Powermatic PM1500 vs Laguna 16HD

[Rich Riddle]

I am sure you are thinking of the Powermatic PM2800, a drill press that I bought and returned. I replaced it with a Delta 17-959.

The NEW PM2800B is a completely different drill press and does not seem to be shipping yet. It looks interesting but I'm not sure I trust Powermatic. All three new Powermatic items were either excluded from the sale or were already at an introductory price. Some vendors do actually show higher list prices, $1549 on the PM2800B, which is available for $1399.

You are correct. I was thinking of the PM2800 and planned to purchase the Delta 17-959 in its place. Apparently you did the same but then sold the Delta drill press. Good luck on your purchase if you choose to go with the new Powermatic.

[Greg R Bradley]

You are correct. I was thinking of the PM2800 and planned to purchase the Delta 17-959 in its place. Apparently you did the same but then sold the Delta drill press. Good luck on your purchase if you choose to go with the new Powermatic.

I still have the Delta 17-959 and like it. I'm just not sure I like Delta anymore. I can use another drill press and would like 6" travel. I would also love the variable speed unit. I was seriously considering the Delta 18-900 but I'm afraid of Delta at this point. I hope they get it together. I have seen what Powermatic have done to a few of their tools but have some that are good. Hard to know who to trust.

If I buy anything, I will go to my local dealer and check out the unit carefully before I take that specific unit home. I've learned not to trust most companies with new tools based up their reputation on older tools.

[Jeffrey Kibler]

Yeah I'm waiting for the 2800B. They didn't ship any yet.

[Kelby Van Patten]

I have an older model Laguna 18LT. (Back then they didn't have three different 18" models, just the LT.) It has been a fantastic saw. I've been very happy with it. I installed a DriftMaster fence a couple years ago, and that has been a really nice upgrade as well. Good luck with whatever you choose.

[Jeffrey Kibler]

So now I ask myself is $300 extra worth going for the 18HD vs the 16HD. I will never resaw something 16" hight but the throat capacit migh be nice. I have never owned anything bigger than a 14" saw. I think I'm sold on the Laguna now.

[Art Kieres]

I did the same thing. I planned on the 16HD and then figured it's only 10% more for the 18.... Luckily, the 20 was another $600 so my rationalization fell apart before I got the LT37. The other day I ran into an issue where the extra 1.5" of throat depth was useful, but that was once in a year. Also, remember blades will be slightly more expensive, but not much. I just figured screw it and grabbed the larger model. I don't regret it at all. $300 over the life of the machine...

[mreza Salav]

Was looking for a 16 Italian, then talked myself into getting an 18. Then a 24" came up at new condition on the use market 600 miles away for less than half the price of what it cost me to get the 18". I couldn't pass it.
I think the $300 will be long forgotten and replaced with the joy of using a bigger saw
As for blades, they are usually sold by length per inch. So there is not a lot of difference there.

[Jeffrey Kibler]

So i asked the sales rep at the store I'm going to get my saw from and he suprisingly told me the extra 2" wasn't worth the money and also added that the 18" model was on back order. So as a final step I went downstairs and measured my current saw (14" Powermatic) and one thing really really shocked me. The table on my new saw will be like a foot shorter than my current saw. I'm having a hard time imagining using a bandsaw that is as low as my table saw. Anyone have issues with this or am I just overthinking this and I'll get used to it.

[Art Kieres]

I forgot about that... I'm 6'1" and it is annoyingly low for small precise work. For ripping boards... who cares, but for detailed work it is a bit tough on the back/neck. I have the mobility kit which raises it a little bit. If I knew I had 200 small parts to cut out I might build a platform to raise it up a little, but for ripping, resawing, and the other normal stuff I use it for it's fine. I always thought the 14" saws on stands were too high personally. Again, good for small work, which they are great for but not for heavy boards. Will you be keeping your 14"? If so then put a small blade on that and keep a large blade on the Laguna and use each one for what it's best at. The lower table is nice as I keep just about every surface in the shop within an inch in height so that it's easier to move things around, use carts as outfeed support...

[Jeffrey Kibler]

Art do you like the mobility kit? I had one for my 14" saw for a day and returned it because it made the saw very unstable. The mobility kit for these saws looks very beefy. I really don't want the saw to wiggle around at all.

[Jeffrey Kibler]

While I'm at it do you think the dust collection is ok on the saw? I don't really care if the table gets dusty I just don't want to have to wear a dust mask while operating the saw. There is some dude on youtube that went through the trouble of boxing in the area around the lower blade guide to improve the dust collection. I'm not gerry rigging a $3000 saw to make the dust collection better.

[Art Kieres]

I like the mobility kit. It's on the saw, but I don't actually roll it around much. Very stable. I shove 8/4 hard maple, 6/4 cocobolo, ebony... through it and it doesn't budge. As for the dust collection... I mentioned my fix earlier in the thread, but essentially there is only one dust port very far away from the throat. I took the steel guard that's below the table off, drilled some holes in it and riveted on a small dust port. It works great, took 10 minutes and only cost a few bucks. I use it without a mask all the time. That's one of the nice things about the 3000 series is that it has the second dust port already. I think the HD is just an little bit older design and people weren't as concerned about dust then... I've use lots of old saws and all the dust collection was rigged on. I'll post a pic of my fix tomorrow. Don't let a 10 minute, 10 dollar fix deter you from an otherwise great saw. I'm trying to think of anything else... The dust collection annoyed me until I fixed it and I haven't thought about it since. The height isn't much of an issue for what I use the saw for. The blade tracking is phenomenal. It's a little annoying to have to adjust the drift on the fence with every blade change, but you have to do that with every saw. All the normal adjustment points are easy to use, the guides are AMAZING, the saw is super solid, it's cheaper than the Minimax, it resaws 14" wide boards without flinching, great motor...

[Jeffrey Kibler]

What year did you buy your saw? It is really really hard to tell from their terrible pictures but it almost looks like they changed the designa little to close that throat area up a little bit. It also looks like the lower blade guard used to be yellow but now its grey. What size dust collector do you use? Mine is a Jet 1200scfm.

[mreza Salav]

Most people use these bigger saws for rip and resaw, and for them the lower table is actually a good thing as you have better control (or at least I like it).
If you have the room keep the 14" for curve/scroll work with a thinner blade on it. It's a lot easier not to swap blades for that one cut and you won't be tempted to cut curves with your wide resaw blades.

[Art Kieres]

Here's my dust collection solution. It works just fine. I bought the saw last January (2012). Right now it's hooked up to a big cyclone, but when we had a small space it was hooked up to regular Powermatic, single canister (It think around 1200cfm). The small dust collector was only about 5 feet of metal ducting away and it worked great. We now have about 40 feet of metal ducting to the machine and then about 2 feet of flex hose to the ports. Metal ducting makes a HUGE difference. I wouldn't run it with more than a few feet of flex...


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