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Thread: "The NEW Powermatic CNC for the true craftsman"

  1. #1
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    "The NEW Powermatic CNC for the true craftsman"

    A friend just sent me this link:

    Powermatic CNC
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    "It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone."
    Andy Rooney



  2. #2
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    I gotta admit that I was curious because that quote sounded a bit like Chinese marketing, but maybe not. They certainly have a rich American history.

    ... [original owners] sold their business to Houdaille Industries. Although owned by a Fortune 500 Company, Powermatic continued to be influenced by the local community and run in autonomous fashion. In April of 1986, Powermatic was purchased and operated as a division of DeVlieg-Bullard, Inc. In October of 1999 Powermatic was purchased by WMH, who already owned Jet Tools, and Performax Products. These three companies along with the Wilton Tool Company were grouped together to form the WMH Tool Group. In 2014, Powermatic was purchased, along with its sister brands by Tenex Group and are now grouped together to form JPW Industries Inc., as they are still knowns today.

    In July 2001, a “NEW” Powermatic emerged and a strategic business decision was made to pursue the general purpose industrial woodworking machinery market much more aggressively. From a family operated corn mill to a world class leader of industrial woodworking machinery ....
    Paul
    These words are my opinion, WYLION. Any resemblance to truth or fiction is accidental at best.
    "Truth lies dormant in our future history." ― Paul Lawrence LXXI


  3. #3
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    $8500 for a 2X4. That's the PM I come to expect these days. At least they give you a small spindle.
    Glad its my shop I am responsible for - I only have to make me happy.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Heidrick View Post
    $8500 for a 2X4. That's the PM I come to expect these days. At least they give you a small spindle.
    That's what I thought when I saw the price. The web page is short on details. I would be willing to bet that it's not American made..

    It will appeal to the Mustard crowd.
    Please help support the Creek.


    "It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone."
    Andy Rooney



  5. #5
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    I would rather they stay out of the CNC market with their re-branded made in china thing. General International has similar models without the stand. Interesting nonetheless.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brad Shipton View Post
    I would rather they stay out of the CNC market with their re-branded made in china thing. General International has similar models without the stand. Interesting nonetheless.
    I look at it as good competition for the industry, the more, the merrier. I have an American made Camaster that I like very much but I would like it even more if it didn't cost so much.
    Please help support the Creek.


    "It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone."
    Andy Rooney



  7. #7
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    Yes, I agree that it keeps the American made machines costs in check. The problem I find with the re-branded machines is the companies do not always have the personnel when it comes to servicing the customer. I would not want to have started learning my machine without the support team I have, but I guess this boils down to buyer awareness.

  8. #8
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    Nice looking machine and very similar to the Axiom Precision sold thru Rockler.

  9. #9
    Coming from metal working with my first CNC purchase 30+ years ago it's really strange to me in the Powermatic ads there's no mention of the controller. For me the controller and it's capabilities would be a determining factor.

    A nice controller can cost bucks. In the commercial world buying decisions are made based on what brand controller is available with the machine. Here they don't even talk about it.

    Ease of programming is a big factor in a controller, a good controller will be well supported too. Say, a circuit board goes out there's knowledgeable phone support to diagnose the problem and the repair parts are only UPS away. Then there's future expand-ability, a rotary axis (4th axis) can as simple as plug and play.

    Granted my concerns are more related to commercial use. Still, some of the nonsense in hobby router ads is surprising. A Rockler ad says for their machine you don't need a PC to operate the machine, it's run off the hand pendant with the program on USB. Is that deceptive or what?

    Axiom machines mention their controller, which turns out to be an inexpensive Chinese model. Wonder what kind of support that has?

    Mach3 and its variants like Tormach uses would seem to be a better choice than most routers provide.

  10. #10
    The open source stuff has improved tremendously in the past few years. Grbl is amazing for running on an Arduino, and at least one company is using LinuxCNC (and contributing code) using a custom front-end.

    I run my 3D printer stand alone using a Viki2 LCD and Azteeg X5 mini Smoothieboard loading files on a Micro SD card. Planning on a similar setup for my Shapeoko 1

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Doug Rasmussen View Post
    Coming from metal working with my first CNC purchase 30+ years ago it's really strange to me in the Powermatic ads there's no mention of the controller. For me the controller and it's capabilities would be a determining factor.

    A nice controller can cost bucks. In the commercial world buying decisions are made based on what brand controller is available with the machine. Here they don't even talk about it.

    Ease of programming is a big factor in a controller, a good controller will be well supported too. Say, a circuit board goes out there's knowledgeable phone support to diagnose the problem and the repair parts are only UPS away. Then there's future expand-ability, a rotary axis (4th axis) can as simple as plug and play.

    Granted my concerns are more related to commercial use. Still, some of the nonsense in hobby router ads is surprising. A Rockler ad says for their machine you don't need a PC to operate the machine, it's run off the hand pendant with the program on USB. Is that deceptive or what?

    Axiom machines mention their controller, which turns out to be an inexpensive Chinese model. Wonder what kind of support that has?

    Mach3 and its variants like Tormach uses would seem to be a better choice than most routers provide.
    I also come from a metal working background and agree that the controller is a crucial component of any CNC. It was a large part of my decision to go with a Camaster machine and their WINCNC based system.
    Please help support the Creek.


    "It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone."
    Andy Rooney



  12. #12
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    Mine too! As for me, I want a controller that runs on a computer with a flat screen display and provides a powerful and versatile user interface. It should provide a visual and statistical status of the job in real time. It should be powerful enough to create specialty functions that become a part of the user interface. WinCNC does all that. It is also very nice to be able to make quick changes to the design right on the same computer that drives the machine.

    Quote Originally Posted by Bruce Page View Post
    . . . It was a large part of my decision to go with a Camaster machine and their WINCNC based system.

  13. #13
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    There are a lot of controls that do that

  14. #14
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    Maybe, but the Powermatic is not one of them.
    Quote Originally Posted by Jerome Stanek View Post
    There are a lot of controls that do that

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Art Mann View Post
    Maybe, but the Powermatic is not one of them.

    What control do they use

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