Idle curiosity about Powermatic PM1800 bandsaw

[Matt Winterowd]

Anyone own one of these? Or even one of the bigger models? (other than Marc Spagnuolo ;))

I've seen that quite a few folks have spent some major $$$ on bandsaws from Laguna, Mini-Max, etc., but I haven't really seen anyone discuss the big PM saws. I know that they're even more expensive than most of the Italian saws, but they do look like really nice machines.

Just wondering.

[Mike Heidrick]

I own a MM20. I saw the PM1800 in erson at IWF2008. The fence was sweet, it reminded me of a Chromed out Harley. Everthing on it was nice down to teh chromed out foot brake. It has less capacity than my MM20 and NO WAY would I trade them. At $4K it was a premium price as well.

The italian saws just have the price and capacity to out shine the glitz of the PM1800 IMO.

Addining a Laguna Driftmaster blows away (because of incremental adjustability) the unifence styled fence of the PM1800. It does have a nice measurement tape/scale for the fence though.

[Van Huskey]

I don't but a friend does, he dumped a Laguna 18HD for it and hasn't looked back. Built like a tank compared to any Italian I have seen. Is it overpriced, sure; is there a fence out there better, yep; but it is the one modern BS I would take over the Italians.