Replies

1. 
   JMartinsky | Mar 08, 2004 12:26am | #1

   Dear Scotty,

   I love to spend other peoples' money, so here goes! First choice:

   Minimax 300S combination machine. Includes: 12" saw with scoring blade, 5' sliding table (Oh so nice!), 4.8 HP shaper, 12" jointer, 12" planer, both 4.8 HP. All in a footprint about the size of a large cabinet saw. Price: About $11,000.00

   Second choice:

   Powermatic 66 (My current saw)$2200.00, Delta or General 3HP shaper with feeder $1500.00 & $500.00 (A MUST), 20" Yorkcraft planer $1200.00, 12" Bridgewood jointer. $2600.00

   All Tools:

   Tablesaw:

   Overall, I like the PM66, but I'm sure that I could of gotten by wioth the Jet, but It is hard to go wrong with any of them. (Delta, PM, Jet). Alot of people like the Generals and I hear good things about Bridgewood. I am going to move up to the Minimax, when my budget allows.

   Shaper:

   I don't own one, but would like one. I have looked into Sunhill, Bridgewood, Delta, the works and for me, the Sunhill would probabbly be fine. Definetly get a feeder. Again, the Sunhill seems good for the money.

   Jointer:

   Bigger is definetely better. I have a PM 54A (6" longbed) i like it, but I should of gotten at least an 8". Grizzley is popular, but I am somewhat suspect of quality, Bridgewood prices out well for a longbed 8". I may just leap to a 12", depending on projects. Oh yeah' I'm pretty sure that the DJ-20 is made in China.

   Planer:

   My 12" Makita simply refuses to die, so it is hard for me to justify the expence (but I try!). I liked the new PM 15" on paper, but it has gotten trashed on Amazon. The Bridgewood & Yorkcraft are my next in line, with an AMERICAN machine as tops, Woodmaster.

   My general philosophy is one of safety, and bigger is safer, BUT there can be a learing curve. I went from a Makita 10" saw to a 5HP PM66 and there is a huge difference. For example: I have been a contractor for 15 years and have used Makita table saws the entire time. In that time, I instinctively know when I am overloading them due to thier sound. They are not terribly powerful, so when I do something dumb, I can get away with it, by overpowering the saw or if I really am in trouble, I overload the saw to trip the breaker. (Don't try that at home!) Dangerous? Sure, but we do it. That being said, I have nver had a saw throw a peice on me. The PM on the otherhand, takes no prisoners and doesn't allow for such a casual approach. Use it properly and it will service you fine, get brave and it will bite you hard and quick. The Taiwanese machines are very good, for the most part. You do get what you pay for. A PM is a better machine than the Grizzley (IMHO). You will pay a premium for PM, perhaps unneccesarily. I've had several conversations with Wilke Machinery, an importer in PA and they seem very nice. Thier prices are good, their shipping is reasonable, but a BIG reason I think that I would like to spend my money there is that they clean, set up and test run all of the machines before they go out. That means that you wire it and go. No assembly, no 20cans of WD-40 to dissove the casmoline. Hope this helps.

   Good Luck,

   John

   
   

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   Edited 3/7/2004 4:28 pm ET by JMartinsky

1. 
   daleduvall | Mar 08, 2004 05:30am | #2

   For a cabinet saw, I'd go with the Powermatic 66. I believe this one is still made in the USA. I've had mine for about 10 years and wouldn't swap it.

   I'd take a router over a shaper unless all I wanted to do was heavier stuff like panel doors, etc. I own both and use the shaper very little.

   I have a dedicated router table, but if I were to do it again, I'd stick the router in the middle of my PM 66 extension table with a good lift. I'm actually thinking about doing this anyway. If I do, I'm also going to beef up the extension table so that it is more of a torsion box.

   For a jointer, I'm not sure what to recommend. I do know I prefer a "crank" for height adjustment as opposed to that "darn" lever. In the mid price range, I'd look long and hard at the Wilke. (I hunted for a good used, heavy duty jointer for quite a while before I finially "blew the tool budget" and ordered a new one.)

   I've got an older Powermatic 15" planer. It's biggest problem is setting the knives .. a proverbial pain in the A**, I thought about buying a new one, but instead just ordered a Byrd Shelix head for it. The jury is still out on my decision.

   Just my opinions.

   dale

2. 
   TonyCz | Mar 08, 2004 06:02am | #3

   Scotty,

   you may also look into Auctions in the Sunday paper of Business liquidations. Sometimes you can get bargains if the machinery people are not there.

   Mini Max is a good way to go If you have the $$. I have the MM16 Band saw and would not buy any other brand.  For a plainer look at the Delta 15" Its very Nice I have one my self. as well as a D J -20 8" jointer made in Brazil.

   A router table is nice for many smaller applications.  But a Shaper is what you need if you plan on building projects using exotic or even many domestic wood patterns which are not available in the lumber yards.  the shaper is the way to go (With a power feeder. )  Grizzly has one with a sliding table which is priced right and has the power. Quality is ok but can be made better you will have to Tweak the table rollers to get the top level with the back several hours of tweaking should do. and trash the fence and order one from Delta as a replacement far better and have the ribs removed by a machine shop, other wise the material can rock into the groves. Very bad on table saws which have this grooving on the tops when cutting small material.

3. 
   heartpinemik | Mar 08, 2004 10:15pm | #4

   Spending other folks money is fun, so here goes. As for a tablesaw, I like the idea of a machine with a sliding table, preferably one with the format-style where the slider is right up next to the blade. This way you can bypass the need to construct some kind of sled that we all use. Look around at some of the Laguna, MiniMax, Hammer. or Rojek machines.

   As for the shaper vs. router table decision, I vote for both. If you already have a router table, by all means keep on trucking. But if you get into making molding, doors, frame and panel cabinetry, a shaper will provide the needed muscle to accurately and safely make these deeper cuts.

   I am in a similar jointer/planer pickle as you. You may want to consider one of the combo jointer/planers on the market today. You get a jointer with the same width capacity as your planer. This makes more sense to me and many others to have the jointer width capacity; it is advisable to joint one face flat before planing and similar capacity makes more sense. You would get industrial quality in a combo, instead of settling on an import jointer of similar width. Just my 2 cents worth.

   Good luck.

1. 
   ian | Mar 09, 2004 04:30pm | #5

   Again on the theme of spending someone else's money, I too vote for a sliding table saw.  A lot of the euro units are available as a sliding TS / Molder combo.  This to me seems the best of both worlds as you can then get a spindle adaptor and collect for the molder and use router cutters.

   as for a jointer, my rule of thumb is to decide on the largest drawer side you are ever likely to do, after about 8 in drawers are so deep that stuff gets lost, so why do you need a wider jointer?  (I don't really want to enter into a long debate about wide boards for other projects)

   Lastly, if its still going strong keep the lunch box planer and spend the "savings" on the TS

   Ian