Oliver 25" Planer?

[Reed Wells]

Hey guys, Anyone have any experience with this planer? Digital up and down, available with 10 hp single phase or 15 hp 3 phase. The price seems good for an Oliver if they still make them solid. I am about a month away from purchasing a 24" planer. Oh, does anyone know what they mean by a guaranteed 6' glue line.
Model-OM4470
http://www.johngweber.com/jgw/Oliver/oliver.htm#om4470

[John Shuk]

This is a company that bought the Oliver name and they are made overseas.
As far as I have seen people are very happy with the 10" jointer that they sell.
It seems to be a well built machine at a good price. Hopefully the planer is as nice.

[Kevin Groenke]

We recently upgraded to a PM209HH with a Byrd Shelix helical cutterhead. Though the 209hh in particular is underwhelming, we are VERY impressed with the cutterhead. Cuts squirrelly grain (interlocked, wavy, even birds-eye and curly) with very little tear-out and the dramatic reduction in noise level is fantastic.

The price on the "Oliver"s looks good, it certainly isn't the same company that made the venerable old iron in Grand Rapids, MI. If a spiral cutterhead isn't an option, find out whether somebody makes one that'll go in it, otherwise be real sure you won't ever want to make the switch.

From Old Wood-Working Machines.com:

http://www.owwm.com/MfgIndex/Detail.asp?ID=609

This company name first appeared in 1903, when the American Machinery Co. (http://www.owwm.com/MfgIndex/detail.asp?ID=32) was renamed to avoid confusion with the much larger American Wood Working Machine Co. (http://www.owwm.com/MfgIndex/detail.asp?ID=37) For more information, see our page on the early history of this company (http://www.owwm.com/Oliver/EarlyHistory.asp).
In 1908 Oliver bought the rights to a German invention: the round cutterhead for planers and jointers (http://www.datamp.org/displayPatent.php?number=%20877407). It represented a major safety advance, especially for jointers, and these Oliver cutterheads are found on many older machines; they are now considered less safe than newer designs.
In 1923 Oliver introduced the Straitoplane, which is a planer with a special feed mechanism that did not flatten the board as it passed across the cutterhead. This allows the Straitoplane to be simultaneously a planer and jointer¿a significant advance. (In 1999, Board Machining Co. of Raleigh, NC, trademarked the Straitoplane name; a web search on this company produced no hits of any kind.)
In 1929 the company bought woodworking machinery maker Eaglesfield-Link (http://www.owwm.com/MfgIndex/detail.asp?ID=277).
Over the years, Oliver became a favorite of vocation shops and pattern shops. They moved in and out of other product areas over the years, but always made woodworking machinery.
Rich Fink, an original Oliver Machinery employee, has purchased the remaining parts, inventory and drawings of the original Oliver Machinery Co. His new company is called Eagle Machinery and operates out of the same building that Oliver formerly occupied. He has plans (according to an article in Woodshop News) to reintroduce the Oliver 299, their 24" planer.
The Oliver name has also resurfaced on a line of imported Pacific-Rim machinery that is unrelated to the original Oliver line.
Resources from the OWWM Site:


An early history of the Oliver Machinery Company, including serial numbers (http://www.owwm.com/Oliver/EarlyHistory.asp)¿by Jeff McVey
Oliver History (http://www.owwm.com/Oliver/History.asp)¿by Dana Batory
Post 1907 serial numbers (http://www.owwm.com/Oliver/SerialNumbers.asp) (for pre-1907 serial numbers see the early history (http://www.owwm.com/Oliver/EarlyHistory.asp) document) Resources from other web sites:


Study of Oliver catalogs (http://www.hesswoodwork.com/special/chuck-hess-oliver-catalog-study_copywrited.pdf)¿by Chuck Hess
Restoration Guide (http://www.oliverusedmachinery.com/Restoration/index.html)¿By Dana Batory Source for manuals, parts, etc.:

On December 21, 2001, Eagle Machinery & Repair (http://www.eaglemachinery-repair.com/) made a partial purchase of assets of the former Oliver Machinery Co. That purchase included parts inventory, patterns, original drawings, sales records, and the rights to all, photos, manuals and sales literature.

They are the source for manuals, accessories and parts for pre 1999 Oliver Woodworking Machines.

EAGLE MACHINERY & REPAIR CO.
1025 CLANCY NE
GRAND RAPIDS, MI 49503

PHONE: 616-336-0034
FAX: 616-336-0045
Information Sources


Besides the above-mentioned book by Batory, numerous people have contributed information, most notably Jeff McVey.
For more information on the British incarnation of Oliver, and the parting of ways between Joe Oliver and his company, see this Jeff McVey (http://www.owwm.org/viewtopic.php?p=52601#52601) posting in the oldwwmachines discussion forum.
The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History lists the following in its collection: Oliver Machinery Company; Grand Rapids, MI; 'Oliver' Junior Line Woodworking Machinery Catalog Number 24; soft; 1928
The Grand Rapids Public Library has a couple of Oliver catalogs in its archives: Nos. 18 and 21. Catalog 21 is described as "ca. 1920".
The oldwwmachines archives contains an interesting posting (http://www.owwm.org/viewtopic.php?p=52593#52593) on dating Oliver catalogs.
The current copyright holder of Oliver's catalogs and manuals has requested that we not post complete scans of these documents.

[Reed Wells]

Kevin, Thanks for the extensive research on the Oliver tools. It is very informative and apreciated. Reed