Oliver Jointer

[Tom Leasure]

Has anybody had any experience with the new olivers jointers ?? Am looking at upgradeing & am curious about the Olivers. I am told they are made "OFF SHORE"
They are pricey so I'm wondering if they are worth it

[Eric Commarato]

Tom, in my opinion, you would be wise to find an older Oliver made by the original company. I do think the new ones are made overseas. I bought an 8" Oliver 144 Bd, in prestine condition built in 1972 for 700 bucks. Very nice jointer.


Eric

[Rick Fisher]

The new Oliver is made in Taiwan. Some of the jointers are from the same plant as General International.

They are pretty decent machines for offshore product. Oliver seems to buy them without motors and installs Baldor motors when they arrive, another nice touch.

[John Bush]

I had the chance to visit the "showroom" of the importer of the new generation of Oliver equipment here in Seattle several years ago. They had just introduced the 10" model, IIRC ,and after looking at the Jet, PM, Griz, it seemed they all had the same or very similar casting. I wasn't able to compare the guts of the machines(bearings, motor, ways, etc) or test drive any of them, but they were all very similar in appearance. I ended up buying the PM 8"er, sold it and got the Griz 12"er(609X). My advantage is having the griz showroom 1 1/2 hrs away. I wanted more width for flattening wider stock and I wanted the spiral head as well. It has parallelogram ways but I am not so sure that is a big difference. I only change the depth of cut when I get impatient with rougher stock. I think most WWer's change depth infrequently in small increments so ways shouldn't be a big deal in choosing a jointer. For hobby use, I think you could expect similar performance from any of the machines out there. I am partial to the Griz just because I have seen all ther stuff first hand. I am sure they can find my fingerprints on all the items in the store. I suggest you consider the spiral head--worth the extra bucks--and keep your eye out for a CL find. Good luck and Happy New Year. JCB.