wadkin XE220 moulders could not accommodate – was showing distinct signs of wear and tear. Hardly suprising given that the six-head Wadkin FD was a genuine veteran of 38 years’ faithful service.

Director James Southern and mill manager Mick Anderson had a straight choice between finding the expertise to bring their Wadkin FD moulder up to a standard, which would enable it to cope with current and future requirements – itself a major investment – 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 supplier Daltons came into the picture. The company already had a relationship with Southerns, having previously supplied the company with tandem Stenner ST100 Resaws and a Wadkin XE six-head planer/moulder as well as providing it with an aftercare and maintenance service going back a number of years.

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 old machine in operation.

Tough cookie

Mr Dalton’s initial reaction was actually not to recommend spending large sums of money on a 1960s-built model. But the Wadkin FD is a tough cookie and its heavy-duty build and quality design and construction had endeared it to Mr Anderson and his team. They felt that, if its original condition could be restored and its capabilities updated and improved, they would be happy to continue using it.

As a consequence, MH Southern briefed Daltons to come up with a comprehensive proposal to rebuild the moulder and, where possible, bring it into line with current design practices. The specification was both to extend its working life and, at the same time, put a particular stress on effective control and ease of operation.

Nigel Dalton and technical director Steve Balchin sat down to discuss practical ways of meeting their customer’s requirements. The end result was a quotation for not only rebuilding and remanufac-turing the machine to restore it to virtually new condition, but also for removing the frequency changer drive to the cutterheads (originally necessary to provide a cutter spindle speed of 6,000rpm) and replace it with electrical inverters.

The rebuild also entailed stripping out all the FD’s original controls and obsolete braking and replacing them with a new stand-alone cabinet providing modern control systems and electrical braking to all cutterheads.

Uprated feed

The proposal also included the addition of an electrical inverter for the feedworks to allow the FD’s original feed speeds from 18-150ft/min to be maintained without the need for belt change. An uprated feed motor was also included to provide the power for heavy-duty operation using the full range of feed speeds.

After completion the machine would be equipped with a new type of multi-knife circular cutterblock to replace the original square blocks. Daltons also confirmed that the remanufacture would be backed with a two-year warranty.

After considering the options, MH Southern gave the go-ahead for the work. The immediate next step was for the FD to be taken to Dalton’s Nottingham engineering facility – no small undertaking given that it weighs in at around 8 tons! The machine was then completely stripped down to its base casting and Dalton’s team started the remanufacture.

While all this was going on, Southern was able to continue machining large sections of timber, albeit, it says, without the performance and finesse provided by the FD, due to the fact that Dalton’s lent the company a Robinson GR/T four-side planer.

The better-than new Wadkin FD is now back in Jarrow producing the heavy sections of timber for which it was designed and Andy Walsh and Francis Dalton recently visited to officially hand over the machine and see it in action once more.

A new lease of life

“This was an extensive operation and one we’re proud to have been associated with,” said Mr Dalton. “MH Southern had the choice between making what has been a considerable investment in bringing the 38-year-old machine into line with current health and safety and operational requirements and mechanically back to new condition, or investing in a new machine. Its decision was influenced by the fact that the Wadkin FD is a very heavy-duty design, massively engineered and built to high precision.

And in its new guise it should continue to cope with the company’s production demands for many years to come.”