Can You Help ID This American Edger / Jointer

I have been looking for a wide old iron jointer for some time without success to replace my 8" unmentionable. Just a retired hobbiest, but have woods and so wider rough sawn stock available. Litterally tripped over an ad and ended up talking to a woman who is helping the 90 year old owner get rid of his cabinet shop that was in operation up until 2 years ago and started by his father. Looked on the OWWM site at pictures, etc but could not find anything difinitive.

She is not read knowledgeable of the machinery (although very helpful and pleasant). Description started as an American jointer of 16 or 18 inch size. Picture, which I will upload by edit or in next post, is not real clear. If it was not 6 hours away I would go look, but am trying to figure out first. My guess is this thing has some kind of feeder set up on it. But have to admit I am ignorant on the old jointer / edger machines. So I am curious if any of you knowledgable folks can shed any light on this vague description and less than clear picture! And maybe for my use I should steer clear of an edger / jointer combination.

Thanks.

Dale

Can't tell what is there from that photograph. I can guess--from the photograph--that there could be some good machinery there, and that there was a fair amount of skilled woodworking in that job.

This is a challenge with that photograph, but I believe it to be an Oliver 166. Two square legs one at each end, and the leg profile definitly looks Oliver, location is a little strange, normally it would underneath not at the end. Anyway an Oliver 166 is pretty desirable and I would say if there's any chance of getting it at a reasonable price it would be worth a look.

Alan

The pedestal base is faintly reminiscent of Oliver, though without the Deco influence. Beyond that, there's nothing much to see or guess upon. I doubt that the "feedworks" (if such it be) is integral to the machine. IOW, you are probably just looking at a nice wide old jointer. Hopefully whereabouts of the fence is still known and accounted for, so you can joint the edges after flattening large slabs.

Like Robert, I was struck by the apparent quality/intricacy of the work; and it looks like there are good machines there.

Where are you in upstate NY? (Don't worry, I have a 12" & a 16" jointer with Bilstrom feeder, and no room for more )

smt
ehmcofab at g mail dot com

I think i can make out the drive end of the cutterhead and motor mounted on the far end, and maybe a ships wheel back there for depth adjustment but it maybe wishful thinking. I have a 12" american so maybe i'm seeing what i know to be there. I'm in wny and would be happy to take a look if its on my end of the state. One big jointer is enough for me.
Rob

Thanks to everyone for your comments and help. And I agree with your comments as to the apparent quality of the work. The gal I have talked to commented several times that this shop did excellent work. She did not share her connection, be it family, neighbor or whatever.

Now I am adding the second picture she sent. Have to admit to being an idiot. I looked at it and the picture did not make any sense, so I did not post it with the first one I included above. I just brought it up again, to see if I could make sense of it and clicked to edit it in Picasa so I could save it and of course the software is smarter than me and rotated it. Now it makes sense. So here it is. Not sure it will help any, but it is from the other end of the machine.

Stephen - I am about 15 miles East of you, live just outside Waverly at the bottom of the hill, but Twain's study is not up the hill here!

Rob thanks for the offer, but machine is way down south in PA.

It does look like an oliver but, it was a direct drive that seems to have been altered beyond repairing that part.

Yep, definitely Oliver.

Looks like it might even have the draft or spring joint option(s). High class machine.

I have to defer to Mr Green as far as the motor drive. I can't see enough to guess. What I think I see is it might be babbitt (with the large arbor support in the last photo posted on the front side of the machine. Not a problem if it is, just a comment.

However, having made that comment, if it is Babbitt, it is probably also a clamshell head. These were originally marketed as safety heads, and they were a huge improvement on the truly dangerous (on hand fed machines) square heads. However, many today replace them, as there have been accidents with poorly set up knives, poor clamping procedures, and some risk of failure of bolts that have been over-torqued in their (80 - 100 years) life.

OTOH, if it is babbitt, then it is unlikely that it was direct motor drive and is probably not modified in that area. Sounds like you need to go take a look.

Duckfarmer, If you drag it home, i'll definitely come over to take a look! Dunno if that is an inducement or a warning, lol!
Be glad to meet you sometime. If it's an hour or 2 away, I might be able to go along to check it out if you were interested. Farther than that, I'd have to think really hard right now. Too much going on and not enough time to do it. sigh.

There's going to be a lot of people salivating over that as word gets out.

I'm curious about the "feed works" or whatever the heck that is attached to the outfeed table.

smt

In the first picture you can see the end of the cutter head and what looks like part of the old motor bolts still in.

The bearing housing is large for sure, but I cant tell if there is a cap on top. I don't think anyone made a direct drive (motor on cutter head) babbit machine. I have owned coupled drive ones.

What about that planer behind it and other big stuff?

Wow. I think you should grab a wad of cash, a bigger truck, and a helper that can keep his mouth shut until you're done.

Chip

Well, upon further inspection on a bigger screen then my tablet, it is belt drive, probably flat belt originally.
I don't see a top cap on those bearings, so I am thinking ball bearing.

Still no clue as to the other thing belted go at the end.