Powermatic 3520B

[David Delo]

Numerous dealers have these at 15% off several times a year.......or at least that's been past practice. Prices are the same today as when I bought mine in November 2013. The bed extension is a very nice option in either the upper or lower position. I bought the extension, remote on/off, 4" tool rest and the curved rest. Basically got all the extras for a few bucks less than regular retail machine price of $3999.99. I don't use the curved rest very much but do use the short rest. Upgraded my every day tool rest to the Robust and that's a real improvement.

There was a post from another site the other day about the 31 or so demonstrators at the upcoming symposium in Pittsburgh next month. I guess they can request what lathe they will perform their demos on (not a guarantee they will get it...just a request). Oneway had the most requests beating out PM by one vote. Some of theses guys have a financial interest in what machine they use so you have to take the results with a grain of salt. FYI, the rest of the list by number of votes were: Vicmarc, Robust, Jet, Robust, no preference, Stubby, General and Nova DVR.

[Dennis Collier]

Maybe you should read your own post.

the cage and the mount on a PM doesn't weigh 180# - maybe 10-15#

so the weight difference has to come from somewhere.

Yes my post does contain a bit of speculation but its based on some facts, such as the Grizzly is made by the same company as the PM and even has an updated motor and VFD. This has all been discussed so Im not going to go into it again. My point was, the OP should wait for some reviews to come out before making a decision. Ive noticed the PM crowd wont give that same advice. You all assume that because The Grizzly dosnt cost 4 grand, its junk but completely ignore the facts about why it is so much less.

Sorry OP, was trying to give a bit of advice, not hijack your thread.

[Ben Pierce]

Thanks for all the input! I have read little or no negatives about the 3520b. I am, however, intrigued by the new Grizz 0766. Re. the "beef" of my current Grizzly, the castings and the motor, I have no complaints. Things like the tool rest need refinement. Sure would be nice to have a 5 years worth of reviews of the 0766 ahead of time!

[robert baccus]

The bed extension is also very handy if you plan on deep boring vases ect.

[Curt Fuller]

I was at Craftsupplies in Provo last week looking at lathes. Sitting all together where you could make comparisons was a PM3520B, Vicmarc 300, Robust AB and Sweet 16, Oneway 1640, Jet 1642, and a few others that were smaller lathes. I've actually had my heart set on the Vicmarc for some time but they more or less talked me out of it due to the cost. The Robust lathes are a work of art but so expensive that they eliminated themselves from my budget. Oneway are much like the Robust in that they're a work of art. But they talked me into the 3520B. For the money, you could buy two for the price of the Robust AB, that's all the lathe I'll ever need. They also told me to watch for a sale in June to coincide with the AAW symposium.

[Thomas Canfield]

I have a 3520B and strongly recommend it. The bed extension has been my answer to getting the tailstock out of the way since I do not move the headstock for doing bowl work. I have turned over 20 bowls/platters in the 19-20" D and only use green wood so it handles the unbalanced heavy chucks well. I do plan to turn a 32" D (well just under 32") wall hanging from some 3 to 4" thick x 20-21" wide slabs of Ash that I got recently, but wood is very wet and drying some before starting. The Powermatic mass is a big advantage for the larger pieces, and even the smaller out of balanced work.

I did see a new Laguna 1835 lathe last week that a friend had bought that is not on the market yet. I don't know all the specs, but it is 2 HP with same controller as Powermatic, but looked lighter. There are some new features that look nice including lower price, but it appeared to be lighter weight, and no history.

Good luck with our decision.

[David C. Roseman]

I would jump on a 3520. They are great machines. Alot of people have jumped on the new Grizzly bandwagon, but the powermatic weighs 682 lbs., and the grizzly only 496 lbs. Thats a lot of weight difference when the grizzly will turn a larger piece? That weight has got to come from somewhere. Thinner castings is probably what suffered. Buy the best you can afford and only buy once is my motto.

John, where are you getting the 682 lb weight for the 3520B? I was curious about this and took at quick look at the PM website. They don't give a running weight in the specs. The Woodcraft website says 682 lbs is the shipping weight of the 3520B. If we compare shipping weights, the shipping weight of the Grizzly G0766 is listed as 662 lbs. I know the 3520B is a beast. The G0766 may be as well, but we won't have first-hand SMC-member reports for a couple more weeks.

[John M. Smith]

It's in the owner's manual. That's where I got the grizzly weight also

[Reed Gray]

It is a good lathe for the money. I went with the AB because of the 3 hp motor. Now, the PM 2442 or what ever the numbers are, has a 3 hp motor and a sliding headstock. Cost is similar to the AB and Oneway. You will almost never need the extra swing, but it is nice to have, just in case...

robo hippy

[Bob Dupras]

I would jump on a 3520. They are great machines. Alot of people have jumped on the new Grizzly bandwagon, but the powermatic weighs 682 lbs., and the grizzly only 496 lbs. Thats a lot of weight difference when the grizzly will turn a larger piece? That weight has got to come from somewhere. Thinner castings is probably what suffered. Buy the best you can afford and only buy once is my motto.

I show the weight of the Powermatic to be 630 pounds net, and 682 pounds for the shipping weight. That comes from page 6 of the manual.
I show the weight of the Grizzley to be 496 net, and 662 pounds for the shipping weight. Also on page 6. So basically 130 pounds different in the two.

Comparing them both to a Robust sweet 16 which can turn a 32" bowl, and weighs 460 pounds with the standard bed, I'm guessing the grizzly will probably have enough weight for most things. And if not, a couple of bags of sand should bring the weight up to about the same weight as the powermatric. To me it's still between the Grizzly and Powermatic.

If the initial reviews come in good, I'll more than likely go with the Grizzly. If not, I'll wait for the next Powermatic sale. The one thing I really like about the Powermatic is how they can mount the extension low for outboard turning. I'm wondering if it would be possible to mount the Powermatic extension on the grizzly. I'm sure it would involve drilling and tapping some holes.

[carl mesaros]

Just to add a little more confusion to your thought process, I submitted a brief review on the new Laguna 2436. This lathe is 3 hp, 24" swing and 36" between centers comes with a tailstock swinger that works great. About the same $$ as the PM.
I don't know if I copied the link properly or not but it's one page back from the main page.

New Lathe

[Cary Falk]

I show the weight of the Grizzley to be 496 net, and 662 pounds for the shipping weight. Also on page 6.

One of these numbers has to be wrong. I have 4 grizzly machines and they don't have 166lbs of shipping material put together. I am guessing it isn't packaged any better than the PM. I am going to weigh mine as I am assembling mine.

[Roger Chandler]

One of these numbers has to be wrong. I have 4 grizzly machines and they don't have 166lbs of shipping material put together. I am guessing it isn't packaged any better than the PM. I am going to weigh mine as I am assembling mine.

That will be an interesting statistic, Cary. I always suspected that my G0698 weighted more than what was stated in the info on the Grizzly website back 5 years ago.........I never had any way to either confirm or not, but it always seemed a bit heavier when I tried to move it around in my shop.

I do know that the cage and mount on the PM 3520b add some to the stats for it, but I do not know how much it adds.

If the manual is correct, by adding some ballast, then there will be no issues...........my G0698 was pretty stable with ballast on it, and I plan to add a better ballast system to my new G0766, than just storing wood underneath on a shelf like I had before.

[Bob Dupras]

One of these numbers has to be wrong. I have 4 grizzly machines and they don't have 166lbs of shipping material put together. I am guessing it isn't packaged any better than the PM. I am going to weigh mine as I am assembling mine.

I agree with you that 166 pounds is an excessive amount of packing material. And since there have been a few other errors in the Grizzly documentation (specifically, the high end speed range), I'm guessing at least 1 of those numbers is wrong. And we should know soon.

[Bob Dupras]

My bowl turning has been pretty light. In comparing some of the larger lathes like the new Grizzly 0766, and the PM 3520B. It shows the PM to have a bevel at the front of the head sock. It's supposed to allow for easier sanding of bowls. Some of the other lathes like the Laguna, and Robust really tout their tapered headstock feature. My question is, does it really make that much difference when sanding? I really expect my next lathe purchase to be my last, and I don't want to regret this purchase.