Photo Index - Oliver Machinery Co. - Itch Head Grinder

Machinery Photo Index

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

Machine Specifications
Machine Class:	Wood Working Machinery
Machine Type:	Planer, Wood
Machine Size:	24"
Submitted By:	Chuck Hess

Machine Specifications
Description/Model:	Itch Head Grinder
Date of Manufacturer:	sometime after 1972
Serial Number:
Last Updated	11/19/2005 4:54:42 AM

Comments:

Oliver Planer Grinder for the Inserted Tooth Cutter Head.

Aloha,
I got this grinder with my first Oliver machine, a 299-D 24" planer. I got the best of both worlds without knowing it at the time because the planer is an older vintage (1942), that was retrofit sometime after 1972 with this spiral head. I'd rather be lucky than good any day. I have already posted that story to OWWM. I wanted to post this because I have a lot of people ask me questions about grinding one of these heads, and I hope this makes it easier to explain. So the head is made up of 6 rows of 14 teeth spiraling around the cylinder, for a total of 84 teeth. The teeth are solid carbide and 1" square, and they have a cutting edge on all 4 sides so they can be rotated in the event of damage. This one came with a special T-handled torque wrench for tightening wedges. It is preset at 200 inch pounds. The teeth have to be sharpened on the head and Mr. Ralph B. Baldwin and friends came up with a cool way to do that. The grinding bar on these planers stays mounted to the machine all the time. So at grinding time all you have to mount is the grinder motor and the little indexing foot/tooth guide. The grinder is set at an angle to the cutter head. When grinding these you keep slight finger pressure on the cylinder to keep the tooth in contact with the foot. Taking a *very* light cut move the diamond wheel across the tooth in both directions before going to the next tooth. This does take a little hand/eye coordination and it is not idiot proof. Hopefully the photos will show all of this better than I can put it into language. If the tooth guide is not set correctly you will get a stripped cut in the wood. To adjust this you need to move the tooth guide to the right or left. The manual says to check the tooth with a micrometer, but I check the cut and when that is right, then its right. I have not had to adjust this since the first time I sharpened this machine.
This process usually only takes a minute amount off the cutting teeth. But we run some test pieces and see if we need to raise the pressure bar. We usually find that this is not needed every time. We grease the lub points and record the sharpening date on the clipboard and return the grinder to its box. Thats all there is to it and thats how we do it in my shop.
There is always a pretty lively debate about these in terms of carbide vs. hss and straight knife vs. spiral head. It is my humble opinion that carbide may not be as sharp as high speed steel but I firmly believe that this is the perfect planer for anyone using tropical hardwoods. It may not be as sharp out of the gate but it stays sharp for a * long* time (bring on the Teak and Anigre). We usually only sharpen 3 or 4 times a year and we are a 6 man shop, using tropical hardwood a lot of the time. I might not need to sharpen that much; sometimes we do it just because we think it is time to, not because it is noticeably dull. Comparing it to my jointer in which we run HSS, the jointer really needs sharpening much more often and some woods like Teak and Anigre can really dull it fast. Also I would not like a spiral head on my jointer. For the way that I use a jointer I want a straight hss knife that I can get really sharp.
If this information has helped you and you feel compelled to do something to repay the favor then just send me all of your Oliver dirty paper and I will add it to my collection, eeer, I mean, study it and include it in the next catalog study update. :^) If you don't have any dirty paper then just make a fat donation to OWWM!
Aloha,
Chuck

Photo 1:

Comments: Diamond Wheel - Carbide Teeth
Source: My beautiful wife's camera.

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Photo 2:

Comments: Inserted Tooth Cutter Head=ITCH
Source: My beautiful wife's camera.

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Photo 3:

Comments: Finger Pressure on Cylinder during Grinding
Source: My beautiful wife's camera.

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