Customer Reviews

Powermatic 1610050 8" Long Bed Jointer

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
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I've been pleased with my experience since I ordered my Powermatic model 60 jointer this spring. It shipped two days after my order, well within the advertised availability. It was delivered a few days later by a lift-gate equipped truck. This kind of delivery service was one of the reasons I ordered from Amazon.

Assembly and setup was straightforward. The jointer itself was completely assembled, and just needed to be bolted to the stand, and the V-belt installed between the motor pulley in the stand and the cutterhead pulley on the jointer.

Another reason that I chose this jointer was its table size and cutterhead specs. The cutterhead is spaced closely between the tables, so the workpiece is supported close to the cutterhead. I haven't had the knives out for grinding yet, but anticipate the replacement process to be smoother with the jackscrew height adjusters for the knives. The 3-knife cutterhead turns at 7,000rpm, yielding 21,000 cuts per minute. If you take your time, you can get a very smooth finish. Both the infeed and outfeed tables are adjustable for height. The infeed table is adjusted by lever, the outfeed by handwheel.

The 1-1/2 horsepower motor seems to be a good choice. Even taking heavy cuts (for me, a heavy cut is 1/16") off a 7" wide tropical hardwood (sustainably harvested!) or oak, I didn't experience any bogging down of the motor. The jointer is available with larger motors, though. A larger motor wouldn't be a benefit to me, but someone who needs to quickly hog off a lot (e.g. 1/4") of hard or green wood might be able to get something out of a larger motor.

The fence is straightforward to adjust. Once adjusted, it is also stable and holds its position well. It has a positive stop at 90 degree that really works, i.e. it repeatedly returns the fence to 90 degrees. After the first couple weeks or so, I realized this and stopped feeling the need to frequently check it for squareness. The fence can be set at an angle across the table for skew cutting, which can be helpful in some situations.

This is definitely not a high-tech machine. Its design and construction is simple and basic, using time-tested iron castings and steel. However, I suspect that Powermatic utilizes some high-tech grinding equipment when machining the table and fence surfaces and dovetail ways. Since I don't get to buy new equipment too often, I have some experience measuring things like table flatness, parallelism to cutterhead, etc.. Those things are useful when evaluating the condition of a used machine. When I unpacked this jointer, I thought I'd measure everything carefully, so that I could keep track of wear and tear over the years. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the machining. The tables and fence were flat to within .002" longitudinally and within .004" diagonally. I have more measurements, but they're all boring. Nothing stands out. The cutterhead is parallel with the outfeed table (well, within plus-or-minus .001"). The tables are parallel, the fence is flat. Etc.

Like they say, that's the good news. There's also a little bad news, but it all came out well in the end. The motor is supported in the stand by an adjustable mount. The mount pivots around an axis that is parallel to the motor shaft. This permits the belt tension to be adjusted. The supports for the pivot are welded to the frame. When I went to install the belt, I discovered that both welds were broken. My guess is that the welds weren't up to snuff and the weight of the motor on them, in the pre-assembled stand, caused them to break in transit.

At any rate, I reported the problem to Amazon. Their response was the best customer service I've had in recent experience. They needed to ask a couple of questions to ascertain some details (e.g. the fact that the stand was a welded assembly, so it wouldn't be easy to just replace the motor mount). They then had Powermatic send me a replacement stand. The fact that Amazon interceded between me and Powermatic was very helpful. The replacement stand arrived in a timely way, comparable to the jointer's original shipping time.

Since then I've used the jointer fairly heavily and it's served me well. I considered other products, mainly Delta's DJ-20 jointer. In my research, I'd heard of some quality concerns about the Delta DJ-15 (that it had gone down in recent years) and was concerned that the DJ-20 might also be affected. I'd used an older Powermatic model 60 jointer at a woodworking school. It was used heavily, and sometimes abused. It held up well, and produced good results consistently. That experience, plus not hearing of any problems with recently produced machines, and Amazon's delivery service led me to my final decision to order my jointer from Amazon. It's worked out well for me and I recommend it to others.

Before I purchased this 8" jointer, I researched all manufacturers to find the best quality and features. The American woodworker magazine conducted reviews on 10 different models (April 1997 issue). The Powermatic model 60 is the only 8" jointer made in the USA. Its weight is listed at 584 lbs. The next heaviest was the Jet. It weighed 466 lbs. A difference of almost 120 lbs! The weight ratings go down from there for the other models. The castings are thick with ribbing for additional strength. The extra weight deadens vibration. Powermatics outstanding feature is its cuts/minute. 21,000 to be exact. This provides a very smooth finish. Much superior compared to other models. My jointer arrived 9 days after placing the order with Tool Crib of the North with no shipping damage or problems. It was crated all around with 2 x 4's to prevent shipping damage. (An excellent pre-cautionary measure). The 1-1/2 HP Baldor motor is wired for 110 volts. I rewired mine to operate at 220, which runs much more efficently. An easy procedure...just follow the schematic on the motor. The infeed and outfeed tables were "deadflat" and have true "parallelism". Overall, I rate this Jointer at the Top. It's very heavy duty and produces excellent work. The price is high, but if you want a top rated machine, this is the one to get. The competition sells for less, and you get what you pay for (dont buy junk!). I'm very satified with my purchase.