Accessories

Disappointing Quality
My shop has been almost exclusively Jet in the past, and I finally decided to try the Powermatic. The Jet equipment was so impressive that I wanted to see how Powermatic was 'significantly better'. So, here is what I found:

1. After opening the box with the tables and fence, I found that the fence (which is *not* light) was packed directly on top of the tables with only a thin piece of Styrofoam separating them. Somewhere along the route, the fence smashed through the Styrofoam (well, duh, I could do that with a finger) and gouged the table.

2. The table will either take 2 strong guys or 4 normal people to lift it. I first tried to lift it with a shop crane, but the framework for the table-height on the right wide is stamped steel (and a bit wobbly) and there was no way to get webbing around it. It would be nice to have some clear lifting positions.

3. The casters are all welded in-line, so you can't turn the machine; you have to drag it to change the angle.

4. The fence is significantly out of flat, with one dip of 0.012. There are low places on both tables also. Realistically, that won't have much of an impact on large pieces of wood, but it's quite a bit off from the advertisements.

5. The tables & fence were coated with something I've never seen on equipment before - it just would not come off. I finally had to use a solvent that left grey blotches all over the tables - argh!

6. The fence lock is on the back of the casting and when you unlock it it pivots down below the plate it mounts on. You can't shift the fence forward without banging the lever and reaching back to hold it up while you adjust the fence with your other hand. That makes precision angles a challenge. Having to stretch across the machine to hold the fence locking lever just doesn't seem right (as in clothing in the blades). Almost everyone has shifted to side-mounted levers to get rid of this problem.

7. Dust collection is the worst of any piece of equipment I've seen including my Jet planer and belt sanders. I have an 1100 CFM dust collector coupled directly to this thing, and it still spews dust and chips out the back and the right hand side. I literally have to pull handfulls of dust out from under the right table. After a few passes, there is enough on the floor to be a safety hazard (i.e. slipping on them). The right table also gets covered in dust, but that is a bit expected.

8. There are only two stops for the fence - 45 and 90 degrees. It would be nice to have one for a custom angle - not everything is 90/45. The stop is flimsy enough that the fence won't hold the same angle across the entire width - it typically varies by 0.1-0.3 degrees. That doesn't seem like much, until you start precision work.

9. The combination lever/knob table height adjustor (which was a main reason I bought the unit) is simply not sturdy enough, it wobbles, and after you lock the handle in place and start twisting it for 'micro-adjustments' the whole table shifts at least 1/16" making it worthless in my book. Great idea, poor execution.

10. The knives were out of adjustment.

11. The motor pulleys were out of adjustment - I replaced the V-belt with a power-link belt.

12. The locking lever seems too small for the weight - it's small enough you can bend it if you crank down too hard on it.

13. The finish is poor - many places were not painted and there was over-spray on a lot of machined surfaces.

14. The fence is supposed to balance on the center but in reality one side or the other always drapes onto the table, scratching the surface.

15. OK, this is just personal preference, but Powermatic used a special off button which, if you push it off with anything but very light force, locks off. You have to twist the push button for it to unlock. It took me a bit to figure that out. I've never heard of a twisting-push-button. I'd rather have a BRB (Big Red Button) I could hit with my knee.

16. It's painful to make small adjustments to the fence angle. The adjustment lever on the right side of the fence is almost useless - the fence is so heavy that it just falls onto the tables. Trying to hold and angle gauge against the face, hold the fence up and then lock requires one more hand than I have. If you only cut 45/90 it won't bug you, but I do a lot of non-standard cuts.

Once you get all the kinks out, the machine works reasonably well. That said, there is nothing exceptional about it either. Unless you go very slowly, you get knife marks, even on sharp blades. I believe that's just the nature of a standard bladed cutter head. The unit will take a Byrd Helix cutter head, which I'm considering buying.

There is plenty of power, I've never had it bog down, and the long tables are handy. It would be nice to have a place to put the push sticks, but no such luck.

In retrospect, I wish I had bought the Jet. The days of tuning and tweaking just aren't worth it, and the ergonomics aren't particularly good.

Hopefully someone at Powermatic will read this. Companies survive by being innovative or having great quality or both. So far Powermatic is batting 0 for 2 in my book.

8" POWERMATIC JOINTER
Regarding the jointer table flatness issues; some years ago, after some remorse over how many foreign tools I had, I decided to buy Pmat. Since it was a large investment and I called Acme twice and asked if the jointer was still American made. He answered in the affirmative, twice, on different occasions. Well, the happy day arrived and just about the first thing I saw after ripping off a plank was "Cast in Brazil" So much for American made. The salesguy said that the machining was indeed done in McMinnville. Anyway, maybe the fact that Brazilian castings are used has something to do with the flatness issues. Powermatic ought to vet the distributors better on that little thing called honesty.

The jointer I never got....
After waiting for my powermatic jointer now for a month, I finally got it or so they tell me I did. It was to be shipped in two boxes. I tracked it coming from Tennessee to California and then to its final destination my house in Kentucky. During the travel time, I must have called 15 times trying to alert them that it was not going in the right direction. In each phone call, I was told it would be straightened out...Not so.
Eagle Freight finally called to set up the delivery date and time. I began to get excited! The truck rolled up and out comes my jointer, supposedly in two boxes. Well there were two boxes. One was the base of the jointer and the other was a token toy truck with powermatic written on it. Why they sent a 45 year old man a toy, I don't know? Anyway, The box containing the other part of the jointer never showed up. Eagle doesn't know what happened to it other than for some reason it was sent to their location in Chicago, never to be found. Finally after more phone calls to Amazon, they said they would send out the replacement right away. Two days later I get another Email from Amazon saying the other box had been sent back to the origional store and that this item would no longer be avalible and that I needed to call Eagle and have them pick it up and once they received it back, I would get a full refund. I called Eagle and they told me they had wondered what happened to it...Great.
Now I did get the mobile base that I ordered and it does look nice sitting there with nothing on it ...no jointer, no money not even a toy.
Good luck and good by.

check out G0490 8" Jointer with Parallelogram Beds before you buy this.
I have used this jointer for a while and wasn't impressed until I had the opportunity to work on G0490 8" Jointer with Parallelogram Beds ... Awesome machine , costing under $900 including delivery.

I went ahead and purchased for myself and loved all the features and it was dead right , on first cut.

I am not sure how Grizzley can deliver better machine with better build quality for $300 cheaper than Powermatic, but I would always check out Grizzley before buying powermatic.

Pathetic Part Availability
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.