Rebuilding Powermatic 180 planer questions.

[Herbert Mulqueen]

Hello and thanks for looking,

I looking to buy a mid 1960's powermatic 180 planer. 18 inch 5 hp. green in color.

Needs blades for sure.

Is this planer worth rebuilding?

Should I replace with same blades or upgrade to spiral's. Bearings,etc.

What would you replace?

What a fair price for a planer out of a vocational school?

Thanks for any info.

Herb

[Bill Orbine]

It's hard to say if that planer needs rebuilding if you only tell us the planer needs blades. I can't see it. The blades can be re-sharpened or even replaced. You'll need to see the level of abuse, wear & tear and possible missing parts, especially from a school when determining the purchase. Believe me, those school kids beat the crap out of some good machines. So look it over carefully. If the machine is in good shape (maybe a bad bearing or something easily replacable), the price is right then buy it. Bring it home, clean it up, tune it up, and oil + lube. You need to use your eyes, ears and pockets as well as your heart to determine the call to buy or walk. As far as thinking helical heads, those things run around $1500-$1600. I see Byrd has a head for a P180 model and I'm not sure if that's the same thing.... but if it isn't, you can call them for a quote. hope it helps.

[Philip Johnson]

there was just one around me for sale, it had been completely rebuilt and all new bearings according to the ad, I believe it was in the 1800 dollar range. I have also seen some for a lot less and looked a lot worse too

[Kirk Chester]

Hebert,

The pricing may be something you would want to work backwards to depending on how much work needs to be done to it. Blades are cheap and bearings are easy to replace. The one thing I will say is that once back up in good operating condition the darn things are built like tanks and it will last as long as you will.

As a reference I purchased a 160, with a 7.5 hp motor for $250.00. I did get a steal on it however, it needs new blades, I am putting a single phase motor on it and will have to have all the bearings checked ect. So total cost will run me just under $1000.00 Unless I want to splurge and put a spiral cutter head on it then im into the 2k range. Either way, I won't be looking for a planer any time soon and the thing will just work.

[Chris Rosenberger]

The Powermatic 180 is a very good planer. Other than bearing, there is little to go wrong with them. They do not have many parts when compared to new planers. A spiral head is a good addition to the planer. As stated above, the price of a Byrd head is around $1,500. I have been using Powermatic 180s in my shop for over 15 years. I added a Terminus cutter head to my 180. It is a indexed straight cutter head. At the time I got the Terminus it was 1/3rd the cost of a Byrd head.

[Herbert Mulqueen]

I think the planer will go cheap, perhaps $300. However the distance from my house to the school is 357 miles, one way. Yes in the same state, only good thing is that it is almost all rural roads with a 70 mph empty interstate for over 200 miles. I think this will be the limiting factor.

Is this planer too heavy for a full size pickup?

I will go with the Termius type blades, just cannot justify the spiral.

Again thanks a lot for the info.

Herb