Photo Index - Oliver Machinery Co. - Dual Arbor/Model #90

Machinery Photo Index

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

Machine Specifications
Machine Class:	Wood Working Machinery
Machine Type:	Table Saw
Machine Size:	2-12" Blades
Submitted By:	Jeff Behan

Machine Specifications
Description/Model:	Dual Arbor/Model #90
Date of Manufacturer:	1900's
Serial Number:
Last Updated	2/3/2006 12:00:00 AM

Comments:

I just returned from another 2300 mile road trip.Meet fellow OWWMer John Marotta in eastern Tennessee and took a look at some of the machines he has been collecting for his shop,they are pretty impressive (2-Oliver 26 lathes,Oliver 22 lathe,the Y-42 Snowflake,
Oliver 260 table saw to name a few).John is a really nice guy and it was a pleasure meeting him.John gave me a tip on an old pattern shop up near Straton,PA.that is about to be torn down.I gave the owner a call and went over to his shop to see what he wanted to do with the contexts of the pattern shop.He gave me the history of the patern shop and the foundry where it located.The foundry was founded about 1827 and moved to its present location in 1850.The company was family owned until about the 1960's and then fell to some hard times.The pattern shop was closed down about 1965 and the doors were shut.The foundry was shut down not much after that and the buildings were torn down in the 1990's.The fabriction shop buildings and the main office and the boiler buldings were sold to the present owner and the business is now doing very well.The pattern shop
and a big pattern storage building have been sitting and neglected since the sixties.They have been suject to vandals,kids partying and theft.The new owner showed me pictures of the pattern shop from the 1950's and it was impressive(you could have eaten
your food off the floors.The men working there wore white lab coats with bow ties and had a full array of pattern making machines.The shop was orniglnally set up with line shafts and later some electric motor run machines were added.The new owner then lead to
me to the pattern shop and I spent the next 6 hours looking thur out the building.The
shop had been pretty ransacked.There was ten work tables along the left side of the shop where the pattern makers did most of their work.All the drawers were pulled out or throw on the floor,all ten of the emmert vices were missing(except for a few of the bar clamping devices still attached to the bottom of the 3" thick maple tops and a couple broken dogs laying on the floor).Their was a 36" American band saw with the table and upper and lower doors missing.A fence and both table tops for an 12" jointer were laying where a jointer was once standing.Face plates and tool rest for a big Oliver lathe were
left sitting in a pile of wood chips next to where the lathe had once been standing.Over across the room were misc.tooling and parts spread and thrown about with no apparent reason.There was miter gauges for Oliver and Tannewitz tablesaws,tooling for lathes,cutters for an moulder and shaper,different handles and wrenches for a number of different machines.Across the other side of the room the outlines of missing tablesaws and lathes and moulder could be seen on the yellowing color of the wood floor.Leather belts hung down from the line shaft pullies.Motors were left still bolted down to the T&G maple floor.Parts of machines were tossed about.This seemed to be slow and painful
death for once a grand pattern shop and walking thur all this put me in a sullen mood until I started to see that there was still a lot of parts and pieces and some complete machines that could be saved from all this doom (I hope my H.S.english teacher will read this and will think maybe he did learn something in class).I will be posting pictures of all the machines and tooling in the next few days and I hope you enjoy then as much as I have in finding then.A few of the machines will end up in my shop and the others in shops of some of my friends.As for the tooling I haven't decided yet what I'am going to do with it all yet.

Photo 1:

Comments: Oliver 90 Tablesaw
Source: myself

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Photo 2:

Comments: Some of the tooling
Source: myself

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Photo 3:

Comments: The shame
Source: myself

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