Bruce Johnson
Stainless
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2006
- Location
- Burbank, CA USA
Hi guys;
I thought you'd enjoy seeing this neat machine that I picked up last year and recently got cleaned up and running. It's from 1963, so it's not really an antique yet, but the whole design is so interesting and reminiscent of old machinery.
http://xstrange.com/Machinery/OliverHD1.jpg
http://xstrange.com/Machinery/OliverHD2.jpg
http://xstrange.com/Machinery/OliverHD3.jpg
http://xstrange.com/Machinery/OliverHD4.jpg
It's made by Oliver Instrument Co. aka Oliver of Adrian, not to be confused with Oliver, who makes all the nice woodworking machinery. Both companies are still around today. I talked to the folks at Oliver Instrument, and they were able to trace the serial number and tell me more about it. This machine was made in 1963 and originally sold to a trade school in Ohio. The model HD Heavy Die Filer was made for about ten years, and then was replaced by an improved model, which was made for another ten years.
It's really a vertical power hacksaw, with a reciprocating frame that slides in a classic crosshead design bearing group. The jaws of the frame are offset and have a wide adjustment range, so almost anything can be clamped between them and tensioned. In the pictures, I've got a standard 12" hacksaw blade in there, which works great for sawing aluminum plates. It can also be set up to handle pieces of bandsaw blade, coping saw blades, and files up to about 3/4" dia. The distance between the jaws is adjustable, and the upper arm releases and swings up to place a workpiece over the blade.
The stroke is also inifinitely adjustable from 0 to about 6". The bottom end of the connecting rod slides in a T-slot in the face of the back end of the main shaft. There's a worm drive gearbox down in the base which reduces the drive from the motor pulley and spins the accessories. The pedal on the lower right is a clutch, which disconnects the drive and latches down. It works, but it's very stiff and I haven't found it to be particularly useful.
Note the unusual design of the table. It tilts in two axes, but clears the lower arm. The yoke with the curved dovetail way is all one casting. The two heavy swinging hold down arms are very handy. I made up the two aluminum bar feet to fit the type of work I'll mostly be doing on it. Each arm can actually hold two seperate feet and other accessories.
Down on the right side are two built in pumps driven by the gearbox. I haven't cleaned up and reinstalled the copper lines yet. The upper pump pushes air to a shuttle piston under the front edge of the table, which blows chips off the blade. The lower pump apparently is for cutting oil; it has a flex line that attaches to the right hold down arm and aims at the blade.
It took me a while to figure out what the round thing is on the left side under the table. It's a spool for holding a small coil of bandsaw blade stock. You pull out a fresh length through the angled slot and snap it off.
I put a nice old Smith 3/4 HP 1725 motor on there and mounted a drum switch up near the table. I set it up to run fairly slow, about 80 strokes/min, and it cuts beautifully at that speed. I was also pleasantly surprised how quiet it is; all you can hear is the hum of the motor and the cutting of the saw teeth. It's so much smoother and more powerful than my other tabletop-size die filers. It weighs about 800 lbs.
I picked it up on ebay last summer for something like $200 from USA Machinery in City Of Industry. It was covered with grease and grime, but hardly anything was wrong with it. I think it's going to be a very useful machine in my shop, particularly for all the one-off aluminum plate electronics panels that I do.
I've never seen another one of these machines before or since this one showed up. Have any of you seen or used one?
Bruce Johnson
I thought you'd enjoy seeing this neat machine that I picked up last year and recently got cleaned up and running. It's from 1963, so it's not really an antique yet, but the whole design is so interesting and reminiscent of old machinery.
http://xstrange.com/Machinery/OliverHD1.jpg
http://xstrange.com/Machinery/OliverHD2.jpg
http://xstrange.com/Machinery/OliverHD3.jpg
http://xstrange.com/Machinery/OliverHD4.jpg
It's made by Oliver Instrument Co. aka Oliver of Adrian, not to be confused with Oliver, who makes all the nice woodworking machinery. Both companies are still around today. I talked to the folks at Oliver Instrument, and they were able to trace the serial number and tell me more about it. This machine was made in 1963 and originally sold to a trade school in Ohio. The model HD Heavy Die Filer was made for about ten years, and then was replaced by an improved model, which was made for another ten years.
It's really a vertical power hacksaw, with a reciprocating frame that slides in a classic crosshead design bearing group. The jaws of the frame are offset and have a wide adjustment range, so almost anything can be clamped between them and tensioned. In the pictures, I've got a standard 12" hacksaw blade in there, which works great for sawing aluminum plates. It can also be set up to handle pieces of bandsaw blade, coping saw blades, and files up to about 3/4" dia. The distance between the jaws is adjustable, and the upper arm releases and swings up to place a workpiece over the blade.
The stroke is also inifinitely adjustable from 0 to about 6". The bottom end of the connecting rod slides in a T-slot in the face of the back end of the main shaft. There's a worm drive gearbox down in the base which reduces the drive from the motor pulley and spins the accessories. The pedal on the lower right is a clutch, which disconnects the drive and latches down. It works, but it's very stiff and I haven't found it to be particularly useful.
Note the unusual design of the table. It tilts in two axes, but clears the lower arm. The yoke with the curved dovetail way is all one casting. The two heavy swinging hold down arms are very handy. I made up the two aluminum bar feet to fit the type of work I'll mostly be doing on it. Each arm can actually hold two seperate feet and other accessories.
Down on the right side are two built in pumps driven by the gearbox. I haven't cleaned up and reinstalled the copper lines yet. The upper pump pushes air to a shuttle piston under the front edge of the table, which blows chips off the blade. The lower pump apparently is for cutting oil; it has a flex line that attaches to the right hold down arm and aims at the blade.
It took me a while to figure out what the round thing is on the left side under the table. It's a spool for holding a small coil of bandsaw blade stock. You pull out a fresh length through the angled slot and snap it off.
I put a nice old Smith 3/4 HP 1725 motor on there and mounted a drum switch up near the table. I set it up to run fairly slow, about 80 strokes/min, and it cuts beautifully at that speed. I was also pleasantly surprised how quiet it is; all you can hear is the hum of the motor and the cutting of the saw teeth. It's so much smoother and more powerful than my other tabletop-size die filers. It weighs about 800 lbs.
I picked it up on ebay last summer for something like $200 from USA Machinery in City Of Industry. It was covered with grease and grime, but hardly anything was wrong with it. I think it's going to be a very useful machine in my shop, particularly for all the one-off aluminum plate electronics panels that I do.
I've never seen another one of these machines before or since this one showed up. Have any of you seen or used one?
Bruce Johnson