Photo Index - Oliver Machinery Co. - 88D

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:	16"-18"
Submitted By:	T.J. Forrester

Machine Specifications
Description/Model:	88D
Date of Manufacturer:	1929
Serial Number:	36376 (View SN Registry Entry)
Last Updated	10/1/2008 12:44:00 AM

Comments:

This saw has quite a history behind the restoration. There were many people and places involved in bringing it all together to make a complete machine. I'll start with the purchase. Fellow OWWMer Doug Westlind and I attended an electrical shop auction a couple of years ago here in Eugene. I had information from a reliable source that an Oliver TS was going to be a lot in this auction. I had told Doug I would never be interested in replacing my venerable USB unless it was something outrageous "like an 88 with concentric hand wheels". We walked through the door and lo and behold there it was. Doug bid for me as I rushed to pick up my kids and see a friend of mine dying from a rare blood sarcoma whose condition had suddenly worsened. I was too late. I figured that he died almost exactly as Doug won the auction. It was a bittersweet win for me. The auction itself was quite a circus. I'll let Doug tell that story! The machine looked like it had been hit by a fork lift on the front. The handwheels were busted up really bad and brazed back together even worse. The sliding table, a fairly rare option on 88s back then, had been replaced with a newer one (old one broken as it crashed to the floor I'm guessing?) The motor had been stalled for so long on obviously more than one occasion, with either ridiculously large heaters or no protection at all, that 8 bars in the rotor had fractured, several in one area. My motor man said it would be lucky to make 1 or 2 of the name plate 6 horsepower. Rebarring was about a $1900 process... A nationwide motor search ensued, producing results from a few places on the "wrong" coast. The lead contender and eventual winner was a motor taken from a later model 88 by our own Phil Clement in NC. After having the motor shipped to Eugene, OR, a weeks long game of bluff and posturing ensued with the shipper that charged me $506 for a 1/4 pallet of class 80 freight at 175 lbs. We finally settled after I produced A LOT of documentation showing bona fide quotes in the $190-$275 range, and had aged the invoice appropriately. My motor man Bob at M&N electrical went to work and soon we had a 220v 3 phase hybrid motor made up of the two (old case with new guts). Doug Westlind again worked his magic on the lathe and in the body and paint shop, producing the beautiful machine you see here. Chuck Hess donated a NOS Oliver center hand wheel and table filler strip. Doug machined the rim of a spare 18" handwheel I had laying around for the outer wheel, and machined most of the metal off of a stock Reid lever to get a brake handle that looks very original. I re etched the entire quadrant scale on the slider using a custom made etching guide and re stamped the 1/4" tall letters and numbers. I followed that with a 320-800 grit polishing session, mounted the Biesemeyer I had used on the USB, and massaged the rolling table into smooth and level operation. Doug donated a UPS'd (tm) 16" Forest Duraline Hi AT blade. I had the 14 broken and damaged teeth replaced, the body re tensioned, and the whole thing ground back to spec by our local industrial tooling shop. Between the restoration of the blade and Doug's expert machining of the arbor flange, the 16" blade runs out .001 total at the outer rim. This is the saw I will keep forever. And what of the old USB? She is resting comfortably next to her sister (sn 51)for the first time in about 70 years, crated and cosmolined, in southern Oregon, waiting for my retirement and the building of the "dream shop" to house everything I'd ever want...

Update 9/30/08 I found a couple of before pics while rummaging through files this evening. Too bad I can't find the one of the busted up rusted over handwheels. Finished polishing and installed auxiliary table.

Photo 1:

Comments: Front view
Source: myself

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Photo 2:

Comments: side view
Source: myself

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Photo 3:

Comments: slider etching
Source: myself

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Photo 4:

Comments: ready to go to Doug's
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Photo 5:

Comments: Inner workings with badly burned motor
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