Photo Index - Oliver Machinery Co. - Type B

Machinery Photo Index

Manufactured/Badged by:
Oliver Machinery Co.
Grand Rapids, MI

Machine Specifications
Machine Class:	Wood Working Machinery
Machine Type:	Band Saw
Machine Size:	38" Wheels
Submitted By:	Chuck Hess

Machine Specifications
Description/Model:	Type B
Date of Manufacturer:	1906 give or take
Serial Number:	94 (View SN Registry Entry)
Last Updated	2/25/2006 2:57:08 AM

Comments:

Oliver "Type B" 38" Bandsaw circa 1907
I bought this saw long ago from a machinery dealer in California. It cost me about $2500 to ship to Maui because it is too tall to fit in a container. It was so ugly, when we opened the crate I would have cried except that my employees were there. The dealer represented the saw to me as a 36" bandsaw but it is of course a 38" saw. 36" or 38", whatevea's. Be careful who you buy machines from, especially if you're 2500 miles offshore and can't inspect first! When it arrived it had 45 inches of cracks in the main casting not counting the cracked table which also had the corner broken off in days gone by. None of this was disclosed to me by the dealer but that is another story. I did get a very large refund from him. I used the Lock-n-stitch system to repair the castings since no one on Maui can braze large castings. It is a tremendous system of drilling and tapping cracks in castings and worked very well. I heard about it from a friend that works at Maui Electric Company. He told me that is how they repair any cracks in the large generator castings. The electric company and the sugar mill have the best machine shops on the island and they were very helpful to me in restoring this saw. The sugar mill machined the table flat after the cracks were repaired. They charged me 2 boxes of fat boy ice cream sandwiches and a case of Pepsi.
This saw has no serial number and no brass tag. There is #94 hand stamped in a boss on the upper portion of the C casting right over the table. Rick Fink told me that this is not a post 1907 serial number. The C casting also has "The Oliver" Type B cast in it. The lower doors are heavy cast iron and have "The Oliver" Machinery Co. made in Grand Rapids Mich. USA cast in them.
This saw began life with no upper wheel guard. When I got the saw it came with an upper wheel housing that was cast for this saw sometime later. This casting was 3/4" thick and very heavy and the upper door was fabricated from 3/16" thick steel plate. Due to the cracks in the castings and the weight of that upper housing I had a housing fabricated of 1/8" plate steel to reduce the weight on the arm. I reused the upper door that came with the saw.
This saw also began life as a line shaft belt driven machine but had been retrofit with ball bearings on the shafts and a very old 600 rpm 3 phase motor that has Babbitt bearings and no tags or info of any kind. Drive is coupled through a lovejoy connector. The blade length is 20' 2". The surface feet per minute of the blade is a little fast for resawing but still the saw cuts very well.
The one thing I did not have to do was anything concerning the wheels. These are the old spoke style wheels with iron rims-no wood. Amazingly they had good rubber on them and seemed perfectly balanced and running smooth. I should have gotten college credit for everything else I went through with this saw, I would be have a PhD by now. But college isn't this much fun!
Aloha, Chuck.

Photo 1:

Comments: Notice Hawaiian workboots!
Source: My beautiful wife photographer

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Photo 2:

Comments: Older photo
Source: My beautiful wife photographer

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Photo 3:

Comments: before
Source: my old photo

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