Can someone explain Trunnions

[Paul Stroik]

the difference between a table saw with a box trunnion and a c-yoke trunnion. A salesman was explaining the difference between the Jet Deluxe and PM2000 tablesaw and mentioned that the PM trunnion was better than the Jets as it had a box trunnion. I was taking notes but did not ask for clarification on this until rereading my notes.

Since Woodcraft is having a 10% off sale in my area I figured I may take a 1 1/2 hour drive to check these saws out in person. Still leaning toward the Jet ($$) but PM has a good offer worth considering.

[Chris Friesen]

If you look at the manual for the Powermatic on their website you'll see that the trunnion is sort of a hollow box with no top that pivots from side to side to tilt the blade. The new General looks very similar. The Jet looks more like the standard previous design, where you have a big beefy curved arm that tilts side to side, with another arm mounted to it that pivots up and down.

I'm not sure that the difference is huge--the c-yoke trunnion was good enough for the old General, and that was one of the "gold standard" machines for decades.

[Ken Pywell]

I'm thinking either saw will provide a lifetime of service. Trunnion design might play a factor in a commercial shop but for the average woodworker, you aren't going to notice the difference.

[David Bodkin]

If you want to compare the two you can check out the owner's manuals of both saws as suggested above.

For the PM:
On page 34 part number 38.
http://content.powermatic.com/manuals/1792000K_man.pdf

For the Jet:
On page 24 part number 141
http://content.jettools.com/manuals/708675_man.pdf

Both are big and beefy. Both of them will do their jobs well. I'd take them off of the list of pros and cons between the saws.

[scott spencer]

Here's a pic of a PM66 trunnion system....dunno if it's similar to what's on the PM2000.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/hewood/sawparts/PM66-B.jpg

Here's a look at the trunnions on a Griz 1023...they're similar to the most other cabinet saw designs:
http://www.grizzly.com/images/pics/jpeg500/g/g1023sl_det1.jpg