Is There an Ollie in my future?

[Don Baer]

I advertised an Ollie Cabinate saw for sale for my neighbor on this thread.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=36770

No Creekers responded so I put it up on Craigs list and got 6 responses which I turned over to the neighbor. He responded to them and thought he had a buyer so the others were turned off. The suposed buyer flaked out on him so he was left holding the saw.
Move ahead to last Sunday. The neighborhood was having a going away Bar-B-Que for LOML and your truly since we are moving to AZ. Carl, the saw owner and I were talking at the bar-BQue and He said if you want the saw it's your's along with the inverter. Now here's my problems, My Silverado is already in AZ and the saw won't fit in LOML's Suburban. The moving company is comming Wed. and I have no way to transport it. I am going to tell Carl that when I make my next trip over here, (I'm here every other week or so I'll pick it up). If it happen I'll post pix of it in its new home in Arizona. Just wanted to give a maybe pregloat. I guess my Jet Contractor saw will either be for sale or be used ad a secondary saw in my new shop.

[Alan DuBoff]

Good luck on the Ollie Don, looks interesting with a sheet base. What model is that?

[Don Baer]

He doesn't know the Model. I figure that it will still be much better then my Contractor saw. Right now I am planning on keeping both the Cabinate saw and the contractor saw. I'll just set them up for differant types of milling. One will be for cross cutting and Dados and the other for ripping. Maybe look at putting a sliding table on the Ollie. I am opoen to suggestions.

[Don Baer]

Oh I have one more problem the temporary house I will be living in while my new house is being built has no 220 in the garage so the Ollie wont be able to be used until my new house is built, but that's no biggey since it's not being used now.

[Alan DuBoff]

Don,

I think it's pretty cool, and looks at least as industrial as a unisaw, if not more so.

Quite an unusual Ollie, IMO, I certainly haven't seen (m)any of them in my searchings for table saws.

You should inquire on the old woodworking machines shop forum. There's some very knowledable Ollie folks over there.

[Alan Turner]

Nice score! It is probably either a 232 or a 270. Does it have the fence and miter gage as well? But for the school aspect of the new shop, it was a 232 or 270 that I would have bought, just to complete the Oliver line-up.

[Don Baer]

Nice score! It is probably either a 232 or a 270. Does it have the fence and miter gage as well? But for the school aspect of the new shop, it was a 232 or 270 that I would have bought, just to complete the Oliver line-up.

He has the original fence and Miter gage. He just needs to dig em out it will be several weeks before I make "business" trip over here and thats when I plan on picking it up. That will give me time to make space in storage for this one. I plan on leaving it stored until the new house is built since my sone house doesn't have nearly enough space in the garage with all of my other tools there.

[Alan DuBoff]

I don't think this is a 232 or 270 based on the pic, but I'm no Ollie expert. Someone like Chuck Hess would probably know over on owwm.org.

I've never seen one quite like this, and most all Ollies I've seen (232s and 270s included) are cast bases, even the new ones.

There was another Oliver company in Buffalo, NY called W.W.Oliver, opposed to the Oliver Macinery Co. in Grand Rapids, MI.

Would be good to see the nameplate closer up. For instance, why doesn't the Oliver nameplate have the wings that are so famous of the Oliver company? Serial number could shed some light also.

[Larry Cooke]

Congratulations Don,

You have a very nice neighbor indeed, says a lot about you too. That's going to be a really nice saw once you get it all setup. I hope you keep us filled in on the status.

Larry

[Don Baer]

The neighbor cam home for lunch today and I spoke with him. He said sure, the saws not going anywhere it mine if I want to use it so now I guess I'll have to plan a business trip back to california soon so I can get this baby and take it to it's new home. He said he had a Delta fence for it but since Bessey is in AZ Phoenix I think I put one of there systems on it..:D I'll post pictures when I have it loaded on the truck.

[Bill Simmeth]

Don, that's a neat find and a great deal! Congrats!!

Going by the badge, it was clearly made by Oliver Machinery Co. in Grand Rapids. (Dev Emch did a nice write-up on the three styles of Oliver badges a while back: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=29828 )

I've seen many Olivers, but I don't recall seeing this particular style of Oliver. It looks very much like the base is sheet steel, not cast iron. This is somewhat unusual for an Oliver, though they did start down the "value engineering" road in the 70s (like most US mfrs at the time). When you talk to your friend again, ask him to look on the red badge. In the upper right hand corner are two numbers -- serial number and model number. The serial nbr would help date the machine and the model number would, well, tell us what you have!

Has your friend actually used it? My initial guess would be that it is 3-phase. It also looks like it once carried a power feeder judging by the pig-tail hanging off the starter. This might indicate heavy use, so be sure to check out bearings and give it a good "once over' before putting into service.

Enjoy! And let us know what the numbers are!!

[Don Baer]

Bill,
Thanks for the link. From Dev's write up then min saw would be one of the red eagles. It is indeed a 3 Phase 3 HP unit. He has a new phase converter which he is also giving me. He has used it as he was starting up a cabinate shop when he went through a devorce which killed the business. he said the motor runs so strong that you''ll slip the belts or spin the blade on the arbor forfor the It's been sitting in storage for a number of years. I will indeed give a good check out before putting into service. I need to get rid of the start on/off switch and put on a proper start stop switch also.

[Bill Simmeth]

Hi Don,

I got a little more information on the saw. I posted the pic over on OWWM. A fellow there, Ron Chomper - who is heavy into Olivers - recalled that an L.A.-based company called Davis & Wells joined forces with Oliver. Some of their products were marketed under the Oliver label and targeted to the West Coast market in the 70s. He thinks this saw was marketed as the Oliver 2550.