I just bought a surplus aircraft carrier

I was very fortunate last week to find a piece of old iron that I not only wanted but could afford as well. It was listed as a "15" inch Oliver (they never made 15") for $325 on the local Craigslist. Running condition supposedly. I called as early as was polite the next morning and was the third person to call but as luck would have it, I was the first person that could show up. It turned out that the machine was only about 3 miles away and I rushed up there on my lunch break. It turned out to be a 12" Oliver 166BD in great shape with only the typical wear that 56 years might bring to a machine. I examined it to make sure it didn't have any serious flaws but for that price, they would have to be serious indeed to pass on it. As it turns out, they were closing the shop and he just wanted everything gone. He thought he would have problems selling a 440V 3phase machine so he priced it low. I didn't haggle at all since he really was losing big in this deal and I picked up the transformer to go with it for another $75 making a grand total of $400 for my newest project.

Without further ado I give you the Oliver 166BD 12" jointer with 3 knife cutterhead (standard, not clamshell type) 5HP 440V 3phase motor weighing in at a trifling 1700#.

Thats a honey Brett!

They can be a bit tricky to adjust, but there's no shimming needed, and once you've got it all dialed in they make one heck of a straight edge. Watch the fingers though!

She's a beauty!
Wish I had the room for a big jointer.

nice score brett!

Wonderful deal!

What are the chances of finding something like that so close to home?

DT

That is a "you suck" deal if there has ever been one. I think you and me may be tied for best old iron deal out there. Thats going to be a sweet tool in your shop. I am loving my 12" jointer. Except for the motor starter that keeps given me fits. But that is another story

weighing in at a trifling 1700#.

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And you didn't even ask about how to move it. Now I really am impressed!

Jeff
Who moves big machines by himself all the time.

Holy cow! Let us know how the USS Baldwin handles at launch!!

Wes

I dunno Brett. I see in a couple of the pics that the cover is missing on the electrical junction box in the back. Aside from that, I'd say you did all right*.

Bigtime congrats!




Where: all=killer
and: right=deal

Great score! I be looking at you and Jeff for pointers when I have a shop that is big enough to put equipment like that in!

Thanks guys.

Vaughn, I almost passed on it when I saw the missing electrical cover but then the strong wave of glue fumes moved away and my brain snapped back to reality and I parted with the money happily.

Jeff, I've seen your recent acquisitions from Arnfest and they are probably some of the smaller ones. I'll confess that I brought a friend to help me get it into the truck but once I got it to my work then it was all me (and the forklift).

I honestly don't have room for it currently but that hardly mattered. There was no way I was letting a deal this good pass me by. I'll hold on to it till I can build a shop that does it justice. Then there's the fact that it is an Oliver. As the tagline of the infamous Stan Lee goes..."'Nuff said"

Hey Brett, I just got to get my.........

........YOU SUCK..........

......in here

Yep, that is a keeper, good for you to move that fast on it, I'm sure it would not have been there after work even.

Cheers!

With the current state of the Russian military, you probably could have bought a real aircraft carrier for less money. But I like your's better.

Maybe Doug but think of the shipping costs!

Thanks for the suckage confirmation Stu.

I'll be chiming in with periodic updates on its restoration but I have a class that is finishing up right now and mucho work to do.

Brett Baldwin said:

Maybe Doug but think of the shipping costs!
...

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With that kind of armament, I would think you could take gas from pretty much anybody.

Quick update...I finally found 480V power and a cord to tap it at work. The carrier spun up nicely and takes forever to quit spinning after the power cuts. I'll have to remove it from work soon so I will probably disassemble it to bring it home. It needs a little TLC anyway.

I am in the planning stages of my rotary phase converter and have just acquired two motors as possible idlers, a 7.5HP and a 10HP. More than I need for the jointer but as they were free, I decided it could only hurt my back to pick them up. I am studying many designs and trying to decide which way to go. My electrical experience is limited but there are several detailed plans out there. I think I'll be able to muddle through to a working RPC. Then I only need to add a new wing for it.

Brett, let me recommend that if your going to build an RPC that you look at Bruce Norton's designs. He is a friend of mine and has been building and designing RPC's for 20+ years. His design has over load protection, it's extremely well thought out and in my opinion it is the best I have seen.

Bruce is the kind of buy that if he doesn't have a design that meets your needs, he will just redesign it and then talk you through ANY questions you have. He is always willing to grab a phone and help you.

The only downside is they are not cheap to build. I scrounged up surplus parts of EBay mostly and I ended up with just over $300 in mine. I have seen RPC designs built for $150 but they were not as good in my opinion, but they worked.

Drop me an email and I will find the plans I have. I think I have a 10hp and 7.5hp plans? They are in Excel format.

Why not just buy an inverter?

Are they THAT expensive over there?

How many amps would it have to handle?

"Way back when" ... Some fellow teachers left the "pay Less" school system and ventured out on their own, they bought and old Iron piece such as yours, for a song. After some while they found it needed new bearings as the cutter head road in/on Wood Bearings. Although difficult to obtain (they made theirs from Apple wood after exhausting a search) they installed new, and the machine ran true to form and was an asset to their cabinet shop.

Great find there and if you have room you too will have an asset to your shop. I would have trouble getting down the stairs to my basement dust bowl.... Maybe if I got the wife to hold the other end ....

Stu, I think he doesn't have 3 phase in his home. And then he is still going to need a transfomer to step it up to 440v unless it is a dual voltage motor.

Correct on both counts Jeff.

Stu, are you refering to a static converter? I must confess ignorance on what an inverter actually is. My searches so far have led to very expensive and less than ideal output from a static converter big enough for a 5HP 3PH motor. Everything I've read says that this much juice should be generated by a RPC if you're starting with single phase.