| Review by Ian_S | posted 818 days ago | 7181 views | 1 time favorited | 17 comments |  |
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When I decided to upgrade to a 12 Inch Jointer at the end of 2010 I researched many brands and models. Usual suspects like Powermatic, Delta, Grizzly, General, Shop Fox and even some of the Euro models at the urging of a respected colleague. The Euros were way out of my price range (I refuse to take out a loan to buy a machine as my colleague suggested). While researching the remaining brands I found this video of an Oliver on youtube www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKMxIY0iGlw . The Oliver Machinery that some of us may remember from High School shop is no more. The name was purchased by Sunhill Machinery, an importer of Chinese tools and this jointer is one of their branded imports. That said, I began comparing Oliver to the other brands and liked what I found. Two things stuck out to me as pros for the Oliver. This entire machine is cast iron, base and all, it tips the scales at 1700 pounds. Most important to me, this machine has an American made Baldor 3hp motor.
On Feb 2, 2011 I purchased the Oliver from Machine King in Matthews, NC. I found Machine King through the Oliver website. I contacted 8 of the dealers listed. Five did not give me the time of day, one referred me to their website and one gave me a price that was almost the same as a Euro machine. Then I talked to Justin from Machine King. Within the hour he had called me back with his best price ($4050.00), including delivery to my shop in Kingston, NY. Then Oliver was delivered on Feb 15.
It took my friend and I three hours to uncrate the machine and move it from the ground floor to my second story shop. The building I rent in has an elevator and the owners operate a metal fabrication shop on the ground floor. I borrowed their dollys, jensen bars and an engine hoist to move the jointer.
Assembly tasks included: bolting on the fence, cutterhead guard and attaching a plug end. I was pleased to find that the knives and beds were correctly aligned from the factory. I cleaned off the protective oil, hook up the dust collection and fired the machine up. Assembly time three hours.
This machine does not vibrate. At all. Forget nickels, you could serve coffee with your grandmothers fine china on this machine while it is running!
The bed of the machine is 92” long. The infeed bed is adjusted by a large wheel mounted on the back of the machine. The wheel is very easy to use and moves the bed smoothly. I got the three knife cutterhead because I couldn’t justify $1000 premium for the Byrd cutterhead. I put the jointer to the test on 300 linear feet of 6” to 10” wide rough cut (very rough cut) spalted hard maple. I am very impressed with the quality of the cut. The fence is 60” long and 5-5/8” high. The fence on my machine has a spot on each end where it twists about the thickness of a business card. Due to the length of the fence I have not found this to be an issue. I notified Oliver of this and they noted it in my file. The jointer has a two year warranty and I will keep an eye on the fence.
The main reason I took one star away is dust collection. I have a Penn State Industries 1200cfm dust collector with 6” pipe running to all machines with blast gates at all branches. The way the machine is designed makes it almost impossible to efficiently collect dust from the machine. There are large openings at the adjusting wheel for the out feed bed as well as a mix of cavernous openings for dust to get stuck inside the machine. Four small 10”X12” pieces of 1/2 plywood and a few strategically placed shop rags and dust collection now meets my standards. Dust collection modification time 2 hours.
At the end of the day I am very happy with this machine and would recommend it to anyone.
-- Ian, NY
17 comments so far
sawdustphill
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52 posts in 863 days
#1 posted 818 days ago
Last year I replaced my delta 6” jointer, I researched the oliver ,and decided to buy thier 8” model
but some things came up and cut my funds short. so I had to settle for the grizzly 8” I still regret
not buying the oliver. “CONGRADULATIONS.
Phillip
Steven H
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1105 posts in 1232 days
#2 posted 818 days ago
Im curious Where is this Jointer made?
The jointer use a Baldor motor which is made in US
-- shdesign3.com
Jim Bertelson
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3337 posts in 1337 days
#3 posted 817 days ago
It is always fun to see what the professionals use to mangle their wood, but it always makes my shop look insignificant. The US motor is interesting….....I think the most powerful motor in my shop resides in my Delta DC.
Thanks for the post, it is just a dream for the hobby shop, but it gives us some kind of measuring point outside our own possibilities, be they space or money.
Alaska Jim
-- Jim, Anchorage Alaska
Brad_Nailor
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2450 posts in 2130 days
#4 posted 817 days ago
Sweet..that thing is a freindly monster! It’s always great to have as wide of a jointer as possible. Both shops I have worked in have had 30 year old Powermatic 12” jointers that were like battleships, took half a day for the cutterheads to stop spinning after you switched it off, but they were great.
-- http://www.facebook.com/pages/DSO-Designs/297237806954248
matt garcia
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1736 posts in 1844 days
#5 posted 817 days ago
Look at the runway on that carrier!!! I’m jealous!!! Congrats on your new jointer!!
-- Matt Garcia Wannabe Period Furniture Maker, Houston TX
Pop
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415 posts in 2119 days
#6 posted 817 days ago
Talk about “Heavy Iron”! I’m look at the Oliver 10 inch tablesaw. Anybody know anything about those? How did you find “Tool King”? I live in Charlotte, NC. Matthews is a Charlotte bedroom community. I’ve never heard of Tool King. I’m going on line to see what I can find about them.
Pop
-- One who works with his hands is a laborer, his hands & head A craftsman, his hands, head & heart a artist
SASmith
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1369 posts in 1159 days
#7 posted 817 days ago
I can’t imagine having to get that jointer up to a second story. Thanks for the review.
-- Scott Smith, Southern Illinois
Ken90712
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12676 posts in 1361 days
#8 posted 817 days ago
WOW what a machine!!!! Congrats to you! Would love to have a monster like this. Enjoy!
-- Ken, "Everyday above ground is a good day!"
Ian_S
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9 posts in 850 days
#9 posted 817 days ago
Steven H- From my understanding the castings are made in China and the Baldor motor and some of the assembly is done in Washington state.
Pop- Machine King was listed on Oliver’s website. I called them up and Justin took care of everything over the phone. They were great to deal with and I highly recommend Machine King.
-- Ian, NY
Bertha
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13115 posts in 865 days
#10 posted 817 days ago
Man I’m salivating. I absolutely love Oliver machinery. I dont’ even KNOW anyone that owns one for residential use. She is an absolute beauty, and certainly an elephant at 12”.
-- My dad and I built a 65 chev pick up.I killed trannys in that thing for some reason-Hog
therookie
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891 posts in 1000 days
#11 posted 816 days ago
Go Big or Go Home lol
-- http://aewoodworks.webs.com
Jack_T
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621 posts in 1204 days
#12 posted 816 days ago
Ian that is not an elephant. It is a blue whale! 1700 pounds? I hope you checked to make sure the floor could support that much weight!!!
Enjoy such a nice machine.
-- Jack T, John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life."
dbhost
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4748 posts in 1404 days
#13 posted 816 days ago
That is a fantastic jointer for sure! A point of note here though. I can’t be 100% certain of the present status, but it appears since the web site has disappeared, and the phone numbers have either been cut off, or changed, but it appears that Sunhill Machinery went out of business in late 2009. (I own a Sunhill jointer and was looking for knives for it…). I believe the Oliver name was sold off just prior to that. It IS possible that the former Sunhill company is doing business exclusively as Oliver, and dealing only in larger machines like this.
Anyone with business knowledge here have any clues?
-- Manufacturer of fine quality sawdust since 1984. Comments and advice on my shop welcome. Check it out at http://lumberjocks.com/dbhost/workshop. Gladly accepting shop build donations!
Ian_S
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9 posts in 850 days
#14 posted 815 days ago
dbhost- Interesting comment. All of the articles connecting the Oliver name to Sunhill were from the early 2000s.
-- Ian, NY
therookie
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891 posts in 1000 days
#15 posted 815 days ago
I kinda sorta really really want one now but dont know where to put it.
-- http://aewoodworks.webs.com
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