New (to me) Powermatic 66

[Trever Williams]

I just picked up a well used Powermatic 66. I don’t know much about these yet but from what I’ve read so far they’re built to last and the guys that have them LOVE them. Its sitting in our warehouse at work right now. I don’t have a place to set it up yet. My wife and I are living in a cramped rent house while we wait for our new house to be built.

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj289/tall_texan/PM66.jpg

It looks pretty rough around the edges but it runs and cuts good. It came with a 50” Biesemeyer fence. I was planning on just setting it up and using it as is until I saw the beautiful restoration threads that Chris Rosenberger posted. Now I’m itching to strip it all down and repaint everything. Our new house isn’t going to be ready until August, so I have a few months to go ahead and do that. I also have a few months to figure out how I’m going to run it on single phase power. This one has a 3hp – 3ph motor. My head is hurting after reading all about phase converters.

[Van Huskey]

Old PM66s are great. Many of them have been running in production shops for 40 years.
Have fun getting her back to pristine condition.

[Kirk Poore]

Looks like a very nice 70's machine. You should be able to get a second wing for it. If this will be your only three phase machine, buy a VFD. A 3hp one with 240V input should run about $180. I also recommend changing the arbor and motor bearings. The arbor bearing on this machine are easy, and since the motor is three phase those bearings should be pretty easy too. You can make a dust door out of plywood, mdf, or masonite (my 65 has a 1/4" ply door--other than the lack of vents, you can't tell).

Kirk

[Neal Clayton]

also recommend getting the motor cover, if you don't care to make one PM will send you one for about 75 bucks if i remember correctly? improves dust collection quite a bit.

[Andrew Nemeth]

If you haven't checked out owwm.org yet, they are a great resource of knowledge for restoring old woodworking machinery. It might take a few days to get account approval to post but it is worth the wait.

[Dave MacArthur]

I bought my replacement motor cover, black plastic, for $90 in 2007 from WMH directly. They also sell the front doors.