NEW oliver machinery?

[James Malcolm]

Seems that Oliver is the US office for Geetech that will mentioned...

http://www.geetech.com.tw/contact_us.html

[Van Huskey]

but for me i actually enjoy setting up knifes.




?

Masochist

[tyler mckenzie]

Masochist

I just don't see how 30 minutes of my time is worth the tersa costs.

[Van Huskey]

I just don't see how 30 minutes of my time is worth the tersa costs.

I am not even a Tersa fan, I like carbide inserts that last sooo much longer and though it takes a while to rotate a whole head it saves so much time in the long run and actually tooling costs as well. IF you mill a decent amount of wood a helical insert head will pay for itself just in tooling costs pretty quickly not even counting your time. Considering carbide inserts will last at least 10 times what a standard blade will last thats 10 hours of savings right there. In the end everyone values their time different and some people actually enjoy the process of setting up tooling, I however hate this process.

[Rod Sheridan]

Rod are you talking about the general 130 planer? My 130 is fully adjustable, and when tuned right is a zero snipe minty machine. It takes some wrenches but its as solid as a 14" planer gets.

i totally appreciate the tersa system, but for me i actually enjoy setting up knifes.




why don't you buy an old oliver jointer?

Yes that's the machine and in all honesty I got to zero snipe several times when I did a thorough adjustment.

When I did a partial adjustment after changing knives I didn't get perfect results.

The reason I sold the General was to get a wider jointer, so a combo machine was in order. That meant I didn't need the General planer either.

They're both in a shop about 2 hours away, working great, I saw them this week as I dropped in to say hi on a business trip.

Great machinery, I love General stuff, unfortunately it's all gone from my shop now that the 650 saw has been replaced by a Hammer b3.

Regards, Rod.

[Jeff Duncan]

I don't own any of their (Oliver) machines but I did poke around them at a WW show several years ago. They are certainly very beefy jointers not lacking in cast iron, I was more impressed by their jointer than the Delta 16" jointer I also looked at. Olivers sales guy explained about the same as has been stated here already....the original company apparently went under due to an overabundance of safety based lawsuits. A new (Asian?) company bought the name and re-started the business (this is all from the sales guy so take it for what it's worth). Obviously they are not making the machines to the original patterns but are using somewhat newer designs. And yes they are trying to push the 'Americaness' (is that even a word?) of the Oliver name as much as possible.
In the end I took the higher road....higher quality that is. I bought separately an Italian made 16" jointer and 20" planer for well under $4k for the pair. They'll run circles around anything costing 2x as much today.
good luck,
JeffD

[Frank Drew]

Right now there are 2 Oliver jointers on Ebay,Business and industrial category,Woodworking section. [One[ is a complete 12" in Texas,starting bid of $500.00.

1957 model, now up to $600+ with sixteen hours to go. If any one gets it for anywhere near this price (even double or triple) it would be a deal, if the machine is as good as they say it is.

I'd drive to Texas myself, in this weather , to get it if I was in the market for a new jointer.

[george wilson]

I had to replace,with great regret,our 1950's Delta 8" jointer at work. The machine looked just fine,but the table had gotten a few thousanths of wear in places,so that you couldn't get it to cut the same all the way across the table. One side would give some snipe,while the other cut o.k..

The new,cheapest 8" Grizzly jointer was a lot more accurate right out of the box.

[Will Overton]

Judy, from Oliver just got back to me with additional info I asked for.

"Our company bought out the Oliver name in 2000. The original Oliver Machinery Company is Eagle Machinery & Repair, Grand Rapids, Michigan. They handle all old Oliver equipment and parts, and they are also one of our current dealers."

[Irvin Crouse]

This is an old post but I thought I would reply anyway. I had a PM 8 with a Byrd Head. Great machine. I decide to get a 12 inch jointer. I don't have a huge shop but wanted seperates. Like several of you had mentioned I looked at most of the ones available in that size. I ended up getting the Oliver 12 with the Byrd Head. It is a great machine. The tables are relatively easy to adjust to coplaner. 1500 plus lbs of cast iron. Tables are very smooth, accurate and long. There is almost no vibration. The cutter head is I believe 4 inches with 6 rows of knives spinning at 6000 rpms so the cut is as good as I have seen off any machine. I did use the PM 12 inch which is a good machine but not as smooth to run and adjust. My understanding is the owner owns a big machine company in Taiwan which does contract for PM and other. He wanted to develop his own line with beefier machines. I have also used a Northfield straight knife 16 jointer with direct drive. Maybe the best machine you could buy. I did not like the slower cutter head speed of the direct drive. You have to feed the board slower. The new Oliver 12 and some of their other machines may not be the level of the old Oliver but it is an excellent machine and the best jointer I have used.