powermatic Planer 15-S

[Daniel Winsor]

Hello,

I am in the market for a thickness planer. I mainly work on the lathe, but I do segmented turning and thus, work from board stock much of the time. I've recently gotten a jet 6" jointer and now need a thickness planer to complement the jointer. Ideally, I'll make my own board stock from the wood that I harvest.

I have an opportunity to check out a powermatic 15-S planer. It's 3 HP 15" width, and has the spiral cutterhead.

I checked and it's $2000.00 brand new at woodcraft. The owner is asking $1500.00.

I haven't had a chance to look at the planer yet, but assuming everything checks out, is this a good deal for this machine? It's a bit more that I was wanting to spend, but this is a larger planer and a better brand than I've been looking at. I think the planer is about 2 years old. So it's basically 75% of what the new unit would cost.

What are your thoughts on this matter?

Dan

[Danny Hamsley]

I am looking for a planer like that too, so if you do not pursue it, I may be interested if it is not too far away.

I do not believe that this planer has the carbide inserts that you can turn. Doesn't it have knives arranged on a spiral versus indexable inserts?

[Jim Hill]

Hi. I have a 15S, and it does have the spiral knives. It's a good planer-does everything that I've asked of it. I have heard where other folks have said they thought the blades dulled too quickly. Either I've been lucky, or just don't use mine heavily enough because I've not had that problem. If you do get it, as an FYI, I have a new set of powermatic knives which I'd like to sell. I was fortunate enough to pick up a Byrd head for my planer!

Jim

[Danny Hamsley]

Jim,

I assume that if you had to do it all over again that you would go with the indexable carbide inserts from the start?

[Loren Blount]

I had a chance to buy a 15S for $1100 and turned it down after reading bad reviews about the lifespan of the knives and the $ to replace them. Went with the grizzly 15'' with carbide knives for $1300 and have been happy. I was also worried about continued availability of replacement blades for the powermatic.

Just my .02

Loren

[Dennis Peacock]

I've got a 15S and I went through knives almost like water. You will find more people that experience dulling knives prematurely more than you will hear of people using the same knife set for any length of time.

I've since changed over to the Shelix cutter head and have planed a LOT of wood with it, still plans well, nice finish on the wood and I'm not having to buy and change out knives like crazy as I was before.

Do yourself a favor and find you one with the spiral shelix cutter head in it. You will never regret it.!!! DAMHIKT!!!!

[Daniel Winsor]

Thanks to everyone for their timely responses. I'm pretty sure that you all saved me some aggravation/regret down the road. I'm going to pass on the planer.

Danny Hamsley, It's in WA and I see your in GA so probably not a winner for you either.

I did a search here at the creek for the Grizzly planer that Loren mentioned. The G0453 is available with free shipping for $950. I'd be able to sharpen the blades myself with the Jet slow speed wet grinder as I'm planning to do for my jointer knives. For an extra $550, I can get the Byrd head for the planer and I'll be at what I was going to spend for the used PM.

At least this way I'll be self sufficient with sharpening blades and if I ever upgrade to the Byrd head, I'll always have the ability to go back to the straight knives. It'll be a new machine, with warranty to boot and I was pretty hard pressed to find any consistently bad things said about the g0453 whereas everyone was complaining/commenting on the PM 15S blades and their quick wear and hard sharpening task.

My wife thanks you too so she doesn't have to hear me complain about spending $1500 for a tool I'm not completely happy with. It's a lot of money to us and we want this to be the last planer we buy.

Dan