Powermatic Reviews

The good things about this saw: It's easy to assemble (one person can assemble alone), it's powerful, the table is ground to precision, and, for the most part, assembly instructions are good.

The bad things about this saw: The worst feature is the only part made in the USA...the Accu-Fence. Neither the original fence nor the replacement fence I received are acceptable. Secondly, the arbor gearing inside the saw very quickly gums up with sawdust affecting the ease of blade height adjustment. Thirdly, you can simply throw away the dust collection plate since you will collect virtually no sawdust in your vac system.

This saw certainly beats my old Craftsman, but it's definitely not a 5 star piece of equipment.

i bought this table saw two years ago and have used it to build a number of pieces of furniture around the house including: a bookcase, two stools, a toy box, a built-in four cabinet wardrobe system, a vanity, a linen closet and most recently a set of kitchen cabinets.

one thing about this saw is that it's pretty SOLID from the cast iron wings to the terrific rip fence. all of this adds to the overall weight of the saw which is great for minimizing the vibrations. putting it together will definitely take you a few hours and a bit or perspiration - consider getting some help when you're tilting it on to the base, although i did it alone without too much back strain. fine tuning the adjustments are not impossibly difficult as long as you have an engineer's square to alight the front and rear rails for the fence. don't waste too much time trying to get your cast iron extension wings to less than 0.0000005 - it's a HOMEOWNER's table saw and your wood will probably expand/contract much more than that for crying out loud! make sure that you fit a panel to cover up the back of the saw and tape up the seams around the dust port on the bottom so that you can get decent suction from a dust collector which is also a requirement unless you enjoy arguing with your wife about the dust that's currently blanketed her new car! the blade guard works extremely well but i recommend not fastening the screws on the INSIDE of the saw too tightly so that you can swing it upwards when you need to make a non-through cut. converting it to 220 volts is a MUST unless you enjoy seeing the lights dim every time that you turn it on - not too difficult with the drawn in wiring diagram and an 18 gauge cable and a replacement dryer plug from home depot. don't forget to buy some form of mobile base or you WILL NOT be able to budge this beast once it's standing on its feet. one last piece of advice, if you find that you can't raise the blade, look inside the cabinet of the saw and make sure that the miter gauge didn't fall into it like mine did. BTW, a woodworker two blade and a sliding table will maximize the capabilities to this fine table saw.

this is a fantastic saw, but if i had to do it all over again, i would strongly consider either the ridgid contractor saw from the local borg since it's about $400 cheaper and has many features including dust shroud and integrated mobile base, the sawstop with it's blade-braking device/riving knife or the new craftsman hybrid saw.

highly consider ALTERNATIVE methods of cutting dovetail joints, tenons and dados like hand tools which are MUCH safer. don't crosscut with the rip fence and ALWAYS use push sticks for narrow pieces!

These usually come out in my wife's name. She's never used a table saw. This is Bruce. Before purchasing a table saw, I drove a hundred miles East then another West and man was it disgusting to find absolutely nothing I'd want to own. Lowes, Home Depot, local lumber yards, hardware stores, I actually gave up and went online.

I found this saw on sale at Amazon for $849 with free shipping, and yes you absolutely need the mobile base if you pull it out and put it back.

1. The solid cast iron top is one requirement my saw needed, it has it.

2. A fantastic rip fence, this one exceeded my expectation, even has high density plastic on both sides to cut friction. Adjustment is a breeze and very accurate. You will love the AccuFence.

3. The power of the motor is incredible, 2 HP I believe. I cut two inch exotic hardwoods like it was butter.

Only complaint and it's minor, the lock-knobs on the tilt and height adjustment are small and could be on a larger shaft. They work though, and that's what matters.

Best saw I've ever owned. The only better saw I've ever used is a Delta Unisaw, but at twice the price it better be great. Buy it, you can thank me later.

After losing the cutterhead guard, I proceeded to order a new one... two months ago. Now I am told it will be another 3 months before it comes in (unless I want to pay $150 overseas air freight for the $20 part... maybe they should bring it home to the good ole USA). 5 months of downtime. Fortunately, I am a hobbyist and not making my living from this... I would be starving. I couldn't even use it in a commercial shop because the missing parts are safety related.

I'm glad others have had good customer service, but, for me, I will be looking elsewhere when purchasing a thickness planer in the near future... for someone who services after the sale.

got it, love it. check around on the price cause i found mine for 3 grand less than this price. cant go wrong here. easy setup, knife adjustments are quick and easy. sunhill even sells a spiral cutter head for 240. thats great. i was looking at the shop fox, but theres no comparison with the quality of the powermatic its so well put together and comes with a five year warrenty. so whatever you buy make sure the warrenty is in your town, cause grizzly and general have great prices, however if you need service your shop will be without for some time. good luck, but trust me you wont need it with powermatic.

I have been running the 60B Powermatic Jointer for a month now and I have put a lot of rough white oak through it. I am very satisfied with the power and smooth cuts I am getting. It didn't take very long to true up the fence and blades and start to work with it. I was stumped for a few minutes finding and unlocking the "safety ring" on the off button which I didn't find mentioned in the manual. The blades are a little unusual size and I found a company in Eugene, Or that sells them at a good price for a backup set.

I saw this item on a friends saw and the material and machining of the parts was excellent. Therefore I bought one. Dissapointed in the fact that they went from a machined splitter to a punched one. The function is the same but I hated to see the quality reduced.
Disappointed.

My Powermatic 66 was built right around 2000, which is the time of a model switch requiring a different T-Square model. I ended up ordering both models as the first one didn't fit. As it turns out my 66 is a hybrid model requiring a trip to the hardware store, and the need to redrill the lower mounting hole. All in all, I got through it, and am really happy with it. As I rip boards now I am much more comfortable.

Great design but would not fit my saw. After talking with Biesemeyer, I found out that a different model is available for saws mfg after Aug 2000 - part # B78440. I'll be swapping mine out for the modified design. Be sure to carefully look at the date of your PM 66's manufacture and pick the correct spreader. Otherwise, this is a very sound investment in safety.

I've been using this planer for over three years now. The machine was an easy set-up. It's a must to have a dust collecter attached to it. After set-up I can plane lumber for about 2 hours, then it's time to ajust it again. I plane heavy oak boards that are close to 100 years old from old barns. The height ajustment will not stay locked, and the bottom rolls don't either. First time using this machine the lock screws for the bottom rollers fell out. I am not pleased with this machine at all.

This is my first/last planer. It does a fine job of planing, but: the shipping box had a fork lift tine punched through resulting in a minor dent in vent cover. Not enough cause me to refuse shipment. The manual is HORRIBLE. Certainly not what I'd expect from Jet/Powermatic and no where near what I received with my Jet tablesaw or Powermatic 60B Jointer. Looked like something you'd get with a Harbor Freight tool. No trouble shooting or detailed setup/adjustment instructions were included. My biggest gripe is the lower table sticks going up and down. The drive chain gets tight and then the table moves freely again. I've tried cleaning/lubing/ loosening bolts and tapping w/ a rubber mallet to get thing back into alignment; all to no avail. I'll be calling Powermatic tech support. And, installing the 3 roller infeed / outfeed rollers is a MAJOR pain/joke. I will either remove two rollers from each side (as is done on 16" Jet, see if I can purchase the CI tables from Powermatic (included w/ the 15" Deluxe Planer, or I'm make infeed/outfeed tables from plywood and melamine. And finally you MUST have a dust collector; Period.

whoa! this tool is without description in performance. I don't think you could throw anything at it short of a steel bar that it couldn't plane. It eats right through woods from tiny resawn pieces to wide slabs of hard maple and huge recycled timbers from an ancient trestle bridge, all with no detectable snipe. that said, it can be a bit finickey to get everything locked in right. I had a little bit of trouble getting all of the rollers aligned just so, but my woes were remedied once I went out and purchased an apropriate dial indicator, an investment you should probably make if you're going to spend this much on a planer. I ended up positioning my bed rollers just 0.001" above the bed and friction has been no problem at all. The fit and finish of this machine is excellent! pair this with a jointer like the delta DJ-20 (another tool I love) or similar and you can probably flatten anything! The only thing I think Powermatic could have done better would be the outfeed roller, I know it needs to be smoth and solid to prevent snipe but some kind of hard rubber tire or something might help it keep friction better. I accidently got some lubricant on it when prepareing the bed and my wood started stalling inches from exiting with the outfeed roller just spinning on it. after I cleaned it up it was not a problem again but just seems like it dosn't take much to start it slipping. Overall however this is the best planer I have ever seen! and if you can swallow the pricetag you won't be disapointed!

this is a great saw but for the money they should give you better bolts to assemble it with. I mean you put a little tork on them and they snap off. What the hell?

I am impressed with this piece of equipment for several reasons.
First, the assembly, while quite invlolved is explained in the instructons by someone who had to actually put put it together themselves. The quality is the best I could find...and I researched my purchase for over a year. The only item I found lacking is the motor dust cover (minor detail). If you need a serious table saw and can afford the price, I highly recommend the Powermatic 66. One note, unless you are doing production work all day long, you don't need the 5 hp.

Recieved quickly.
Instructions were good, all pieces accounted for.
While it takes some time to assemble, everything went together very well and the table tops were flat and true.
Has been running great and no regrets.
Super fence and super power compared to my old Delta contractors saw. The router table/lift is also super.
Only issues: One of the cast iron extension wings had a small 4x4 inch area that wasn't quite ground smooth-easily solved, and one of the bolts securing the top of the table to the cabinet had somehow sheared off - also easily solved.
Overall, great saw. Mobile base- a must unless you don't plan on moving it for quite some time.

What a nice machine! We purchased this sander for our commercial operation, and have not been disappointed. The fit and weight of this machine are excellent. I especially like the cast iron tables. Assembly and adjustment were a breeze. One area of disappointment was that the base was shipped wrapped in a box (no packing) and arrived with some damage, this wasn't an issue, since we purchased the machine to perform and that it has done. The head of the unit which arrived separate was packed very well. One other point that someone else mentioned, this unit can make some dust, some type of dust collection should be used.

Our shop purchased this tool about 18 months ago. It is well made and has been a great addition to our inventory. It is one of those tools that once it has been in your shop for a while you can't remember how you ever got by without it. If you are going to buy this tool I recommend that you get a dust collector. Sanding with this tool produces large amounts of very fine dust that will cover everything in your shop. The sander is only second to our table saw in dust production. A bargain for the money.

I bought my machine from a local merchant and I am very impressed. Fit and finish are excellent, the sander is heavy and there is almost no vibration. The tables are cast iron and their mounting is rock solid, the belt table can be easily removed or positioned parallel to the belt for many different applications. The dust collection works extremely well also but Powermatic recommends a dust collector with at least 400 cfm. Fortunately mine is much bigger than that. I also like the capability to sand metal with the machine. The machine sands extremely well, smooth and there is no lack of power. The belt tracks well (after a little fussing at first). ... I think this is a good machine and I am sad to hear that Powermatic is difficult to deal with. I have other Powermatic machines and so far they have all worked very well. ... The Powermatic is heavier, has larger tables ... I would definitely buy this machine again!!

The machine is absolutely heavy duty. Although, there are a few things that I have found issue with:

1) machine doesn't work well with wide poplar boards. I have a heavy duty dust collection system connected to it but the poplar creates long strands from the wide boards. These strands clog up the exhaust chute causing the shavings to back up onto the outfeed roller and stop the boards from continuing through the planer part way through a feed. Basically have to lower the table and pull the board out to clean the strands out. This binding of the strands has tore up the outfeed urethance rollers to the point of no return. ***update: I was able to take the rollers off the machine and turn the urethane down on an engine lathe to straighten the urethane after much use. (note: high rpm, low feed rate and a touch with sand paper when finished) Works better than new now. I should be able to do this a few times before having to buy new ones. By the way, the new rollers are pretty cheap to replace.***

2) Wish the table length was longer or adaptable to adding an extension. Would be nice.

The machine is very easy to work with and work on. The molding feature is great and works well. I've done all the trim in my new house with this machine. Hope to have a long future with it in my business.

About eight months ago I purchased the powermatic PM-15 from a local tool supply store. I have loved using this fine machine for planing and moulding, and it has preformed flawlessly, that is until I got my first paying customer. A gentleman that lives near me brought me a load of roughsawn birch to plane down and run 50' of crown and 50' of panel moulding for him. While most of it (80 percent) came out nice, most of the pieces had some tearout, and 1 piece of crown was completly trashed. What a nightmare! I was suprised at this because I've run poplar, red oak, and pine through this machine with very little tearout (mainly around knots and hard areas). I can't fault the machine, I suppose, but I wrote this to warn any future millwrights about working birch.

When this planer arrived at my shop I couldn't wait to get it out of the crate and plugged in. I was pleasantly surprised to see how heavy the machine was built, its beefy stature screamed, throw anything at me I can plane it, and after some adjusting it did. I ran pine and white oak threw it, and it produced a wonderful finish on both. The one problem I have had is trying to plane exceptionally wide boards. For some reason if I plane a board 10" wide or better it machine has some trouble feeding the board threw. I found that with some adjustment of the spring tension on the urethane infeed and outfeed rollers this can be reduced but not completely eliminated. Other than this the machine runs great. It is easy and safe to operate, and fun to use. This planer is another fine example of Powermatic's expertise in building heavy-duty home shop machinery.

Manual is not complete. Items included were not in manual but were in the cover picture.The table tilt/ height adjustment should utilize more of the belt.

The machine sands nicely.

Assembly was straight forward. The only problem encountered was when the belt tension handle broke. The weld snapped the first time I moved it. Don't know if it was shipping related damage or an improper weld in the factory. Was not a major problem for me, I just re-welded it. Would have been a major bummer for someone without a welder. All the parts fit with no major modifications. I have only spent about three hours on the machine so this is not a long term review. Belt tracking was ok. A few seconds with each belt ( I tried several grits ) to track and in the short time I used them they never needed further tracking. I was most pleased with the results of the sander. Couldn't believe I had gone all these years without one. I love it.

Now the cons:

Very few. The tension handle I mentioned. The dust port at the back end could have been a little bigger. I have a high flow cyclonic vacuum and there was still a little dust in the air. I will modify mine to catch more. There is also no dust port on the nose end. A down draft port would have been nice. Lastly as with most of these 6" sanders the table does not go all the way down. Could be they would have had to put a bigger motor for a full 6" although I never had a problem with power.

Conclusion:
I like it. Get one.

Very well built machine with heavy steel stand. Much better than the comparable models on the market today. Easy to set up and adjust. The only reason I gave it four stars is it comes with a poor assembly manual, but assembly is so straightforward this is not a big problem. I have only had the machine a short time but sanding results so far have been good. Exceptionally fast stock removal. Highly recommended for the pro shop or the part time woodworker.

Powermatic seriously needs to rethink it's packaging.
This thing was wedged together (forced tight, so say goodbye to the paint on the connected areas) and stuffed into a loose cardboard box.
The hardware bag was also loose in there. No foam or cardboard to pad it out. No plastic bag over the frame. Nothing.
I've had nightmare experiences with powermatic before where other items also had several problems like this where they seemingly sent out brand new products terribly packaged that were entirely destroyed by the time they made it through a delivery system.

This piece in particular arrived with the box bearly hanging together, holes punched all over it, and one of the wheel lock knobs smashed.

As another reviewer pointed out, this is the older design where the wheel pin is a cheap plastic affair that screws directly to the castors on each side.
Not the best of ideas for a rubber wheel. a simple addition of a plastic strip to wedge wetween the bolt and wheel would fix this.
Can't imagine why they'd leave it so cheap. Idealy a design where you didn't have to bend down, the same way the rear castors lock would be better.
I've no idea if they still make the other/improved design.

This aside the base seems strong and very heavy duty. My one was too broken to accept and the frame itself was bent and the paint was ruined.
I'll order another from elsewhere and perhaps see if they can repackage it a little before shipment.

My latest toy is a Powermatic Model 66. This is one fine machine! However, for my particular shop arrangement I required the ability to move it around a bit. After researching the various manufacturers of mobile bases I decided upon the Powermatic version. For me, the real selling point was the improvement they had made to the wheel locking mechanism. The older style of lock was simply a bolt that you screwed into the surface of the wheel - not great- because it eventually galls the wheel. The new design incorporates a top positioned adjuster and tension band that allows a firmer capture of the wheel, without the former galling problem. I ordered what I thought was the newly designed base through Amazon but when I opened the box I discovered they had shipped the older, inferior version. On top of that the shipping box had a large hole in one side, one of the light weight plastic adjuster knobs was broken and one of the frame bolt sets was missing. I guess that's what I get for ordering a piece of equipment through the blind ended Amazon type of system. I should have purchased the base directly from a Powermatic distributor.

(...) The correct POWERMATIC picture of this base is at the Powermatic Site. Here is the link to the actual manual for those that want the detail:

http://www.powermatic.com/PMWood/Manuals/CurrentManuals/Powermaticmobilebase.pdf

This was built for the Powermatic 66 and says Powermatic on the side. I have the 50" fence with the matching black extension table and cabinet. Every thing fit perfectly.

So what's the difference between this and others. Well if you look at the Jet bases you can see the tubing is smaller and a thinner gauge. Understanding that the Powermatic 66 is the heaviest saw in it's class This base is very beffy compared to the others you'll find. It is all welded with four simple bolts that attach the two sides.

If you want a heavy base for the Powermatic 66 don't waste time on anything else - this one works and fits perfectly.

Hope that helps you.

In other places you'll find this model shown as the one to get if you want one for the Grizzly G0586, an 8" jointer. So, I bought one and assembled my jointer onto that base, because putting a 400+ lb jointer onto a mobile base after it's assembled is probably a pain. I don't know that for sure and don't want to find out.

But it's on the base. I wish the support shelves had more area underneath the machine, but I think there's enough. I bolted it to one of the shelves and the holes actually lined up. No drillling needed. And it's level, just as advertised, whether the wheels are locked or not.

The only beef I have is that locking the only swivel caster doesn't stop it from swiveling, so the whole unit CAN move if it gets a shove from the right direction. But that doesn't happen often and I'd rather deal with that, than deal with not having any wheels on the jointer.

Everything in my shop has to be on wheels. Everything. I wish it were bigger and I wish I didn't have to put a car in here once in a while, but that's the breaks. If you can get away with having your tool stationary, that's the way to go. You only need this thing if you MUST move a very large, awkward and heavy machine, regularly.