20" Steel City Planer or Powermatic Planer

[John Thompson]

I understand your point Matt. I just attempt to keep things from getting confused when I see something that could confuse.

BTW to those that don't know. Steel City is located just south of Nashville in Murfreesboro, Tennesee and has been for around 3 years. As Power-matic their machines are made in both China in their own plant with a few still coming from Taiwan. They felt owning their manufacturing source was a positive step in quality control.

Power-matic-Jet and Wilton is owned by WHM Tool Group which is a sub-sidary of a company from Europe. Steel City is owned by a small group of Americans that worked for years with Power-matic.. Delta.. before breaking off to form their own company based in Murfreesboro. Tennessee.

I own three of their machines with a 4th on the way. I doubt you will hear any bad news on their service or machines as has been clearly stated on this forum many times.

Sarge..

[Jim Eller]

Don't know about SC.

I own the 209HH and am extremely satisfied.

Jim

[Adam Grills]

Got a 209HH and love it so far. The 2 extra speeds useful... YES if running hardwood. If running soft wood then no. I run almost completely figured hardwood and use the lower gears. Byrd head is great!

[guy knight]

the difference probably lies in the quality of the parts bearings bolts tolerance the stuff that you cant see by just looking at them and pm does have a 5 year warranty

[Brian Clevenger]

I have always liked Powermatic equipment. If I had other than a hobby shop, I would probaby own more Powermatic gear. As it stands, I have only 3 machines to judge by; Models: 66, 60, and 1150.

If I was buying new today, it would definately be a used McMinnville Powermatic.

[Rod Sheridan]

Rod,

I agree, but aren't these two machines relatively comparable with regard to design, material, etc?

Hi Matt, they may well be identical except for paint colour, however I don't know that.

What I do know, is that the quality of a machine is directly related to how well it is designed, and how faithful the final machine is to the design.

I could easilly make two planers from the same raw castings, and then produce completely different machines in quality and performance.

From the casting process for cast iron we then get into the proper seasoning, machining, perhaps more seasoning and machining and stress relieveing of the parts. There are many opportunities in that process to save money, and produce an inferior, yet identical looking part.

Then we get into machining and balancing of cutterheads, machining and assembling all the other components.

Remember what I said about how faithful the machine is to the design? Well that relates to quality control and manufacturing. If the engineer designed the parts with certain tolerances, did the QC department verify that they were built to those tolerances, or was the "close enough" principle applied?

Without good (and costly) QC, you aren't getting a quality machine, no matter how heavy it is.

That's one of the things that is forgotten, many people worship "old iron" as the ultimate machines. What is forgotten is that it wasn't their weight that made them great, it was their eye popping price when new. Those large amounts of dollars allowed manufacturers to properly season castings, then machine them to high tolerances, and verify that they were machined to high tolerances. (Expensive QC).

So when I want to purchase a machine, I don't want to know how heavy it is, I want to know how faithful it is to the engineering design, as well as how well it performs.

Run a piece of wood through a high end planer/jointer such as a MiniMax or Felder, you'll soon see why the machines cost much more than the Powermatic or SC product.

regards, Rod.

[Steve Nouis]

I own a PM209, nothing wrong with it but I'd get the SC and use the $500 towards a byrd head. Steve

[Matt Benton]

Rod,

The two comparisons you've made are of machines from different time periods and machines in difference classes (Minimax/Felder vs. PM/SC). I think most people would expect significant differences in both cases.

No doubt, design, manufacturing standards and QC go a long way to determining the final product.

I guess all I'm saying is that the average consumer is probably never going to have enough information regarding a specific company's cast iron seasoning process for it to be a factor.

In my mind, bottom line is that if both machines are virtually identical in function and features, they are made during the same time period and I don't favor one brand over another, my decision is $500 vs. 109 lbs. I can research till I'm blue in the face, I'm not going to know enough about these things to consider them...

[Rod Sheridan]

Exactly Matt, that's why saying that a heavier one is better makes no sense at all.

If I couldn't research the product well enough to make an absolute determination, I'd probably go with the more expensive machine.

Manufacturers normally design to a price point, if they design to a higher price, they can include more expenses during the manufacturing process, such as accuracy, inspection and testing etc.

Of course Powermatic may be hoping that our fond recollections of made in the US machinery will cause us to purchase a machine that is identical to the SC machine for more money.

General now import a line called General International to compete with the other Taiwanese imports. They certainly aren't the same machine as the General products, however they appear to be better than most of the other imports and they do cost more.

I'd expect Powermatic to have done the same.


Regards, Rod.

[Matt Benton]

Exactly Matt, that's why saying that a heavier one is better makes no sense at all.

If all other aspects are determined to be equal (to the extend that the average consumer can ascertain), I think it does make sense...