Question about Powermatic 66 in small shop

[Scott Davis]

I am a new woodworker who has been learning on hand me downs. I love it, but with 1 and 3 year olds, I only get about 2 or 3 hours on Sat and Sun to work. I do get to read about it a lot.

I had Craftsman table saw burn up and need a new one. My Dad has a Powermatic 66 that is circa 1980's (it is green), that he got as a gift several years ago when a buddy passed away. He did some work to clean it up (sanded some rust, waxed, etc), but fell out of habit of using it. He also has a floor standing Powermatic drill press and band saw. Since burning up my small saw I don't have any of these tools. I am not sure exactly what shape they are all in, the saw has had a solid door on it and served as a workbench for the last 5 years! He offered to let me have the tools, but I have to get them from Florida to Georgia, which will cost about 600$. These were originally state of art tools obviously.

I work in the 3rd bay of a 3 car garage, not much set up yet. I spend the first 30 minutes every Sat putting away the 75 plastic kid items that get scattered in my area during the week! I don't have dust collection, so far I have mostly kept my miter saw, table saw, and hand tools near the front of garage, and pull them out to use them to minimize dust. This has worked well and kept the garage cleaner.

So my questions:
1) I need to look at the tools (or have my Dad do it), but I don't have any experience refurbishing things like this. Can anyone describe what I should expect on getting it here? I know it is huge so will have to find people to help me get it in there. I don't know what I would need to do to make sure they are ready to go (repairing rust if present, change belts, bearings, etc.). Googling has not helped me to learn what would need to be done to start using them (maintenance, how to adjust to square, etc).
2) Size- Is this way to big for my space? I won't be able to move it in and out like I did the smaller saw. I thought I could put it near the garage door where stock would come in, and then would need a dust collection solution. I can't envision if this saw is that much bigger than others by reading sizes.
3) Electrical, I did get a 220V installed so have that.


I hope I gave a feel for what I do. I have limited time and not sure I would love a huge refurb job, on the other hand, this is a beauty of a saw if I can get it working properly. Maybe one I could have a long time. I don't know if it wouldn't serve a higher volume user better than me. I am also not sure that I would never move in future and this would move to top of list of things that are impossible to move with. The price is right though!

Thanks for any insight from more experienced users, like any plan, the most important part is the start.

Scott

[John Cooper2]

your not on the road yet?

With the machines on mobile bases they don't take up as much room. You may have to get rid of the door that is on the table saw.
All of them are good solid iron and most anything can be fixed on those.
Two people could load those, three or four would be better.

Sounds like all are "usable" now, so you could clean them up as you have time.

[Bruce Darrow]

Scott,

Older PM is solid gold in my opinion. If this (or these!) machine(s) are free, you can't go wrong, even if you turn around (in a politically adept time frame) and sell them in order to afford what better works in your space. Or, even better, appropriate some more of that garage!

Seriously, I love my 66, hate my Delta drill press, and wish I had a line on an older PM, and while I like my Griz band saw, I probably never would have sprung for it had I found a decent PM. It was great stuff, and still is good......but sadly, no longer great.

Go for it.

Bruce

[CPeter James]

Check out the owwm web site. They are really into thase machines and give you all the help you might need to get them going again. Any one of them is worth the trip and three makes it a no brainer.

www.owwm.org

[Andrew Howe]

Like the second poster said, are you on your wY yet?
I have a small section of our basement for woodworking about thesame as your setup .
I bought my jet proshop new and just added a 16" extension on it in center of shop. The outer edges contain big work bench, drillpress, dust collector, router table, toobox.and.recently an inca jointer 10"planer that I did a lignt refurb on it. I also have an on 10" delta.band saw..and one sanding station on wheels.
I sketched out the first placement scenario on paper annd now.1 yr later I.am going.to.do.some.revi
sions on spa,e placement of cabinets.i.want to make. Good.luck, I.found many ideas.here

[Bill Rogers]

I have the same saw (green Powermatic 66) and I love it. I use it in the equivalent of a single bay of a two car garage and I only have one 220 outlet. All of my machines are on mobile bases so that I can move them to the outlet as needed. A while back I bought 7 large pieces of wood working equipment off of Craigslist. One of the smartest things that I did was rent a small enclosed truck with a lift gate. It only cost me a little over $100 plus the gas that I used and it sure saved a lot of work! You might want to look into renting a truck with a lift gate if you are not driving too far.

[John McClanahan]

I replaced my Craftsman saw with an old yellow PM66. Best shop upgrade so far.

John

[Jim Andrew]

Do you have a pickup truck and a trailer? Personally, think I would use a tilt bed trailer like guys haul riding lawn mowers, and go get the equipment. They don't weigh more than a couple commercial riding mowers.

[Kevin Presutti]

What a deal all PM in one spot for gas money................. I'm on the road. You will find many pictures and much help here and at vintagemachinery.org on fixing whatever needs fixing. For what you're getting it will be well worth learning about fixing what needs fixing and maintaining your new found treasure. Tell us about the trip when you get back and as usual pics required.

[Cary Falk]

Cabinet saws are smaller than you might think. I don't think it is too big for your space. Put everything on wheels. I have 1 bay of a 3 car garage.

[Mark Ashmeade]

I just sold a 66, it really isn't all that big. The table is actually quite narrow in comparison with others. The rails are the most obtrusive. You could always get shorter rails if they don't work for you, or (sacrilege), cut them down. As has been said, a mobile base will help immensely.

As a bonus, you get family time with your Dad, and he'll get a kick out of passing them down to his boy. $600 well spent in my view.

[David Kumm]

Don't be afraid of the size. It is a fairly compact saw. My first saw was a used Rockwell 12 which is larger. At the time it seems huge and now seems average. You will never regret a good saw and the older PM are the most sought after of the "small" cabinet saws. Dave

[Carl Beckett]

I will add one caveat:

If its a long 50" plus fence - downgrade it!

I was in a shared garage space for years, and dont believe a tablesaw takes up too much room. Turns out I use the tablesaw top for more than just sawing wood (assemble on it, pile stuff on it, etc etc). And I dont believe it necessarily needs to be on wheels but its nice if it is.

I have a 26" fence on my cabinet saw and feel its fine. Not 'ideal' - but I dont have the space for 'ideal', so given my environment its what works. I even had the option of picking up a larger fence for free and passed on it.

Yes the equipment is worth getting.

[Gordon Eyre]

It is all how you lay things out. I have a pretty complete shop in one bay of a three car garage and you can see this in pictures in my profile page. My shop includes a PM 66, jointer, router table, drill press, work bench, planer, jig saw, SCMS and cyclone dust collector. The only tool I have to move is my planer. You can see pictures of my shop layout in my profile page.

[Carl Beckett]

A nice layout Gordon. But definitely a wider bay than what I have experienced (and deeper too!). Any idea of the dimensions from front/back side/side?

Its good to note that if there is an option of pulling a car out to do the work then this makes available space (such as the tablesaw outfeed). And then.... .over time.... I just started leaving 'my' vehicle out in the weather all the time.