Champion 10 Leather Splitter Rebuild

Not sure how old this thing is, 75 years old? Lots of net search yealded very little.

I'm looking for a manual, an exploded view, patent dwgs. anything that would help me get into the mind of the designer and understand better how to dial it in.

Picked it up from my friend Ralph over at Grosse Pointe Shoe Repair; he had never used it. It was bolted to the bench when he bought the shop 20+ years ago; judging by the cob webs on it. I asked if he could part with it.

It has 2 broken castings and the main gear is cracked. It's working fine in spite of all that.
Took pictures as I disassembled it... they came in very handy! Probably about 7 hours of time into the rebuild

After sharpening the blade and getting the bottom roller positioned correctly I got a trial split, no problem.

Its hard to beat a RED machine!

Just like Case vs John Dear you got your Reds and your Greens.

Sharpening:

The 6" x 0.25" x 3" blade is a formidable challenge, without a surface grinder however...
I have a surface plate!
It became apparent that I needed a sanding fixture to hold the angle and so made this little clamp.

I could even use it on the belt sander for the rough work.

The previous owner put a huge belly in the center of the blade so the only way out was a lot of metal removal.

With slots in the carriage plat I can level and change the angle of the blade.

The Champion can split very evenly but the blade must be even.

Adding some additional assem. photos:

These picture were very helpful in getting this contraption back together.

Landis 5 in 1 rebuild

I needed a 5 in 1 for some time now and picked up this Craig's list find.

It was a real mess.

Cosmetically it was the glue spatter covering the bottom 3rd that was the worst part. I had no intention of repainting initially but when the glue refused to come off without taking the paint with it I decided there was no way to avoid it.

Mechanically it was fine but the blade had been badly abused, someone had tried to remove it, dented it to butter knife levels, and then reassembled it in the wrong order.

Ultimately I made a holding fixture for the blade in my lathe and was able to sharpen it very nicely but, when a blade is damaged that much the diameter is reduced and even though it is razor sharp it doesn't extend as far below the drive teeth as it should, so a new blade is still needed.

I did a complete tear-down and de-greese of the "oily bits" and used a paint stripper on the casting.

Rustolium green looks pretty good.

I prefer to not repaint, instead I will scrub clean the worn painted parts and give them a coat of MinWax water based polyurethane. This method shines & darkens the dull cleaned surface and protects it but leaves the vintage look intact.

I'm ordering a new Landis badge because the old one was un-salvageable.

Amazing durable machines. 

Many people ask what are the 5 things that it does?

(Well it does 4 things) but does them all well.

Next up is a Champion Model 10 splitter getting the same treatment!