Photo Index - Oliver Machinery Co. - Model # 285-T

Machinery Photo Index

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

Machine Specifications
Machine Class:	Wood Working Machinery
Machine Type:	Shaper, Wood
Machine Size:	1 1/8" Spindle
Submitted By:	Chuck Hess

Machine Specifications
Description/Model:	Model # 285-T
Date of Manufacturer:	1942
Serial Number:	56976 (View SN Registry Entry)
Last Updated	2/25/2006 4:23:14 AM

Comments:

Oliver #285-T Shaper, serial # 56976, 1942.
Aloha,
I got this WWII shaper from the Woodweb several years ago and it was in Florida. The owner had purchased it at an Eglin Air Force Base surplus sale of some kind and it must have been cheap because he sold it to me for $300. It was good that I got it cheap because I did wind up with much more than that into it. I had to pay someone to go get it and take it off base to be crated. They would not allow crating to be done onsite. Then I had to pay for the crate and shipping to Maui. Everyone was cooperative and as long as I kept the checks flowing it all proceeded.
This was another all time fugly Oliver but when it arrived it could have done woodwork. The whole thing was extremely rusty and ugly but there was nothing broken. The cutter that was rusted in place was he old bevel edge knife with the slip collar (widow maker) and was a profile that resembled your index finger in size and shape. I have no idea what they were doing with that but it sure looked dangerous! I would have wanted to wear full combat gear before operating it. There must be a shortage of workbenches there on the base because upon rust removal, we discovered that the top had 1.2 billion pecker marks on it. Someone had done a * lot* of peening on this baby. The restoration definitely involved taking the table to the sugar mill machine shop and they surfaced it on a turret lathe. The rest of the restoration was mostly derusting and repaint, and a lot of little fixes here and there. We did a minor repair to the shaft because I found it had some up and down play. Upon inspection someone had added a gasket above the top bearing housing that was not supposed to be there. After removal of that it worked fine and was an easy fix. It was amazing to me that this one did not need new shaft bearings because of the way she looked on the outside. There is not much to a shaper so the restoration went pretty quickly. It has a 1 1/8" spindle and we added a Powermatic Accufence fence as the original fence was mia.
We use this for our cabinet door edge shaper and it pretty much stays set up for that all the time. She runs very smooth and does a great job. I believe it is rated at 2 HP but has plenty of power and I would compare it, in terms of power, to a 5HP Powermatic that we used to have. Please excuse the Delta Extension wings, we temporarily have it set up for working with pretty large cabinet doors. A shaper is definitely one machine that benefits greatly from having a cast iron mass. The cast iron and precision bearings I believe make a smoother and quieter cut than the Powermatic is capable of. I really like the pushbutton switch inside the drop edge of the table. I dont like the height adjustment on these as well as the Oliver #287 larger shapers. It is not quite as positive of design and takes a little getting used to. Like all of our Olivers this one is a workhorse for us. I like to have 4 shapers for our cabinet door process. Cope, Stick, Panel Raiser & Door Edge. That way if we need to change a profile we dont have to change the whole setup and we can leave them setup until the end of the job which is nice for changes and contingencies. Now this one is one nice WWII shaper!
Aloha,
Chuck

Photo 1:

Comments: Front shot
Source: My beautiful wife's camera.

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Photo 2:

Comments: Delta Extension wings
Source: My beautiful wife's camera.

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Photo 3:

Comments: Badge Side
Source: My beautiful wife's camera.

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